The first true cup of coffee I had was shared with my grandfather in a rickety Costa Rican treehouse tucked away in the cloud forests of Monteverde. I was 18, my grandfather 70, and this trip was when I fell in love with not only the jungle, but coffee as well.

In honor of International Women & Girls in Science Day, we want to give a shout out to one of our locals @sarahmclear who works in the National Park Service! Please enjoy the following description on what working for the National Park Service is like, and what kinds of projects Sarah is involved in directly.

The journey from farm to cup is not a simple one in the mountainous country of Papua New Guinea, but one that is well worth it when you take your first sip of this heavy bodied, medium acidity coffee with notes of caramel, dried fruit, sweet caramel, subtle green tea and melon.

Did you know that coffee flavor profiles are more complex than wine? Did you know that the coffee industry goes through an intricate tasting process in order to decipher these complex flavor profiles? These tastings are called “cuppings” in the coffee world and it is quite the ritual to participate in one. Check out the breakdown of this sacred coffee cupping practice through these 12 steps!

Yeah, they’re that good. Here’s a little back story on the de los Andes Cooperativa micro lot program in the cool video on our homepage.