Costa Rica | Alejo Khale Castro, Volcán Azul

 Alajuela

Fifth-generation coffee producer Alejo Castro pulls from 200 years of family tradition and knowledge as he innovates and pushes the boundaries of specialty coffee on the slopes of Poás Volcano in Alajuela. More than 50% of Volcán Azul’s production utilizes unique processing methods, such as anaerobic naturals, while also exporting 27 different coffee varieties, including Mokka, SL28, and Gesha.

A newer managed Gesha plantation, above, where no herbicides are used. Ground cover helps to cool the soil and prevent erosion during the rainy season, which will typically start in late April/early May.

The pruning strategy for a section of nine-year-old trees near the mill takes into account insolation (sun exposure), slope, shade, wind, and soil moisture in order to be successful.

The Castro family says:

“As the descendants of 19th-century coffee planters Don Alejo C. Jimenez and Don Wilhelm Kahle, we want to enhance the principles of quality inherited from our ancestors by adding the value of conservancy of natural resources, through the acquisition of extensions of natural rainforest for its protection and conservation. These are small actions taken by one family to reduce air contamination and global warming.

“We have been committed to protecting vast extensions of tropical rainforest in Costa Rica since the 1980s. We have come to acquire over 1,500 hectares of rainforest for ecological preservation in areas where we grow our coffee as well as in the Osa Peninsula, a region in the South of Costa Rica known for holding 2.5% of the Earth’s biodiversity. This is the attitude towards the environment that we want to pass on to our children and future generations of our family.”