by Sunghee Tark

— Thankfully, I wasn’t to be traveling alone, and two of my friends joined me in the trip… given that all of us won’t travel at night, and we’d stop if it starts raining at any point.

The sun sets at around 5pm in Costa Rica, and it is an absolute ‘no-no’ to travel after the sunset in the southern part of the country (at least in my rule book), we decided to leave early in the morning for the trip.

’La Chelita’ on the sign at a narrow entrance hidden amidst trees. We decided to drive in.

The narrow road led us to a small parking lot, and what seemed like an entrance to a cafe. At the end of that entrance was Joselyn in her stylish self, and beret.

“Hola!”

said Joselyn, who was clearly taller and more fashionable than what I had imagined. I also liked it that she was different to how a ‘conventional coffee producer’ is portrayed in pictures.

“It’s so good to see you finally in person,”

said me, as I reached out to hug her.

Seated inside the cafe was Joselyn’s mom, Lisbeth waiting for our arrival.

“You’ve all arrived! And Sunghee - that’s you, right? I’ve seen you only virtually on webinars, and here we are together in person!”

and she hugged me tight. Immediately, I knew that she was a warm and lovely person - from her hug.

We were led to sit, and offered some coffee.

“I will brew some coffee for you all. You’ve probably have brewed coffee using Origami dripper? I finally got my hands on the dripper. Probably the first one in Costa Rica - because it is not yet officially imported to Costa Rica, and I bought it from the US.”

Her voice jumped with rythm, as she got ready to brew her family’s coffee.

“Typica Natural, or Catuai honey?”

asked Joselyn and I responded,

“Anything that you like!”

I walked over to the bar as she got ready to brew our coffee. Leaning on the bar, I contined asking her questions about her story - that I’ve been eager to ask and hear directly from her.

“When did your family start with this cafe? Never imagined a cafe here!”

“Ah, right before Covid haha. It’s been my mom’s life-long dream! She enjoys making food for others. So I told her that I can learn to roast coffee, and brew it so just wait till I’m ready. Then it was right before Covid, that I felt ready. Who knew covid would hit us at that time of the year, you know? haha”

Nonetheless, they told us that the cafe flourished even during the pandemic.

“As people weren’t able to travel outside Costa Rica, many people from different parts of the country came to visit this region. We are situated right next to a national park that crosses both Panama and Costa Rica, and there are many things for domestic tourists to do here,”

shared Joselyn.

Written by Sunghee Tark
Co-founder of bean voyage

+ bean voyage collaborates with smallholder women coffee producers to build thriving futures with them. And Sunghee of bean voyage brings us along with her as she visits Joselyn in Costa Rica.

Photo Credit to La Chelita Farm