La Candelilla is a pioneer when it comes to micromills: It was one of the first micromills established in the year 2000, and has been selling specialty coffee since then. The Geisha has been bought by Starbucks and featured in their Black Apron program in the past. The Sanchez family have been working this land for five generations. Until 2000 nine brothers and sisters and their families separately managed their separately. After years of planning the families pooled their resources and build the La Candelilla Estate & Micro Mill. It was the first of it’s kind in Costa Rica and set the stage for many small producers to follow suit. The micro mill explosion has a lot to do with the sophistication of the processing in Costa Rica. With so many producers experimenting and taking control of their coffee the knowledge has exploded. The estate now produces of 1000 bags of coffee a year and is highly regarded as one of the best coffee producers in the country. They have been forward thinking with their approach to processing and varietal planting and now produce multiple lots of Geisha every year. The family is one of the few producers in Costa Rica still using traditional fermentation but they have built a vast lagoon system that uses native plants to purify the water before it is returned to the river from which it came.