Tarbaca is one of the five original districts of the Canton Aserrí and has the highest altitude therein. Characterized as an extremely green area due to the large number of trees and little population it has, it also contains the Cerro El Cedral in which there is a large number of water springs as well as being crossed by several rivers of the canton. This is where we find Familia Monge Garcia’s Las Palomas farm. Don Jorge Monge Garbanzo inherited Las Palomas from his parents and took over management of the farm in 1993. Sadly, Don Jorge passed during the Covid-19 pandemic and the farm is now run by two of his children, Daniel José and María Isabel.

Las Palomas spans six hectares and produces around 250 fanegas (a fanega is approx. 46kg) of coffee annually. The farm is named Las Palomas because of the various birds that can be found in the region, his Don Jorge employs two full-time farm workers, and a group of 25 collectors visit the farm during the harvest season, moving between Las Palomas and the neighbouring farms.

Cherry for this lot was delivered to the mill and processed the same day. It was sorted to remove defective cherry and foreign matter before being transferred to patios for drying where it was left for seven days until fully dry. The cherry is moved intermittently to promote even drying and to avoid fermentation, and regularly sorted as drying progresses to ensure superior quality. Once dried to the desired moisture content, the cherry is collected and packaged into poly bags for resting. It is stored in cherry until the hulling process