Costa Rica Gourmet Coffee Heritage

Feb 17
11:00

2008

boake moore

boake moore

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Costa Rica produces the finest gourmet coffee in the world.Its story, history and heritage- of both the church and cgourmet coffee

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Soccer,Costa Rica Gourmet Coffee Heritage Articles London, gourmet coffee, church and ships: whay do they have in common. All came together in Costa Rica through William.

William Le Lacheur, an Englishman was born on 15 October 1802 and was very early baptized with the name Guillaume Le Lacheur (using the French version of the forename) in the parish church of the Forest, Guernsey on 31 October by his parents Jean Le Lacheur and Marie Suzanne (née Allez). He was named after his grandfather, Guillaume Allez, who was also one of his godparents. Amazing how well the English do.

William is widely credited in Costa Rica as having transformed the economy of this Central American country by establishing a direct regular trade route for Costa Rican coffee growers to the European market, thereby helping to establish the Costa Rican coffee trade and development of gourmet coffee in Costa Rica. He set up the market and the trade routes that allowed the coffee business to bloom and flourish. William grew up rather quietly in England but did grow a love for ships and shipping. He married Rachel in 1828 in a church wedding.No coffee was served and in time they had five children: his children Amelia, John, Louisa, Emma, and Rachel.

He started his company by buying a ship. Now he had to find something to ship. The year was 1829.After sailing for 3 years and building a good shipping route and building up some capital to expand his shipping business he decided to expand his business. He bought a bigger ship the Minerva to carry more coffee. By 1836, he had formed a company Le Lacheur & Co, which owned two ships: Minerva & Dart. He entered the fruit trade which required faster ships; faster routes and more money. Over the following years, he continued to add to his fleet, and seek out new markets. In 1841, Le Lacheur took delivery of the baroque Monarch. The Monarch was a much larger vessel capable of journeys furthers a field. With longer journeys he was able to expand his trade and his routes. During a stop at the port of Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, he learnt that the Costa Rican gourmet coffee growers were having in finding a market for their produce. He decided to investigate.

Since their independence in 1839, Costa Rica found no regular trade routes for their fruit or coffee in the European markets. This was compounded by transportation problems within the country. The farms were too far from the coast or too close to the Pacific Coast {remember no Panama Canal at this time). The coffee-growing areas were located in the central part of the country, and it was impossible, because of the mountains and the rainy forest, to send the coffee to the Caribbean Sea and therefore to the Atlantic. It was a lot easier to ship the coffee to a Pacific port, Puntarenas, and to sail around Cape Horn to the Atlantic Ocean and onward to Europe. Further hampering them was Costa Rica had no internal railroad system.

William saw a huge business opportunity - as he had fallen in love with the Costa Rica coffee and knew it would sale well in Europe. He agreed with Costa Rican coffee growers to establish a regular service to carry their coffee to London. In 1843, the Monarch arrived in the Costa Rican port of Puntarenas, and loaded the first cargo of nearly 5,000 bags of coffee. He had to buy more and more ships to handle the demand for the worlds greatest coffee. During the rest of the 1840s, he diverted his other ships from the fruit trade to the coffee trade. In 1850 he bought 5 more ships. During the 1860s, a further seven ships were added to the fleet. In addition to his contribution to the Costa Rican economy through establishing trade routes, Le Lacheur made a significant impact on the development of a number of other aspects of Costa Rica.

Church coffee Le Lacheur, a devout Christian, was appalled by what he described "the lowest form of the Roman faith" being practiced where superstition took precedence over true religion. He sent many bibles across the countryside - helping spread the church throughout Costa Rica. He handled out over 4000 bibles - which he received his reward in heaven. In 1864, the year after Le Lacheur's death, it was resolved to build the first Protestant church in Costa Rica. It was made of pre-fabricated iron, was carried to Costa Rica by Le Lacheur's son John and was assembled in San José as the Church of the Good Shepherd which founded the start of evangelism everywhere in Costa Rica. It became unofficially known as the 'Iron Church'. When it was rebuilt in 1937 with more traditional materials, a memorial plaque was erected to Le Lacheur with an inscription which includes the phrase ' by whose exertions public Protestant worship was established in this Republic '. Le Lacheur not only exported coffee but formal education too. He sent many children to London to get a more formal education. This caused a huge boom in the success of the Costa Rica economy.

This arrangement was also responsible for the introduction of the game of football to Costa Rica. Through this Le Lacheur has also been credited with contributing to Costa Rica national team qualifying for the 2002 FIFA World Cup [1]. Army and Defense of Costa Rican When William Walker, an American filibuster, attempted to invade Costa Rica in 1856, the Costa Rican government declared war. However, the march from the Costa Rican military base in San José above them was very perilous. He used his ship to not only to export coffee but also loaned them to the Navy for battles. As a result, they successfully repelled the filibusters.Hewas buried in London in a nice cementary against his wishes to be buried in Costa Rica. There is a Memorial to Captain William Le Lacheur of Guernsey in the Church of the Good Shepherd, San José, Costa Rica. Postage stamps have been issued commemorating his achievements by both his native Guernsey (1997) and Costa Rica (1963). Costa Rica Coffee: Captain William Le Lacheur of Guernsey started the farming of gourmet coffee in Costa Rica. With over 100 years of practice they now produce the finest gourmet coffee in the world. Costa Rica - the finest gourmet coffee.