Arranging the orchids at Roble Negro
Every morning in the Costa Rican rainforest, Jorge Vasquez takes a walk. In a lush, tropical place where lichen and plants literally drip from the electric wires, orchids grow as epiphytes, emerging from the sides of trees like air plants as they feed on the nutrition and moisture in the atmosphere. As he strolls, Jorge will gently grab one of these orchids and move it to human eye level, subtly drawing attention to the stunning beauty of a wild and biodiverse forest.
This is how it works at Roble Negro: Gentle curation instead of agricultural control. It’s a harmonious relationship between caretaker and wilderness with coffee as a key piece of a thriving rainforest, but not the main point.
The priorities are clear in the acreage: on this 23.5-hectare farm (58 acres), only 3.5 hectares are dedicated to coffee growing while 17 remain as cloud rainforest. An amazing symbiosis has emerged between the forest and the farming operations, with coffee trees benefiting from the fertility of forest floor materials which generates incredibly productive yields.
From the relatively small coffee growing area, Roble Negro produces 120 bags or more annually, depending on the year, and last year's excellent yield reached 150 bags. This production of more than 40 bags per hectare is more often associated with intensive monoculture farms in Brazil — a remarkable feat while maintaining the highest ecological standards.
For Jorge and his relatives, Daniela and Alex Vega, coffee’s premium pricing options are a way of making the rainforest viable and funding a conservation project. And yet, changing climate and rainfall patterns continue to present challenges.
When water moves uphill
Micah and I met Daniela and Alex at World of Coffee in 2024. They own the farm together with their uncle Jorge, and this is our second year buying from them. While they're passionate about cultivating high-quality specialty coffee and excel at it, the farm ultimately exists to preserve the rainforest and ensure its viability.
Jorge took over the farm about 14 years ago. Before that, he was the owner-operator of a recycling company. He was drawn to the area and loved the forest, seeing coffee as a way to fund ecosystem preservation, since coffee can generate quality premiums in ways that many other crops cannot.
Previously, the farming operation included some chemical spraying and traditional efficiency methods. These methods were not used in the forest but were applied directly adjacent to it, on the coffee trees. Now, in a completely chemical-free system, the entire ecosystem has been healing.
This repair can emerge in startling ways. When they took over 14 years ago, there was already a natural spring on the farm. Since then, however, the spring has moved five meters uphill, indicating an improving ecosystem that holds more water overall. A simple hose pipe connects to the stream, and the elevation gain combined with the increased water volume creates a steady, high-pressure flow comparable to good household water pressure.
The biodiversity I saw was simply incredible. Mushrooms, lichen, and orchids are everywhere. Jorge's morning ritual of relocating orchids creates a beautiful walking experience through a wild space.
The problem with naturals
It’s not hard to see why this is a project we want to support wholeheartedly, especially because the stunning setting isn’t immune from new climate shocks.
For example, Roble Negro faces increasing challenges producing naturally processed coffees. Their method involves 48 hours of extended fermentation, leaving the coffee in sacks in a cool, shaded part of the forest for slow, gentle fermentation. They then dry the coffee for about 27 days on a patio, a classic and effective drying method when you can move the coffee frequently and maintain cleanliness.
Their naturals are exceptional, typically cupping three points higher than their washed coffees, but climate change has made rain patterns far less dependable. The required month of dry weather, once manageable in a region with distinct rainy and dry seasons, is no longer guaranteed.
One solution could be to build a drying house — essentially a polytunnel with proper ventilation and airflow systems. This would allow covered coffee to dry without the humidity buildup of typical polytunnels. Alex, who handles quality control and is an engineer by training, is designing a modular, easily disassembled structure that can serve multiple purposes. It could be used to dry coffee while also hosting other crops like tomatoes, aubergines, or chili peppers during the off season.
Even the most progressive coffee farmers face a familiar problem, however. Finding the cash to build the drying house before the new coffees have generated any income can stymie the whole thing.
Ecologically priced coffee?
Challenges like this raise questions about how we value and price coffee, especially through the added costs and uncertainties of climate change. Just as we currently pay extra for flavours and prestige, couldn’t we also “price in” the ecological benefits of farms like this?
And what about the value of scalable farmer solutions like the drying house? By designing robust, modular plans rather than following generic templates, we could potentially share these blueprints with farmers we work with in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Brazil, and elsewhere. We’d love to figure out a way to offer financial support and even advance payments for infrastructure development while spreading the benefits to others.
These problems, and potential solutions, emerge through open and transparent collaboration with good partners. It’s not incidental that Jorge, Daniela, and Alex are wonderful people who invest heavily in their local community, including supporting the local school in their somewhat remote area near San José.
As always, this is a work in progress. However, working with farms like this represents one of the most rewarding parts of being a coffee buyer. Our new coffee from Roble Negro has just gone live, and of course you can support this project by getting a bag or two.
Will Davies is relationship manager for Skylark. He also writes for Standart magazine.