SEATTLE, US – As Starbucks celebrates its 50th anniversary, the company’s vision for the future remains focused on connections over coffee, being a resource positive company and creating a better future for its partners (employees) and the communities it serves. In celebration of this vision, Starbucks launched a new, immersive Hacienda Alsacia virtual origin experience.
In 2013, Starbucks bought its first coffee farm in Costa Rica, Hacienda Alsacia, and then opened its doors to the Hacienda Alsacia Visitor Center in 2018. Now, customers can visit both from comfort of their own home.
The virtual tour allows visitors to experience coffee at origin and learn about Starbucks industry-leading research to help make sustainable coffee farming a reality around the world.
Armed with a digital field journal to guide their journey, visitors can rake coffee across a virtual drying bed, choose a local partner tour guide to show them around and even take a ride to the farm’s overlook in a vintage Land Cruiser to take in the spectacular view.
Hacienda Alsacia serves as Starbucks Global Research and Development facility, used to better understand the challenges that coffee farmers face and promote sustainable models of farm management.
The best part? The farm also supports Starbucks commitment to a planet-positive future and newly announced coffee-specific environmental goals, by sourcing coffee responsibly in a way that helps protect our planet while supporting the lives and livelihoods of coffee farmers around the world.
To access the Hacienda Alsacia virtual experience, all you have to do is visit coffeeexperiences.starbucks.com and click “Begin your Journey.”
About Starbucks Hacienda Alsacia
Purchased in 2013, Hacienda Alsacia is a 240-hectare coffee farm in Costa Rica that serves as a global Research and Development facility and working farm for Starbucks. . For the last five years, Hacienda Alsacia has been an innovation hub for Starbucks, helping to better understand challenges coffee farmers face and determining best practices and solutions.
Now open to the public for the first time, visitors will be able to experience sustainable coffee first-hand, including the agronomy work Starbucks has been supporting and investing in for two decades.
How to Get There: Hacienda Alsacia is located in San Luis, Sabanilla, Alajuela, off the slopes of the Poas volcano, about 45 minutes from the Costa Rican capital of San Jose.
Tickets to experience the Hacienda Alsacia Visitor Center cost $25 USD and include a 90-minute guided tour, coffee tastings, parking and a take-away bandana. For more information, please visit: www.starbuckscoffeefarm.com
Hacienda Alsacia is the first of 9 Farmer Support Centers Starbucks operates in key coffee producing countries around the world, from Costa Rica to Rwanda. Farmers get free access to the latest findings of top agronomists, including new disease-resistant trees, and advanced soil management techniques. The goal is to help farmers become more profitable and improve their crop quality, ensuring the future of high quality, sustainable coffees for everyone for years to come.
