Our History
Don Mayo Coffee Mill is a company that belongs to Luvima de Tarrazú S.R.L Society, established on May 16, 1994, in order to deposit the real estate of the properties of the Bonilla Solís family. This society is integrated by natives of Zona de Los Santos (the Zone of the Saints), sons of pioneers of the incorporation of coffee in San Marcos of Tarrazú.
Héctor Bonilla Cruz, general manager and founder of Don Mayo Coffee Mill, is a small businessman. He is a professional coffee producer and has been recognized for his great path and knowledge in the subject of coffee. He was the general manager of Cooperativa de Caficultores de Llano Bonito R.L. from 1992 to 1998, where he managed the company not only to stabilize it financially, administratively, and socially, but he also managed to incorporate the cooperative society into the alternative market known as " Fair Trade " beginning the direct sales of coffee to European and North American clients.
During the years of 2003 and 2004, a series of studies on productivity and characteristics of the harvested coffee were made to the plantations of Luvima de Tarrazú S.R.L. These studies showed advantages of high value that led them to offer a differentiated coffee. Some of the above mentioned advantages refer to the special characteristics of their coffee plantation, such as location, height, and position of the sun. All of this together among a differentiated managing of the plantations provide high value and quality coffee.
This differentiated managing is achieved by the modernization of agricultural practices; the treatment of the soil, shade, and the varieties of coffee. The modernization of the agricultural practices is based primarily on the use of the improved varieties of coffee, practice of assistance without agrochemicals, and the use of the controlled shade to incorporate organic matter into the soil.
Moreover, as an alternate way of production is mixing coffee plants with musaceas plants, “poró “tree (Erythrina poeppiagiana), custard apples, and avocado, which is a product of high added value that minimizes the usage of chemicals and offers a great quantity of organic fertilizer. With this, a more natural and better quality product is achieved, in harmony with nature.
Finally, the assistance and care of the coffee plantations is done in a personalized way. This means that the members of the Bonilla Solis family take care of the plantation themselves and supervise each one of the processes. This allows a more meticulous care of the soils, plantations and varieties of coffee. The supervised processes include pruning, fertilizing, cleaning and performing other tasks related to the maintenance of the plantations as well as the direct participation in the milling process assuring the costumers a quality product in which they take responsibility and pride.
All of the above represents an added value to the produced coffee, and it allows to establish the bases to consider the idea of being coffee producers as well as becoming benefactors and exporters. This is the way to constitute an "Estate Coffee", that is Coffee produced in own estates. This decision was also supported by the dream of being able to sell the coffee that is being produced, and differentiate it from the others.
In response to this need, Don Mayo Coffee Mills is born in 2005. This is the beginning of the construction of its milling plant located in Bajo Canet de Tarrazú, 5 kilometers north of San Marcos de Tarrazú. As many beginnings, this work was done with very low budget trying only to process a small part of that year´s crop trying their best to gain acceptance and attention from international toasters. At that moment it took exactly 500 bushels of coffee.
In 2005, as a result of the great acceptance of their coffee and its price among toasters, the decision to continue with the project was made. For such purpose, they proceeded to begin the construction of a totally renewed mill. This included adding more sun drying patios, repainting machinery, constructing silos for storage, mounting another mechanic dryer; all of these to enlarge the processing plant and to have it ready for the 2006-2007 crop.
For this crop, with a completely remodeled mill, the milling process began on November 22, 2006 with 5 bushels, and it ended processing 2 628 bushels, of which 99 % was for exportation. This means first class coffee was exported; leaving only one 1 % of the production for national consumption.