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Our Coffee

	Our growers live on the highest coolest peaks in the extreme and remote areas of Southern Costa Rica. Their homes and their fields are located on the highest mountains forever in the clouds where the need for chemicals that all other growers at lower altitudes MUST use regardless of the label is negated.
	A little rain every day and lots of rain on others keeps the highest Filas (mountain tops/ridges) cool and damp at all times which ensures the best year round growing and planting possibilities in the world.
	The ripest of the beans are collected every day on the small farms that comprise the FIRST Coffee Cooperative founded over 50 years ago by workers who live on the land they work. It is a family affair that spans 4 generations. They are always ready to talk at the end of the day about the positive impact that being part of the Cooperatives' "FAIRTRADE" Program has made on their and their family's lives.
	The processing plant is extremely modern yet small as it buys from only those affiliates that constantly prove through product testing for a lack of chemicals. Farm inspections are done regularly to ensure that proper care is taken of the workers conditions and the fields.
	In these photos you can see how densely the beans grow on the plant and how carefully they must be picked to be sure only the ripest are used to produce FILA COFFEE. Coffee must be hand picked to guarantee the best flavor and to safeguard the integrity of the non-hybrid 100% Costa Rican plants they come from. Man has not changed or spliced these plants into something that nature did not intend. Fila Coffee is the correct choice for the snob in us all that demands the purest product available today. This is the same wonderful coffee that was enjoyed in the Royal Courts of Europe after the discovery of the Americas.
	This on site brass commemorative plate celebrates the founding of the first coffee cooperative by SICA (the Italian Farming Colony Association) in 1955. It explains that to be sure they could build the facilities correctly they had to fly in the cement (of course they had to build the airstrip as well, which is still in use for daily small plane traffic). The original capacity was 25.000 Fanegas per year (a Fanega is the system for dry measure of picked coffee beans 1 Fanega = 12 almudes or 48 cuartillos; this is about 55.50 liters or 1.960 cubic feet (1.575 U.S. bushels) Today however there are over 100,000 Fanegas produced by 3500 associates. This is not runaway growth, but carefully planned expansion that guarantees that you drink the finest Costa Rican Coffee possible.
	This small mountain of coffee did not pass our quality control people and will be sold to our competitors who will be glad to have it and sell it to you. It was rejected for the presence of fermentation and a small amount of mold on the outer skin.
	Our Dryer removes the excess humidity from the bean and leaves us with a bean covered with a small thin shell we do one of two things at this time… send it out to finish in the Traditional Costa Rican unroasted method (in the rural areas they roast every morning at home)
	or send it to the Oven to finish it to the level of "Oro Verde" as it is known here at Fila Coffee or "Green" as all the other coffee producers call it.
	We dark roast medium (only) and grind to a fine level to ensure the flavor is what it should be. We are happy to sell any level of bean "Oro Verde"/ "Green" whole bean, Roasted whole bean, Roasted and Ground whole bean or the difficult Traditional Costa Rican Sun Cured Bean, the most natural coffee product on the market.