COSTA RICA

Altos

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Costa Rica is a special country for us for several reasons, not least because it was the first origin country we were able to visit, and create long-lasting relationships in. It’s also a particularly special coffee country, full of friendly and welcoming, but also driven and innovative coffee growers. Their perseverance in the face of adversity led to the micro-mill revolution, and to the advent of honey processing.

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COSTA RICA

Altos

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Costa Rica

We buy coffees from a long spine of Costa Rica, running through the country’s capital San Jose. This spine is famous for high quality coffee production the world over, resulting in high prices for farmers. One of the reasons for this is plentiful high altitude, the Talamanca Sierra runs through the region, with peaks of above 3000 masl. This spine is split into 3 regions, the West Valley and Central Valley to the north of San Jose, and Tarrazu to the south. In all of these areas, but especially in Tarrazu, agriculture and coffee growing is a main employer, vital to the economy. In fact, the population of Tarrazu is multiplied by three during harvest season, when workers flock to the region for the high wages paid to skilled pickers. The entire spine is mainly of volcanic origin, helping to provide fertile soils conducive to the production of consistently high scoring coffees, which we keep going back for.

Altos Natural & Typica

Altos del Abejonal sits at 1800 metres above sea level in the Tarrazu region, only 70 kilometres south of the Costa Rican capital San Jose. The Talamanca Sierra runs through the region, with peaks of above 3000 masl. The farm is also close to the regional capital of San Marcos, which sits at 1350 masl and is home to 9000 people, providing the hub to an area famous for its high quality coffee production. The volcanic soil and afternoon cloud cover in the region provides the perfect conditions for Mauricio to produce excellent coffees at Altos. Where Mauricio’s work really stands out is in fermentation. This is his naturally processed Catuai, the coffee that first led to our relationship with Altos. The coffee is dried on raised beds in cherry over 21 days, to a specific and controlled moisture content, being turned often to avoid over fermentation.

This adds a controlled level of ferment character to the cup, just enough to reveal a heavy and intense character of ripe blueberries, along with a high syrupy sweetness. A testament to the importance of careful fermentation, Mauricio’s coffee is one of the cleanest and most transparent naturals we have ever tasted, and we excitedly await its arrival at the roastery each year.

Typica

Most Arabica varietals grown across the world are descended from the same small set of varietals taken out of Ethiopia and cultivated in Yemen in the 1600’s. This creates somewhat of a genetic ‘bottleneck’ for coffee, coming from incredibly diverse within Ethiopia, to almost 98% of coffee production in Latin America comprising of plants descended from just two varieties, Bourbon and Typica. These were the first ever cultivated coffee varietals, isolated from wild growing coffee in Ethiopia, and slowly used to populate the coffee growing lands of Yemen, India, and then the New World as it was colonised by Europeans. Typica took a slightly protracted route, being introduced to India in the famous story of Baba Budan, and from there being cultivated in Indonesia for a time. From this stock in Indonesia, a single plant was taken by Dutch settlers back to Amsterdam, and it is from this single tree that all modern Typica was introduced to Latin America.

This is the fourth year we have purchased a honey-processed Typica from Mauricio’s farm, and we are again very happy with the quality. The floral complexity of the Typical varietal is present here, along with some soft fruit notes that we so enjoy in other coffees from Altos, and the classic Tarrazu hazelnut notes.

Buy Altos Natural Buy Altos Typica

Altos Geisha

We first met Mauricio by chance. In March 2014 we were in Tarrazu, travelling around farms as guests of Exclusive Coffees, an exporter based in the region. After the last farm visit, our driver had to make a quick errand to see a friend, whose child had broken his hip and couldn’t leave home. The driver dropped off a gift for the boy, while we made some conversation with his father. He was also a coffee farmer, he told us stories of his passion for coffee production and of how his son wanted to become a barista. The next day we asked the staff at Exclusive about Mauricio, and were able to cup his coffees. Some of the cleanest naturals we had ever tasted shone on the table, along with clean and crisp honey-processed coffees. We visited Altos again the next day, and bought our first couple of bags. The coffee was so well received back in Denmark that we returned to Costa Rica the next year to visit Mauricio and buy more coffee. This is now our seventh year buying coffees from Mauricio. Having built a relationship over several years, we have discovered a shared interest in pushing the boundaries of how his coffee can taste. This coffee is very special to the team here at La Cabra, we always await its arrival with baited breath, eager to taste the fruits of this year’s harvest. The hard work and dedication shown by Mauricio at every stage of coffee production is obvious in the cup, and we are proud to showcase his work to so many of those who truly appreciate it.

Honey processing is popular in Costa Rica as an alternative to washed processing, providing a cleaner cup with more acidic notes than a natural coffee, but with a much lower water usage than traditional washed processing. At Altos, the ripe cherries are first run through Mauricio’s Penagos Eco-Pulper, which even further reduces water and electricity usage at his micro-mill. The amount of mucilage left on the cherry will control the amount of influence the fruit has on the coffee as it dries. More mucilage means a flavour profile closer to a natural coffee, ripe, sweet and heavy, less mucilage means closer to a washed coffee, higher acidity, more tea-like coffees. Mauricio accomplishes his white honey process by removing almost all of the mucilage from the seeds, before they are laid out on drying beds to dry slowly for around 14 days. This leads to a very clean representation of the Geisha varietal, with the typical floral and citrus aromas backed up by sweet and fresh lemon sherbet in the cup.

Buy Altos Geisha Buy Altos Bundle

This Month's Discovery subscription

Discover Costa Rica

For this month’s subscription, we are more than happy to see the return of Costa Rican coffees to the roastery. Both of this month’s coffees are from pioneers of the Costa Rican industry; the Zuñiga brothers at Herbazú were some of the first to bring new varietals to the country, and the Chacon family have brought quality natural processing to the fore. This month we are excited to be sharing coffees from Costa Rica again. As the first country we were able to visit and build connections in, Costa Rica is a rather special arrival for us. Las Lajas is produced by the Chacon family in the Central Valley. The careful natural process brings a creamy cup with notes of stewed red fruit. We have purchased from the Zuñiga brothers at Herbazu for the past 4 years and their mastery of the SL28 varietal brings crisp ripe currants to the cup.

The coffees are exclusively sold through our Discovery subscription, which can be modified to suit your need - if that is one, two or more boxes monthly or with the frequency you prefer.

Explore Discovery Subscription Read more about this months coffees