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Central America: Costa Rica


Map of the Costa Rica


Harvesting at La Candelilla, Tarrazu

Current Crop Comments:

New crop Costa Rica's will arrive in April. We are changing our line-up this year and will have some spectacular micro-lot offerings with a huge range of flavors, from naturals and miel type coffees, to bright crisp Tarrazus and Naranjos, to single-cultivar special lots. In the past, Costa Rica has been deceptively difficult in terms of quality. In general, timing is important with Costas because you can always call up a broker and buy them, but when are they really at their peak? You can buy Costas starting in January, even December! They are awful low-grown coffees, generally. It pays to be patient. For me, the main issue with Costa Rica is the model of coffee production, big mills creating brands, not small farms with their own tree-to-bag processing. I visited the Naranjo, Tarrazu and Dota regions this year to find new micro-mill lots, and (without getting ahead of myself) I believe the results will be some very interesting new small-lot coffee offerings this year. We are moving to a whole new sourcing model with Costa Rica, and you can expect major revision to my introductory comments "can a coffee be too perfect?" Things have really changed. We have excellent current crop lots that are now getting very low, whereas new crop lots will arrive in late March and April, so we may have a window of time without Costa Rica offerings.

Can a coffee be too perfect? That's the criticism leveled at the coffees from Costa Rica - too balanced, too clean, too mild. We categorize this type of coffee as the "classic cup," the traditional balanced coffee that has no defects or taints. Coffee cuppers call it "clean." But there's can be more to a Costa Rican coffee. They are prized for their high notes: bright citrus or berry-like flavors in the acidity. And in the best cups they fade into chocolate or spice flavors in the aftertaste ...

While particular Costa Rican farms (fincas) receive an undue amount of attention, coffee drinkers are wise to remember there are 130,000 large and small farms. The chance that any one will be the best from year to year is remote. The problem in Costa Rica is they have promoted a system where coffee is sold as "brands" developed by the mill (beneficio) rather than by distinct lots of coffee from particular farms. We evaluate every coffee by the cup quality, not the route to market ... but I personally would like to see this beneficio "brand" notion abandoned. In most cases our coffee is designated by farm. Another problem: Catimor, the coffee varietal that has great yield per tree but inferior cup. We try to avoid it, if I can detect it is present. It is used in Costa Rica in the cultivars "Costa Rica 95" and "Catimor 5175"

You are going to notice that a lot of our Costa Ricans come from Tarrazú and Dota Tarrazu . The fact is, Tarrazú is the most densely planted high altitude region. Tarrazú is celebrated as the region in Costa Rica for the best soils and highest altitudes, but I regularly cup the coffees from other regions too that are fantastic, in particular the greater Naranjo area. It just happens that there are streaks where the Tarrazú's seem to beat the all others in blind cupping. Not only that, but the coffees from Tarrazú show a wide range of flavors in the cup. Coffee with the Tarrazú name has received such attention that coffees are being sold as Tarrazú when they are 100 miles outside the region. (The same problem arises with the Antigua name in Guatemala). While the verity of an origin is of great concern, the cup character is of greater concern. I have definitely cupped many Tarrazú coffees that do not live up to the name, and many non-Tarrazús that are better. This is the benefit of the blind-cupping process. As coffee trades people and consumers, we need to seek truth in the regional differences, and also avoid getting hung up on "brand names" as the ultimate determination of quality ...its a tough balancing act but singular attention to cup quality will prevail!

The Road to Hacienda La Minita


Our Costa Rican Offerings: Please refer to our Reference Page for definitions of terms and cupping numbers used below

Costa Rica is currently out of stock as we await the arrival of mid-harvest micro-lot coffees.
Costa Ricas from early in the harvest tend to be low-grown, or have more under-rip coffee
cheries in the mix. We wait forhigh elevation mid crop coffees. This year we will have
a staggering selection of micro-mill coffees. New crop lots start to arrive in May. -Tom

Costa Rican Dota - Conquistador
Country: Costa Rica Grade: SHB Region: Dota, Tarrazú Mark: El Conquistador
Processing: Wet-processed Crop: March 2008 arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 16-17 Screen Varietal: Caturra, Catuai
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.2 Notes: Dota is a small subregion adjacent to the Tarrazú valley proper, more remote than the areas where most of the coffee in Costa Rica is planted. And for years this particular coffee, El Conquistador, went primarily to a single roaster in Germany. Great Dota coffees are fairly small sized seeds, with greater density due to the high altitudes they are cultivated at. Some roasters used to believe that the unique Dota cup character was the result of extra fermentation times at the mill during the wet-processing of the coffee. But it fact it is processed the same way that other Tarrazú coffees are, with the same fermentation times. The difference is in the unique soils that are found in the Dota micro-region of Tarrazú, and the tradition of harvesting the coffee cherry very ripe. The result is a winey hint in the cup. We have stocked this coffee for several years now and in each blind cupping to new-crop Costas it is always a standout (but often in a slightly different way). City + roast of this lot has more of the winey fruited hints than a darker roast level. Depending on roast, this winey quality can taste more like ripe fruit than wine, really, and is a soft, muted flavor, not an aggressive wineyness of some Kenya auction lots, for example. There is chocolate throughout the roast range, from milk chocolate in the light roasts to a semi-sweet chocolate at FC+ or Vienna. Dota has a lower, more integrated acidity/brightness in the cup; the winey brighter note knits well with the body, and the chocolate roast tastes. At darker roast levels, especially FC or FC+, the cup has a really nice chocolate bittersweet, with a fruited/winey aspect moving into the background, or being completely overshadowed. The body is medium but has a fine, silky texture. Note: This just arrived but we have a limited amount of the Conquistador so we are limiting each order to 2 Lbs maximum. Sorry ... we want to spread it out and have it last a little while.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.5
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.5
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.7
Body - Movement (1-5) 3.4
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.8
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 0.0 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild intensity / Great body, slightly winey and berry notes.
costa rica dota conquistador
add 50 50.0 Roast: City to Full City+; this coffee takes a wide degree of roasts, with winey hints more apparent at C+ roast, and pungent chocolate notes emerging at FC+
Score (Max. 100) 86.0 Compare to: Deep Costa Rican coffees, with good chocolate roast taste at FC or FC+ roast levels


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