As it's name implies, La Bandera de Dota sits atop a mountain like a flag reigning over surrounding farms that cover the hillsides from 1875-1920 meters in the microregion of Dota in Tarrazu. The 2018-2019 harvest is Diego Hidalgo Umaña's seventh year running his own micromill and farming the land himself.  This is land his father had farmed before him since 1976, but he's made sure not to suffer the growing pains and experience the learning mistakes that often riddle a producer's first year processing their own cherry.

We first met Diego at the cupping lab of Exclusive Coffees in early 2013. Diego came over and asked how we liked the coffees on the table that morning. Overall the table was good, but we mentioned that #13 was a stand out. It turned out that was Diego's coffee. We arranged to visit his farm the next day. 

Diego has 24 acres of well groomed red and yellow Catuai/Caturra that he processes exclusively using a fully washed wet processing method. Once the cherries are picked at peak ripeness and pulped to remove all of the cherry skins from the parchment, they are then wet fermented to remove the sticky fruit mucilage.  After that, the beans hit the drying phase, something Diego has thought out very thoroughly. All of his coffees are dried in a greenhouse using a tiered system. He has 90 beds with 11 racks that stack in sets 3 deep. Coffees spend 10 days on the top rack and 2 weeks divided between the two bottom racks.  This slows down the drying processing, fostering more structure to the coffee which in turn gives it a longer "green life" once the coffee is in our storage. Everything is clearly labeled and organized as all of the data is collected on a central board at the helm of the greenhouse. 

Diego's dedication to impeccable picking, processing and drying procedures makes him a perfect partner for barismo. His mentality ensures not only that quality coffees will be grown, but also that quality dialogues will be had. This is why we do this. We're more than excited to see Diego grow as we work with him in the years to come, and we're equally excited to share his beautiful coffees with you.