Today, Carlos and his entire family are deeply involved at Don Eli Coffee farm. They have worked to produce coffee for CoopeDota in the past, which is one of Costa Rica’s largest Co-Ops, for over 20 years.

But during the harvest year of 2014 to 2015, Carlos and his family took their biggest risk yet. It was their first year producing coffee out of their micro-mill. Micro-mills are smaller production mills, owned and operated by the coffee producers, rather than the large Co-Ops. This way they can regulate their own coffee, focus on innovative processing methods and ensure quality in each coffee bean. They were leaving the mass production concept behind to uphold the “quality over quantity” mindset. Buyers from Japan and America took note in that year’s exceptional harvest and the rest was history.