DISCOVERY

Central America

This month, we see the final few releases of the current season. This year, many factors, including the continuing effect of the pandemic, a worldwide shipping crisis and a skyrocketing coffee market price have made the upcoming season one of the most difficult to prepare for in our memory.

Central America

Geisha & Pacamara

Normally, we would expect to see fresh arrivals from countries like Brazil and Burundi by this point in the year, but for now, we patiently await their arrival in Europe, confident that we’ve made delicious decisions over the past few months, in constant conversation with our valued partners. We’re also beginning our preparations for summer arrivals, through calls with Ethiopian partners, and an upcoming trip to Kenya, spending time at Long Miles’ Thunguri station during its first full harvest.

So for this month’s subscription, we continue with a final release from Central America. This, however, is no disappointment for us. As much as we feel almost hard-wired to crave fresh coffees and new experiences, Central America is one of our favourite parts of the world to work in as coffee buyers. This month, we’re featuring coffees from two of our favourite countries, and favourite producers. True trailblazers, boundary pushers, and importantly, talented and warm individuals. Raul Rivera is a 3 time Cup of Excellence winner, and is legendary throughout the coffee world for his mastery of the Pacamara varietal. His natural Pacamara brings a heavier, richer expression of the varietal than the honey processed version many of you enjoyed a few weeks ago. Daisy and Pepe Fallas have been able to take advantage of the knowledge pool of Exclusive Coffees’ producers, and their dedication and meticulous approach from years of breeding pedigree dogs, to become an instant success in the speciality coffee market. A very limited lot, we’re excited to share this delicate and floral honey-processed Geisha with you this month.

Finca Santa Rosa

Raul Rivera

Finca Santa Rosas story is intertwined with that of El Salvador. Jorge Raul Rivera Sr. began growing coffee, mainly of low quality, in the region around La Palma in 1979. This was the very beginning of El Salvador’s brutal civil war, so many were abandoning their land, selling cheap and fleeing into neighbouring Honduras. Raul Sr. capitalised on this, bought some plots cheaply and began to grow coffee. He was one of the first to grow coffee in the area, and one of the few that stayed during the war. As El Salvador began to settle again after the war, the Riveras bought the land that would become Finca Santa Rosa, and began to grow timber, due to government subsidies aiming to help the post-war rebuilding effort. However, in 2003, the Cup of Excellence came to El Salvador, a great showcase for the first few speciality coffee producers in the country. The Riveras saw a prime opportunity to enter the high quality coffee market, and realised that the conditions at Finca Santa Rosa were perfect. The family knew that if they could produce micro-lots of high enough quality, they could fetch high prices at the Cup of Excellence auctions, making their farm highly profitable. They therefore planted their farm with Pacamara, famed for high quality cups, and set off in pursuit of the Cup of Excellence crown.

This is our fourth year buying coffee from Jorge Raul Rivera. Raul is a second generation coffee producer, based just outside the town of La Palma, in the far north-west of El Salvador, close to the border with Honduras. His farm, Finca Santa Rosa, is located not far from La Palma, at around 1550 masl on the slopes of El Pital, El Salvador’s highest point. The farm is planted mainly with the famed Salvadoran varietal Pacamara, and has produced some of the country’s highest quality and most innovative coffees in recent years.

Raul Rivera

The Cup of Excellence

Years of work have resulted in three overall wins, in 2014, 2017 and 2019, all with their honey-processed Pacamara. The pine from the old timber plantations has been retained as shade for the coffee, always reminding us of a Danish pine forest during our visits. Visiting Raul is always a treat, he’s a genuinely passionate and professional coffee producer who’s enthusiasm is rather infectious, in fact it’s sometimes difficult to leave Finca Santa Rosa, as Raul is always keen to share his knowledge and experience. The pride he takes in every single detail of the farm and step of the process is obvious, and this translates into the incredibly high quality lots of coffee he is able to produce. During our most recent visit in March 2020, we were also able to visit Raul’s small cupping lab in San Salvador and taste some of the truly special lots he was considering entering into the Cup of Excellence. This naturally processed Pacamara brings an extra dimension of ripe fruit to the cup compared to the honey version you enjoyed last month, with rich stewed berries joining the fresh and floral character of the varietal.

Geisha

Doña Daisy

Doña Daisy is a small plot directly next to the house of Daisy and Jose ‘Pepe’ Fallas, effectively a miniature coffee farm in their garden. After spending most of their working lives breeding pedigree dogs, the couple decided to start a small passion project in their retirement, and set about educating themselves in the art of coffee production. Their small plot, located at 1700 masl in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, grows only SL28, Typica and Geisha, and all of the farm work is undertaken meticulously by Pepe and Daisy themselves. Due to the close connection the family feel to the plot, and its literal proximity, it was named in Daisy’s honour. This small area of the farm has only been in production for 4 years, and this is the second time we have bought a Geisha lot from the couple. Due to the meticulous care that these plants have received, and Pepe and Daisy’s close attention to processing, this is an excellent clean example of a honey Geisha, with an excellent balance between sweet and rich character from the process, and the floral and citrus characteristics that the varietal is known for. In the cup this means jasmine aromas, and some classic ripe fruit characteristics, with flavours of lemon and brown sugar.

Costa Rica

The Talamanca Sierra spine

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.

2021 marks the eighth year we have worked with our Costa Rican export partners at Exclusive Coffees, and the producers they have connected us with just keep on delivering excellent and transparent coffee experiences. This is now the second year we haven’t been able to visit Exclusive and our producer partners in the region. However after years of working together, and especially using experience from last year, we are confident we have still found our picks of the harvest through a constant exchange of zoom calls, emails and samples between San Jose and Copenhagen.

DISCOVERY

Ever-changing landscape

Sourcing coffee in an ever-changing landscape is a rather difficult task. Keeping track of the situation on the ground in several countries, alongside the international coffee market and the global logistics situation, while not being the most glamorous part of our jobs, is very important. This year, several of these global factors, mostly out of our control or that of our partners, has had an effect on the arrival of fresh crop coffees. We are excited to introduce these coffees, but for now, we’re more than happy to share these final releases from our trusted and talented partners in Central America, Raul Rivera and Daisy and Pepe Fallas.