The story of Finca Llano Grande
Finca Llano Grande's story is one of vision, passion, and a commitment to incredible coffee. It all started in the early 1990s when Rafael Sr. brought together four separate parcels of land to create one united speciality coffee farm. Originally, it was home to 100% Red Bourbon coffee trees, but Rafael had a different vision for the future.
He was a man of big ideas. To keep his new nurseries for plants and flowers thriving in Apaneca's dry climate, he dug two massive, 10-meter-deep reservoirs to hold over a million gallons of water. But that was just the beginning.
In 2006, Rafael took a bold leap and replaced all the Red Bourbon trees with carefully selected Pacamara seeds. The quality of that first harvest was a revelation, and the coffee from Llano Grande has been surprising us with its excellence ever since.
In 2008, he pivoted from producing plants to building his own mill, which opened in 2011. Since then, he's been relentlessly innovating, always searching for new ways to improve his coffee.
This dedication has paid off in a big way. In its first Cup of Excellence competition in 2010, Finca Llano Grande placed tenth, and it landed in the top 10 again in 2012 and has been improving ever since.
