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Can a coffee be too perfect, too balanced, so all you can say about it is ," Hmm ... it has coffee flavor."' That's the criticism that used to be 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" and it's not the same thing as "boring." Yet many Costa Ricas from the large farms and mills are exactly that; middle-of-the-road arabicas. But there's can be more to a Costa Rican coffee than neutrality. They are prized for their high notes: bright citrus or berry-like flavors in the acidity, with distinct nut-to-chocolate roasty flavors. Now, everything is changing in Costa Rica, and the orthodoxy, big farms and big powerful cooperative mills, have a reason to do a double-take. There is a new quality initiative coming from the Micro-Mills, tiny low-volume farm-specific coffee producers who now keep their lots separate, mill it themselves, gaining total control of the process, and tuning it to yield the best possible flavors (and the best price!) The revolution is possible due to new environmentally friendly small milling equipment, and the disatisfaction of small producers who sell coffee at market prices, only to see it blended with average, carelessly harvested lots. With an independent Micro-Mill, a farmer can become a true "coffee craftsperson," maximize the cup quality of their coffee, dividing lots by elevation or cutivar, and receiving the highest prices for their Micro-Lot coffees. In turn, we get unique and diverse Micro-Lots, and a transparent, long-term relationship with the small farmer. Some call it Direct Trade, but we call it our Farm Gate coffee, where we can be assured of exactly what the farmer received. And in these cases they yield 40%-100%+ more than Fair Trade prices. The range of flavors that result from Costa Rican coffees has expanded without limit due to the new relationships we are forming, ranging from traditional wet-processed lots with vivid brightness, floral and clean fruit notes, to ... well, radically different dry-processed coffees in the style of Ethiopia Harar. And there is everything inbetween too, so please read our descriptions and enjoy the new diversity of flavors. It's a moment to rejoice: farmers paid well, their coffee elevated from obscurity in "pooled lots" and mill marks, the satisfaction we get from offering so many unique flavor profiles, and for the home roaster, stepping that much closer to the source, to a small farmer tuning their Penagos depulper just like you tune your home roast machine, both seeking to reveal the possibilites locked in the green coffee bean! -Tom
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| Costa Rica El Puente "Caturra Miel" | |||||||
| Country: | Costa Rica | Grade: | SHB | Region: | Santa Cruz de León Cortés | Mark: | Rodolfo Rivera, La Cuesta Farm, Puente Ecologico |
| Processing: | Honey Coffee (Pulp Natural), Screen Dried | Crop: | Late June 2008 Arrival | Appearance: | .2 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | 100% Caturra |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.8 | Notes: Puente Ecologico (Beneficio Ecológico Puente Tarrazú) is a coop mill owned by 6 farmers, among them Rodolfo Rivera who produced this lot on his plot called La Cuesta. The farm is at 1600 meters in Leon Cortez district, adjacent to Tarrazu (and considered Tarrazu by many since these coffees are often sold to Tarrazu wet mills). Rudolfo placed in this years Costa Rica Cup of Excellence with a different Caturra wet-processed coffee ... he might have entered this lot but for the fact that I had already consigned it back in February! The dry fragrance has some citrusy accents, but is dominated by soft chocolate tones. I am surprised by the lively brightness and sweet fruit in the wet aromatics; usually the pulp natural or "honey" process results in less brightness in the coffee, but with more body and fruited textures. The dry fragrance has an interesting "honey lemonade" sweetness; bright fruit with an ever-so-slightly rustic tint. It's a very sweet fragrance, but not in that "white sugar" sort of way. There's a hint of tamari sauce and dark malt syrup too. Wet aroma does indeed have a lot of honey scent (how many times can I use "honey" in the review?) To gain perspective on these flavors, it's so useful to taste it alongside a traditional fully washed Costa Rica. As the initial flavors pass, honey-and-nuts is the dominate theme. As it cools, the cup has more and more honey sweetness, combined with apricot nectar fruit notes. Given the special processing, with the fruity layer left on the coffee parchment, this is not such a "wild and crazy" coffee. The slew of dry-processed Centrals we are offering this year, from Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua truly are "out of character" for these origins, cupping more like acidic versions of Ethiopia DP Sidamo. But here we have softer, more latent fruits that will please both the traditionalists and those looking for a bit more body and fruit in wet-processed Centrals American coffees. |  El Puente Ecologico.Much of the coffee here is patio-dried. Our lot was dried on raised screens. From R to L, Rudolfo, me (Tom) and Edwin. |
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| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 4 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 9 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 9 | ||||||
| Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) | 3.5 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.8 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium intensity / Bright cup with rustic honey sweetness, mild fruits |  |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast: City+ is the roast we used for the above comments. There will be other Miel/Honey coffee lots later in the season that are better suited for darker roasts. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 87.8 | Compare to: A bright, clean, snappy version of Miel coffee process, only mildly rustic. This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing tranparency program. | |||||
| Costa
Rica El Puente "Caturra Miel" • |
$5.80 |
$11.02 |
$25.23 |
$48.14 |
$89.32 |
| Costa Rica Helsar "Typica Villalobos" | |||||||
| Country: | Costa Rica | Grade: | SHB | Region: | Llano Bonito of Naranjo, West Valley | Mark: | "Llano Bonito" Helsar de Zarcero |
| Processing: | Wet process, sun-dried on screens | Crop: | Late July 2008 Arrival | Appearance: | .2 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | 100% Typica Villalobos |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.6 | Notes: We are big fans of Helsar, and are offering several lots this year from this excellent West Valley mill. Helsar de Zarcero represents the combined efforts of Ricardo Perez Barrantes and Rodriguez Villalobos. Their farms are on a high ridge in the are of Alajuela, in the coffee areas of both Zarcero and Naranjo. They grow Typica and Caturra cultivars primarily, but this is an interesting type called Villa Sarchi. So in the above name, Helsar de Zarcero is the mill mark, and Typica is the cultivar, called Typica Villalobos. (It's a unique type, which originates on farms of the Rodrigues Villalobos family. Not every coffee grower has a cultivar named after them! Villalobos = "town of the wolves"?) This is an elogated bean form with large cherries, and is known for great balance in the cup. They have an excellent MicroMill and dry most of their top grade coffees on raised beds/screens in a covered tent (to increase heat and prevent rain damage). This is not the brightest, most acidic Costa Rica (many Costa Ricas are Caturra or Catuai), and I think we are tasting a lot of the Typica influence in the cup. Like the Typicas of Oaxaca Mexico, they have great body and balance, with less citrus acidity. The dry fragrance has soft chocolate notes with additional caramelly sweet hues. The wet aroma is toffee-like, actually, it reminds me of Bit-O-Honey candy! The lighter roasts have a red apple fruited quality, with refreshing, mild brightness. The aftertaste has tangy roast bittersweet, but fades to coffee cherry fruit flavor. Later, I get that same red apple again.It's a great, balanced, mild cup. In fact, since we have had trouble finding really good coffees from Oaxaca, this Typica might be a good alternative. Comparing it side by side with the Helsar Villa Sarchi cultivar, it has a deeper tonality, and lower level of acidity, with a distinctly different fruit note. Oddly, they come to the same score total but attain it in different ways. |
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| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.7 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) | 3.7 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild-Medium intensity / Apple fruit notes, | |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast: Full City: I think this coffee has best balance of fruit and chocolate at FC roast. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.9 | Compare to: Has some similarities to the Typica coffees of Oaxaca.This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing tranparency program. | |||||
| Costa
Rica Helsar "Typica Villalobos" • |
$6.30 |
$11.97 |
$27.41 |
$52.29 |
$97.02 |
| Costa Rica Helsar de Zarcero -Villa Sarchi | |||||||
| Country: | Costa Rica | Grade: | SHB | Region: | Llano Bonito of Naranjo, West Valley | Mark: | "Llano Bonito" Helsar de Zarcero |
| Processing: | Wet process, sun-dried on screens | Crop: | Late June 2008 Arrival | Appearance: | .2 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | 100% Villa Sarchi |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.8 | Notes: Helsar de Zarcero represents the combined efforts of Ricardo Perez Barrantes and Rodriguez Villalobos. Their farms are on a high ridge in the are of Alajuela, in the coffee areas of both Zarcero and Naranjo. They grow Typica and Caturra cultivars primarily, but this is an interesting type called Villa Sarchi. So in the above name, Helsar de Zarcero is the mill mark, and Villa Sarchi is the cultivar. This MicroLot represents all the Villa Sarchi on their farms. (Interestingly, the Typica in the area is a unique type, often referred to as Typica Villalobos, which comes from farms of the Rodrigues Villalobos clan, or so he stated to me when I was at their mill in February!) They have an excellent MicroMill and dry most of their top grade coffees on raised beds/screens in a covered tent (to increase heat and prevent rain damage). This is not the brightest, most acidic Costa Rica, and I believe the Villa Sarchi influence is a more balanced, less acidic cup. The dry fragrance has a lot of milk chocolate, and in the wet aromatic, fresh-baked sweet brown bread, and a little bit of dry-roasted peanut. The cup follows suit: balanced, in body and brightness. It has the same dry-roasted nut tone to the roast flavors (at C+ roast), fading to crisp chocolate flavor in the finish. It changes quite a bit as the temperature drops, and peach tea flavors come out. The body isn't that heavy, but has a syrupy quality. As the cup fades there is a flavor of walnut skins that emerges. |
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| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.8 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) | 3 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 9 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild-Medium intensity / Great balance, with peach tea notes as it cools | |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast: City+ for the brighter cup or it makes a great FC+ roast . | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.9 | Compare to: A balanced, single-cultivar lot. This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing tranparency program. | |||||
| Costa
Rica Helsar de Zarcero -Villa Sarchi • |
$6.10 |
$11.59 |
$26.54 |
$50.63 |
$93.94 |
| Costa Rica R.I.P. Red Honey Coffee | |||||||
| Country: | Costa Rica | Grade: | SHB | Region: | Central Valley, San Isidro de Heredia | Mark: | Brumas del Zurqui |
| Processing: | Red Honey Coffee | Crop: | July 2008 Arrival | Appearance: | .2 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | Caturra, Catuai |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3 | Notes: We might have lost it on this one. It's as unusual as the Qishr (coffee skin) tea we have offered. RIP coffee is a name we came up with for "Roasted In Parchment," which is a another of our crackpot ideas. But the logic is all there: After coffee is processed at the wet mill or the pulping station, it is dried in the sun. At this stage the coffee has it's outer parchment shell on it; it is called pergamino in Central America at this stage. After it is sun-dried down to 12% moisture content, the parchment coffee is rested in silos or bags for anywhere from 30-60 days. This allows the coffee to stabilize. In it's parchment shell, the dried green coffee can be stored for much longer, and is more protected from temperature and humidity changes that damage cup quality. I had toyed with the idea years ago of importing coffee in parchment, and milling it here. You can store it and dry mill it right before shipping it to the customer. The logistics never made sense, and milling is expensive and dusty. Some time last year I was in my cupping room and on a whim I started roasting some samples I had of parchment coffee. I remember seeing women in rural Guatemala roasting parchment coffee on a wood stove. What would happen? I was really surprised by the cup. It was very different, not at all unpleasant. There was tons of body, an unusual maple syrup and cocoa powder taste. It seemed like I had blended coffee with something else, but I enjoyed it! I also found that the darker roasts were my favorite. So this year while traveling in Costa Rica I asked Juan Ramon at Brumas del Zurqui Micro Mill if they would ship us parchment coffee. They did, and with a twist: this isn't wet-processed parchment coffee, it is Red Honey Parchment from pulped natural process. That means the fruit of the coffee cherry was left to dry on the parchment. Rather than the pale cream color of wet-processed parchment, this has a red tint to it. That fruit layer cooks during roasting and imparts a more rustic fruity note to the coffee. The dry fragrance, wet aroma, and cup flavors all have this fruit overlay, along with smokey campfire notes, and a pleasant woody flavor. There is a tea flavor too, rose hips, hibiscus flower, herbal. I like the darker roasts, when the parchment exterior is patchy and black. These remind me of good aged coffees, with inky dark roast flavor and unique smokey notes. On the flip side ...The light roast is especially like an herbal infusion. It's certainly a very odd cup of coffee, a hybrid. I prefer the darker roasts, but remember to check out my RIP Coffee Tutorial on roasting. Theoretically, there is more of a fire threat here, since the parchment layer means there is more combustible material in your roast chamber. Keep your eyes on your roaster at all times for this one. I seriously doubt we are going to start any trends here, but this is a unique chance to try a coffee roasting process you might not be able to see again, and a cup that resists easy description! |
What does RIP coffee look like when roasted to FC+: For more RIP roast info, click here. |
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| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.5 | ||||||
| Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) | 4.6 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.5 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 1 | Intensity/Prime Attribute: Bold intensity / Smokey and fruited | |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast: FC+ is an intense, fruited ans smokey cup. C+ is good too, with herbal tea bright notes. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.6 | Compare to: Incomparable … has some flavor similarities to Qishr tea in the light roasts, and to Aged coffees in the darker roasts. | |||||
| Costa Rica RIP Red Honey Coffee • |
$5.90 |
$11.21 |
Limit 2 Lbs |
| Costa Rica Vino de Arabia | |||||||
| Country: | Costa Rica | Grade: | SHB | Region: | Central Valley, San Isidro de Heredia | Mark: | Brumas del Zurqui Estates |
| Processing: | Wet-process Style | Crop: | July 2008 Arrival | Appearance: | 2 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | Caturra, Catuai |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.6 | Notes: This coffee is a lot that originates at a larger farm in the Micro-Mill movement, but on the scale of things in terms of the truly large mills and coops in Costa Rica, Brumas is tiny. The full name is Brumas del Zurqui, located in the area of San Isidro de Heredia, Central Valley. Brumas mill is between Volcan Barba and Volcan Irizu, and their coffee ranges from 1250 to 1600 meters. Brumas actually is a collection of several small farms that are blended to produce the flavor preferred flavor profile. It's a unique operation. We have several very exotic lots they did just for us this year, but the Vino is their main lot of wet-process coffee. They do it all on the farm, a key to the autonomy of those in the Micro Mill movement in Costa Rica, and perhaps Brumas is at the leading edge in some respects. Juan Ramon has taken over the coffee operation from his father, but the family has been in coffee since 1890. Juan Ramon is quite scientific in his approach, and conducts many experiments in improving the quality of Brumas coffees. He has been measuring the sugar content of coffee cherry on the br ix scale to determine the optimal ripeness, trying to find the best moment to pick a particular plot on the farm. Their mill uses the Penagos system, and less than 1 cubic meter of water per day. The coffee is dried in the sun, on raised beds or a small patio. Most goes to the raised beds. While this coffee uses the same equipment as the pulp natural types, the fruity mucilage is removed from the parchment, so this is a traditional a wet-process style coffee. It is quite elegant, with a rounded full body and some winey fruited notes (making the name not a pure affectation). The dry fragrance has both wine and chocolate hints, with a unique almond oil essence it it too. The wet aromatic has chocolate-nut balance and good intensity. Right away there is a clear sense that this is not the simple, clean, thin, bright Costa Rican cup type. Instead, this is incredibly rounded in terms of mouthfeel, with silky chocolate body, accented by red wine notes. It has a great sweet-bittersweet balance (like a nice chocolate like Vahlrona). The finish has ripe fruit, and the lighter roast is quite citric, with lemonade-like high notes. As it cools the well-defined winey brightness comes to the foreground. |
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| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.7 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.8 | ||||||
| Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) | 3.6 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild intensity / Delicate balance of fine floral and fruit | |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast: City+, seriously … the bright notes are buried at FC+. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 87.1 | Compare to: Winey, rounded Central America with balance and brightness. This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing tranparency program. | |||||
| Costa
Rica Vino de Arabia • |
$5.80 |
$11.02 |
$25.23 |
$48.14 |
$89.32 |
Tom's Sample Cupping Log | Moisture Content Readings This page is authored
by Thompson Owen and Sweet Maria's Coffee, Inc. and is not to be
copied or reproduced without permission
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