Costa Rica - Los Toños Java

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Filter

Lightest Roaster influence: Super punchy process character means we're continuously dialling back the roast on this one to emphasise tropicality and sweetness - a touch too much heat brings out a more dark chocolate character common to heavily processed coffee

Best rested for: 3-4 weeks

For Filter: We’re loving 60g/L & 98°C

For Espresso: 18g, 45g, 23-36s

We're tasting: Boozy peach liqueur & clementine aromatics. In the cup, candyfloss sweetness, tropical fruit punch, milk chocolate, process forward. A gentle warming spice note in the finish as it cools

Traceability:

The Story

Our exploration of Costa Rica's micromill revolution continues — Corazon de Jesus first appeared in our lineup through Colourful V5, where their natural Milenio variety demonstrated the kind of process-forward profile we seek for our fruit-forward blend. Having finished the elegant SL-28 from Sin Limites, we moving to this punchy, process forward Java lot from Finca Los Tonos.

Java — originally selected from Ethiopian landraces in East Java by Dutch colonists in the late 1800s — is a direct relative of the Typica group. The variety gained prominence for its resilience at high altitudes and characteristically intense sweetness. Despite early widespread adoption, Java largely fell out of favour due to its relatively low yields compared to newer hybrids. The variety is immediately recognizable by its distinctive elongated beans noticeably longer and more pointed than typical Arabica varieties, quite similar to the Panama Gesha accession in appearance (we find Java slightly higher density, and no less tricky to roast)

Like Sin Limites, Corazon de Jesus embodies the control over quality that characterizes the micromill movement. Founded in 2015 at the foot of Chirripo — Costa Rica's highest peak — the mill processes cherries from the Alvarado family's 3-hectare farm sitting at 1800 masl in Brunca's Buena Vista de Rivas. The family's commitment to quality extends through the entire production chain, from farm ownership to their on-site dry mill.

Their natural processing protocol shows particular technical excellence. After an initial 3-4 day controlled fermentation in cherry, the fruit passes through a recirculating water float system. While we're always pleased to see a floatation step with any natural process we buy, this is typically conducted at the very start of the process. Floating in water both sorts for density and homogenizes temperature while reducing microbial load before drying. By running a dry in-cherry ferment for several days before this, we get the benefit of a big whack of upfront wild fermentation, before cooling everything off, getting very good density separation (the recirculating water agitates the cherries and encourages good floatation of less ripe coffees) and calming the fermentation down a smidge right before the slow drying process.