Costa Rica, Day One and Overwhelmed

Today was a great day, to say the least.  We got up early, headed to Exclusive Coffee's office and talked about coffee.  A great way to start the day.  From there we started the long day of visiting farms, meeting producers, and seeing the work of their hand's.  It was a humbling experience, to be so welcomed by complete strangers, invited into homes for coffee, and shown such hospitality.  Francisco and Tim from Exclusive Coffee are amazing hosts, and have gone above and beyond to ensure that our trip is amazing.  Costa Rica is wonderful, the people the food and the landscape is spectacular.  Francisco is constantly (akin a new father) pointing out the terroir to me, and the beauty of the country side.  The micro mills that we visited were all pristine.  The people working the farms are passionate, and dedicated people, working very hard to grow and produce the best quality coffee that they can.  After a long day of driving and visiting and seeing drying beds and micro mills, we ended back in San Jose, at the office where we were treated to a "cupping celebration" as Francisco appropriately calls them, of 25 different coffees.  All in all we sampled 125 cups of coffee this afternoon.  At the end of the day, I was impressed with the overall quality of the coffee from Costa Rica.  To be completely honest, I have never been a big fan of Costa Rican coffee, and todays traveling and tasting has now moved me into a new appreciation for the coffee grown in this wonderful small little country.  Transcend Coffee will definitely be bringing in some Costa Rica coffee in the next little while.