Finca Santa Elena
Finca Santa Elena
Santa Elena, Tarrazú • Costa Rica • 1500m
Finca Santa Elena sits in the highlands of Tarrazú, at 1,500 metres above sea level in the heart of Costa Rica. The soil here carries so much history.
San José was one of the first cities in the world to be illuminated by electricity. Santa Elena was early to it, given that the finca was owned at the time by José Figueres Ferrer, Don Pepe, twice president of Costa Rica. He ensured that the lights burned here when the rest of the country was still in the dark. Anyone flying over the highlands at night would see the finca glowing in the darkness.
Luz Marina Trujillo, also known as Luzma, now runs the finca with a dedication you can feel the moment you set foot on it. Her passion for coffee, the land, and the people who work it is the thread that runs through everything that makes Finca Santa Elena special.
What the land gives, she gives back
The slopes of Tarrazú are steep. The soil is volcanic, mineral-rich and fertile. At 1,500 metres, warm days and cool nights alternate, and that temperature variation slows the ripening of the coffee cherries. This allows for more time on the tree and more complexity in the resulting cup.
Luzma knows that good coffee starts with healthy soil. Her closed-loop system converts coffee pulp through worm beds into compost that feeds the plantation. The water treatment system keeps the river running through the estate clean. Nothing here is wasted. What the land gives, she gives back.
Her finca, her people
Luzma grew up in a coffee family in Colombia. The language of the harvest, the rhythms of the season, the logic of the land, she learned it all from childhood. When she moved to Costa Rica to take over Finca Santa Elena, she brought that knowledge with her. And built on it.
She knows every plant, every season, every risk. Her closed-loop system, the worm beds, the water treatments system, these aren't side projects. It's how she thinks. Quality doesn't start at processing, it starts with the soil itself.
Families who once came to work here have stayed. Their children grew up among the coffee plants. Those children now bring their own children. Three generations on, the bond Luzma has with her people goes beyond the employer-employee relationship. It's something else. Something you can feel as you walk around and observe how she interacts with everyone, and in turn, how they interact with her.
One farmer. One finca. Generations deep.
From swimming pool to cup
The patio where Santa Elena's coffee dries was once Don Pepe's swimming pool, built for the pickers and the workers. Now beans lay to dry there in the mountain air of Tarrazú.
At Finca Santa Elena, coffee is processed in three ways: washed, natural, and black honey. With the honey method, a layer of sweet fruit pulp is left on the bean during the drying process. Exactly how much of this pulp determines the colour associated with the process: yellow honey retains the least, red honey sits in between, and black honey keeps almost all of the pulp. More pulp means more sugars, more intense fermentation and deeper flavour. Santa Elena works primarily with black honey. It demands much more control and patience, but it gives the coffee a depth that is hard to replicate.
The cherries are hand-picked, and only once they are fully ripe. Pickers walk the same rows of trees multiple times each season, each time taking only the cherries that have reached their time.
What you taste in the cup is the result of that time and care: soft and round, with a natural sweetness and just enough acidity to keep it interesting.
1500m
Altitude
Honey
Process
Caturra
Variety
85
SCA score