The Beginning of Gourmet Coffee in Costa Rica

One man believe it or not started the coffee industry in Costa Rica. He used the money from his success to start and found the church in Costa Rica also. He was born a noble white baby in London: William Le Lacheur, an Englishman was born on 15 October 1802 and was very early baptized with the name Guillaume Le Lacheure Allez). He was named after his grandfather, Guillaume Allez, who was also one of his godparents. Amazing how well the English do.

William founded the Costa Rica coffee industry by establising the world trade markets with Europe and setting up the shipping lanes. He set up an European trading route that took all the Costa Rica coffee to market. 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.Since they were not drinking coffee after dinner they played in bed and ended up with five children: Rachel, Emma, Amelia, John and Louisa. The Start of Costa Rica gourmet coffee and coffee trade To support his family he bought a ship from his inheritance and started sailing.

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 he bought his first ship. 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 from the British Consul of the difficulty 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 signed a treat with the coffee growers to haul the coffee to London on a regular basis. In 1843 the firsh ship carried away 5000 pounds of coffee. The venture was a success, and he began increasing the size of his fleet to accommodate the increasing demand for coffee in London.

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. Le Lacheur made a significan impact on Costa Rica in many ways. 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. While the Us in 1864 was involved in a civil war, Costa Rica was building Protestent churches across the country. 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 '. Once Le Lacheur had established a fleet of ships that were regularly making journeys between Costa Rica and London, he arranged with several Costa Rican families to take their sons to England for their education. This caused a huge boom in the success of the Costa Rica economy. This arrangement was also responsible for the introduction of soccer 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]. In 1856 Costa Rica declared WAR. They stoped the invasion quickly and went back to growing coffee. However, the march from the Costa Rican military base in San José to the northern border was an arduous one.

Le Lacheur put his ships at the disposal of the Costa Rican military commanders to transport the army up the coast to the border so that they would arrive fit and ready to fight. 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.

He even had postage names done of him in Costa Rica and London. Costa Rica Coffee: Captain William Le Lacheur of Guernsey started thefirst practice of 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.

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