Costa Rica – Tarrazú

This microlot is a blend of coffees from the various plots managed by Cesar Esquivel at Cerro La Cruz, in Tarrazu. This particular lot is mechanically washed, which means that in stead of using fermentation to remove the sticky fruit after depulping, they strip both cherry and fruit away using a mechanical demucilager equipment. It’s the same machinery used to produce honeys. A simple adjustment to the demucilager affects how much fruit is left intact after depulping. The more fruit, the wilder the cup flavors. This lot was processed as what’s referred to as “White Honey” in Costa Rica, which just means they remove as much fruit as possible without scoring the seed. The resulting cup is a close approximation to “fully washed”, fermented coffee, with clean cup flavors, and acidity that sparkles. The city of San Marcos is in the Talamanca Sierra highlands, with peaks reaching as high as 3000 meters. It’s an ideal micro-region and climate for growing coffee with rich volcanic soil, great altitude, and is shaded from the hot afternoon suns by mountain peaks.

While I’m a fan of fruit flavors in coffee, I tend to reach for more simple ones that cleanly bright and full of sweetness. This lot from El Mango is just that, and hearkens back to a sort of “Classic” clean Costa Rican profile that I can drink every day! The dry fragrance possessed a scent of rapidura-type dark sugar, with a spiced sweetness of cinnamon toast. Pouring hot water on the grounds brought out a note of cinnamon oatmeal with brown sugar, along with hints of chocolate malted grains, and roasted nut. In the cup, I found light roasts possessed surprisingly developed sweetness, and brisk acidity that structured the cup. Notes of dark sugar, and molasses cookie accent a somewhat caramelized bittersweet base flavor. A malty note comes up as the coffee cools, and brought out a flavor profile of brown ale. Bright notes impact the acidic impression and are at first tea-like and tannic, but also offer tangy citrus elements, like lemon.