Grown by the Zuñiga brothers, some of the main drivers behind Costa Rica’s micro mill revolution.

HERBAZU

SL28 from the Zuñiga brothers

We first visited the Herbazu mill in March 2015, during the same trip where we filmed our ‘Brightness’ movie. The name Herbazu comes from the family name of the brothers who own the farm, Los Hermanos Barrantes Zuñiga. During our first trip we were very impressed by the brothers’ dedication, and incredibly high levels of quality control and sorting. However, what also intrigued us was their experimentation with alternative varietals. We tasted a small lot of SL28 that had been produced at the farm, that to us, was the cleanest representation of the varietal that we had ever tasted grown outside Kenya. We have often found that SL28 lots don’t deliver on their promise of clean Kenya-like acidity and syrupy sweetness, but this ticked all of those boxes. That lot went on to win the 2015 Costa Rica Cup of Excellence, but due to the popularity and rarity of these lots, it took us several years to bring some Herbazu SL28 back to Denmark.

Due to the notoriety of these SL28 lots, the Zuñiga brothers are slowly converting more of their approximately 45 hectares of land to grow SL28. The varietal requires specific conditions, so small trials are undertaken constantly to find the ideal spot on each miniature farm to plant. While still 80% Villa Sarchi, a very typical high quality Costa Rican varietal, SL28 now takes up 10% of the total area, with the remaining 10% made up of experimental plots of varietals such as Ethiopian heirloom, a Rwandan bourbon strain, Geisha and Typica. This year marks the fourth time we have managed to secure Herbazu’s crisp and juicy SL28, this time in both a washed and natural variant. The washed lot is tasting typically fresh and bright, with the trademark blackcurrant notes backed up by a deep brown sugar sweetness and a rich hazelnut finish.