A new film from Costa Rica invites a closer look at the trees, skills and growing decisions behind a familiar daily ritual.
Before coffee becomes a drink, it is a crop growing in a landscape. That simple fact can disappear somewhere between the menu, the tasting notes and the first sip. A new film centred on Costa Rica’s Volcán Azul estate offers a reason to look back towards the farm and ask what good coffee growing makes room for.
Bacha Coffee released Costa Rica: Pura Vida, Pura Tierra on 1 October 2026, as the second instalment of its Journeys to the Source series. Directed by Fraser Morton, it follows the company’s head of coffee procurement and production, Rüdiger Freytag, through cultivation, processing and tasting. It is a brand-produced film, so it is best approached as an introduction to the producer’s work rather than an independent sustainability audit.
What belongs around the coffee tree?
Volcán Azul’s own account places the family’s coffee-growing tradition in the nineteenth century and describes farms in several Costa Rican regions. It also says the family has acquired rainforest for conservation since the 1980s. Farming and forest protection are presented as responsibilities to pass between generations.
The film’s release gives a more specific figure for the estate it visits: approximately 220 hectares devoted to conservation out of 300 hectares. That figure is Bacha Coffee’s account. It should not be confused with the family’s wider rainforest holdings, which the producer describes separately. Clear boundaries matter whenever a product story attaches an environmental claim to a landscape.
There is a broader scientific reason to pay attention to trees in coffee country. The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center’s review of shade-grown coffee research describes benefits that can include wildlife habitat, soil protection, pollination and natural pest control. The quality and diversity of the canopy matter. A few scattered trees and a structurally varied, forest-like growing system do not provide the same habitat.
Taste comes from a chain of decisions
The release describes the estate’s attention to ground cover, shade trees and reduced herbicide use, alongside experiments in varieties and processing. It links cooler growing conditions with slower cherry development. The connection between land management and flavour is a useful invitation to curiosity, though flavour by itself cannot verify an environmental claim.
After harvest, another set of decisions begins. In honey processing, some of the sticky fruit material around the seed remains during drying. The name refers to that mucilage, rather than the addition of bee honey. With washed processing, the fruit is removed before drying. Each route demands attention to handling and drying conditions and can contribute to differences in the finished cup.
This is where an origin story becomes more interesting than a luxurious description. A coffee’s identity includes the people deciding when to pick, which lot to separate and how carefully to process it. The price or packaging cannot tell that whole story.
Ask for evidence alongside the story
For drinkers who want to connect their purchase with better farming, useful questions are specific. Which farm and harvest does the coffee come from? What practices are documented? Does any certification apply to this particular coffee, and what does that certification assess?
The Smithsonian’s Bird Friendly programme is one example of an independently inspected standard built around habitat protection. Mentioning it here does not mean Volcán Azul or Bacha Coffee holds that certification. It illustrates the difference between a general description such as shade-grown and a defined set of criteria that can be checked.
A film cannot answer every question about a supply chain. It can, however, make the farm feel less distant. The next cup becomes an opportunity to notice a richer set of ingredients: growing knowledge, patient processing and the living landscape that makes a harvest possible.
Lead image: Coffee being worked across drying patios in Costa Rica, photographed for Bacha Coffee’s Journeys to the Source series. Bacha Coffee.
