Brew Guide:
Best Brewed with: Filter
Super interesting to roast, we’re slowing this one down a touch while keeping a shorter development - trying to find the best sweet spot for the berry & currant notes we love in this coffee.
Best rested for: 3-4 weeks
For Filter: 93°C & 62g/L to concentrate the jamminess. Can updose further. Might need a slightly finer grind
For Espresso: 18g in to 45g out, 28-32s for something classic, or go 50g+ and 20s turbo style. Needs rest
We’re tasting: Blackcurrant jam, poached rhubarb, lemon cola. Super sweet, jammy - so purple. As it cools it's even more expressive & the berry note shifts more towards strawberry. Ultra-clean
Traceability:
Country of Origin: |
Costa Rica |
Region: |
Lourdes, Naranjo de Alajuela |
Farm: |
Farm: Sin Limites |
Producer: |
Jaime & Maibel Cardenas |
Variety: |
SL-28 - “San Roque Kenia” |
Elevation: |
1550 MASL |
Process: |
Natural: Ripe cherries collected at Sin Limites and carefully transported to the Infinity wet mill, with continual sorting post delivery. |
Import Partner: |
Selva |
Harvest |
Crop 23/24, Arrived UK September 24 |
The Story
In the early 2000s, coffee prices dropped to record lows, leading to a crisis among the coffee producers of Costa Rica. In response, smallholder farmers began investing in “micro-mills” to process their own coffee and focus on speciality quality, oft directly to buyers or speciality importers, meeting the growing demand of third wave coffee, and receiving better prices in return.
The “micro-mill revolution” was a fundamental shift. Producers historically locked into selling cherry to massive cooperatives or multinational exporters instead gained control over the means of production and value addition at the farm level, a wave of producers investing in their own wet and dry mills allowed them to take control of processing, creating entirely new possibilities for quality and experimentation.
A historic reputation for quality alongside strict regulations in profits in the value chain (overseen by the ICAFE) has always made Costa Rican coffee carry a premium price. It’s fair to say that in recent decades, many other origins have come leaps and bounds in terms of unique cup profiles, quality, and value for money - displacing the appetite for Costa Rica from many buyers looking for the best return on green pricing. Some notable exceptions occur - Diego Robelo’s Finca Aquaries commands many a fan in the UK market, for example.
The issue of “value for money” has not gotten any easier for Costa Rica - the falling value of the Costa Rican colón against the US dollar is squeezing profits for exporters and mills, and at the same time, production costs are rising due to labor shortages, expensive fertilizers, and the impacts of climate change.
But we love the differentiated profiles we find in Costa Rica - some of the best naturals and most interesting varieties we’ve found in all of Central America all have their source in this country. So, we thought we’d go hard with our sourcing strategy for this season, our first year buying from the country. We’d look for what Costa Rica does best - interesting combinations of fermentation and cultivar. Working with Selva, a Costa Rican exporter that operates no spot position in the UK means we get to select unique coffees - only the lots that are pre-contracted make it to the market.
This first lot is a banger - Jaime Cardenas’s wet mill Infinity processes coffee from his farm, the 2.5 HA Sin Limites. Jaime has also built his own dry mill, which means complete control from cherry selection through to export preparation - - a setup that's helped land multiple top 20 Cup of Excellence places (a rigorous multi-stage blind tasting competition that sees international judges scoring the top 1% of submissions!). Jaime is growing an accession of SL-28, locally adapted to the Costa Rican climate through field trials at the neighboring Herbazu estate, and gaining the nickname “San Roque Kenia”. We thought this was the best example of the micromill revolution - meticulous end-to-end control over the production, using an unusual variety and producing a superlative & just FUN result.
We don’t look to be exclusive, but we’d be surprised if anyone else has brought this coffee in to the UK this season - Jaime only produces 200 bags a year.
Tasting like an utterly unique take on the Kenyan profile so associated with the SL varieties, but over 8000 miles apart - we’re double parking our mugs in the roastery alongside batches of Gichatha and Gatomboya, a great example of the interaction of land, human hands and genetics - and to our eyes, more than worth the cost.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.