We spoke with Monserrat, aka Monse, of Ditsö coffee farm in Tarrazú, Costa Rica, about the process of building her unique micro-mill.
BY JIYOON HAN
SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Cover photo courtesy of Fernanda Carrillo Chacon for Bean Voyage
Monserrat Prado is an innovator who helped her partner’s fourth-generation coffee-farming family to start processing their own coffee, allowing for tighter control over the final cup quality. Monserrat, who goes by Monse, is owner and operator of Ditsö, a coffee farm and micro-mill in Tarrazú, Costa Rica. She is also a participant in Bean Voyage’s producer group in Los Santos, collaborating for training and market connections. Monse’s ethos for Ditsö is built around coffee quality and ecological preservation. I met Monse in January 2020, when she was in the middle of coffee milling season. She had just invested in tanks to experiment with anaerobic processing.
After a miscarriage four years ago, Monse channeled her energy into building a micro-mill. Together with her partner, Monse designed the micro-mill in a vertical structure that would allow for a single person to operate and manage the entire processing workflow. It was important for her to be able manage everything on her own for a lean milling process. This innovative micro-mill design was certified by her local government for being energy efficient. Monse regards the micro-mill as her child.
Jiyoon Han: What was the process like designing your micro-mill?
Monserrat Prado: The process plant is designed in a compact and accessible way. It is designed to be managed entirely by myself, on my own. It’s environmentally friendly because it saves water and energy. The coffee fruit is 100% dried powered by solar energy.
How did you decide to start the micro-mill to process your own coffee instead of just growing and harvesting?
In our case we do the whole process from sowing, including the seedling (which is creating the coffee from the seed, its germination until it is transferred to the field), then the stages of harvesting, (and then) the processing of the fruit until the final presentation to the consumer. For us, being able to supervise this entire production process guarantees us to offer a specialty product.
What does it mean to be a coffee smallholder producer, and how does it affect your work?
For me, small-scale coffee farming allows a more comprehensive and fair trade for all parties within the production chain. It allows us to bring the field closer to the consumer’s table, highlighting added value factors that change one more rate of coffee to a rate of specialty coffee with quality, history, fair work, environmental awareness and many other aspects involved in the processing of the coffee crop.
I know you work very closely with your partner, who is also your best friend. How does he support you in your coffee projects?
My partner supports me 100%. In general, we both work very hard to make this project grow, and my partner motivates me. I lead, and he supports. We’re a complementary team.
That’s so great. You’re newer to the world of coffee, while your partner is from a fourth-generation coffee family. Can you speak more about your experience as a first-generation woman in coffee, working alongside your partner and his family?
It is a great challenge as a woman to be in charge of a company involved in coffee, because in addition to the challenges that economic activity brings by nature to women, we must break with the gender stereotypes that still remain in society. I believe that the constant challenge as a woman is to be able to show that we can contribute to the world of coffee and develop in the activity, and that we can also do it in an excellent way.
Thank you for sharing. Now, despite the hardships brought on by COVID-19, what have been your latest victories?
My greatest victory and satisfaction is to be able to see the coffee that I have worked on with my own hands exported and located in another country ready to be consumed by someone. That moment makes all the effort worth it.
And on that note of positivity, what are your bigger dreams in coffee?
A dream that motivates me is to increasingly position the quality of my coffee in the international market and to be able to compete in world-class competitions.
I know you’re preparing to become a mother soon. If you feel comfortable sharing, how do you feel about that?
The new member of the family arrives as a blessing that has us with great excitement and enthusiasm. And there is no doubt that it will be closely related to our coffee activity; we started because the birth is expected for the middle of January, which means that it will arrive at the peak of the 2021 coffee harvest. This means a great challenge because it will limit my functions and tasks a little at that time, so from now on we are planning all the tasks in detail. The passion for coffee is something in which our baby will undoubtedly be immersed in.
Coffee will be a pedagogical activity for the education of this child because it provides a series of values and teachings of great educational richness. Coffee means love of work, effort, dedication, perseverance, teamwork, the essence of the little things, and excellence, among many other important positive aspects for the development of personalities in our current society.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A native New Yorker, Jiyoon Han is a Q Arabica Grader, Q Processing Generalist, and was a judge for the U.S. Coffee Championships 2019 Brewers Cup Prelims. As Chief Daughter at Bean & Bean Coffee in NYC, Jiyoon sources, roasts, and cups coffee. She’s a student at the Harvard Business School, where she is co-president of the Coffee & Tea Club.
