brightness for body, with chocolate roast flavors, cocoa biscuit, bittering cacao, campfire marshmallow, and toasted almond.
Dota is a small subregion adjacent to the Tarrazu valley proper, more remote than the areas where most of the coffee in Costa Rica is planted. Great Dota coffees are fairly small sized seeds, with compact 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 Tarrazu coffees are, with the same fermentation times. If there is difference, it may have more to do with the unique soils that are found in the Dota micro-region of Tarrazu, and the tradition of harvesting the coffee cherry very ripe.
This Dota micromill buys and process coffee from small-holders in the surrounding hillside communities, altitude ranging from as low as 1200 meters to as high as 1900 meters above sea level. The coffee is depulped using a mechanical demucilager, which is typical in Costa Rica. While this process uses very little water and forgoes tank fermentation, they do soak the coffee after removing the skin and most of the fruit which helps to clean up the green coffee seed before sending to the drying patios.
Chocolate and bittering cocoa powder flavors show throughout the roast range, from semi sweet chocolate in the lighter roasts, to dark cocoa powder in medium, to brooding cacao bittering with high % cocoa solids at Vienna dark roast. This lot of Conquistador is a lower acid cup, trading in sharpness for rounded mouthfeel and the chocolate roast flavors mentioned. As the coffee cools off some, will pick up on a campfire marshmallow note, toasted almond, and cocoa biscuit.
- Origin: Costa Rica
- Region: Dota, Tarrazu
- Altitude: 1200-1900m
- Cultivar: Caturra, Catuai
- Processing: Mechanically Washed
- Drying: Patio Sun-Dried
- Grade: SHB
- Sourcing: Sweet Maria’s