Costa Rica

Santa Teresa Heirloom

Ethiopian Heirloom varietal

The Ethiopian heirloom varietal brings deeply complex citrus and floral aromas to this lot from the Tarrazu region.

From our long term partners Roger and Alex Ureña at Santa Teresa.

Producer
Roger and Alex Ureña
Coffee expression
A floral & rich coffee

Regular price: $30.00
incl. vat/tax
Sale price: $30.00
incl. vat/tax
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The varietal character is expressed here in the complex aromatic character in the cup.

heirloom

Santa Teresa

The property where the Santa Teresa mill lies has been owned by the Hidalgo family for over 100 years, and is now owned by third generation coffee farmer Roger Ureña Hidalgo. The mill lies near the town of Santa María de Dota in the mountainous Tarrazu region; some of the farm lands surrounding the mill reach up to 2000 masl. Until fairly recently there was no road up to the farmlands, so most of the farm work and transport was accomplished using horses, and Roger grew mainly beans and grass. In 1998, Roger started to grow coffee, planting 5000 trees over a 1 hectare plot at some of the highest altitudes on the farm, known as La Montaña. However, all of the soil, seeds and eventually processed coffee still had to be transported across rough terrain by horse, so the volume of production was always going to be limited.

Roger and Alex Ureña

In 2001, Roger was able to hire a tractor and finally build a road to his farm. Since then, he has doubled down his efforts to grow high quality coffee, expanding his planting area with various varietals, grown depending on quality and their suitability for the specific area of the farm they are grown in. Nowadays, the work on the farm and in the mill is done mainly by Roger and his son Alex. Alex visited Denmark in June of 2019 with members of the Exclusive coffee team, seeing both our roastery in Copenhagen and the coffee bar in Aarhus, a welcome return visit after our numerous trips to Santa Teresa over the years. Alex told us he was also looking for some inspiration during their short tour of Europe, as he plans to open a coffee bar in the nearby town of Guayabal along with his father.

This isn’t the first time we have purchased a Geisha lot from Roger and Alex, and this year’s lot is delivering on our expectations of deeply complex aromatic character, with notes of lemon, black tea and ripe kiwi.

Technical Data

Producer
Roger and Alex Ureña
Region
Tarrazu
Altitude
2000 masl
Varietal
Heirloom
Process
Honey
Harvest
March 2022

Honey Process

With the honey process a certain amount of mucilage and pulp are allowed to remain on the coffee bean during depulping. The cover will stay with the bean during fermentation and drying thereby contributing to the sugars absorbed by the bean and affecting the flavour notes of the final cup. The amount of mucilage remaining defines the type of honey process - white, yellow, red or black in ascending order of mucilage concentration. If they are processed properly, the coffees can take on quite a lot of sweetness and flavours while remaining clean.

Raised drying beds (sometimes referred to as African drying beds) are often preferable when working with honey processed coffees, because of the additional airflow they allow. The air ensures that the beans dry evenly and reduces the incidence of fungi and bacteria formation. On the other hand, some farmers are accustomed to using sun-exposed patio drying that require a regular raking of beans to avoid moulds. While total fermentation and drying time depend on such choices as well as ambient temperature and moisture levels, red honey processing easily needs two weeks from depulping until drying has completed.