Cup sweetness points to demerara and simple brown sugars, with hints of fruit pastry, berry danish, lemon rind, hazelnut, and black tea.
This lot was produced at a family run micro-mill, “Don Oscar”, in the Tarrazu valley. This area is part of the Talamanca Sierra highlands, with peaks reaching as high as 3000 meters, La Vuelta plotted right around 1800 meters above sea level. 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.
The farm is run by brothers Horacio and Alejandro Solis, and the name “Don Oscar” is in honor of their late father, Oscar Solis, who began farming on this land. Their farm is broken into 40 different lots (this lot being “La Vuelta”), and is planted in a mix of Red Catuai and Caturra. This is a “red honey” process coffee, which means that around 50% of the fruit mucilage is left intact with the green seed for the entire drying stage. The fruit turns a reddish color as it dries, which is where the process gets its name. The coffee is laid to dry outside in the sun on raised beds for about 3 weeks.. A bi-product of honey process method is that more chaff is produced when roasting, which makes it a little trickier to judge roast development by physical color of the beans. I recommend waiting until you hear snaps underway, then use time as a good indicator for when to finish your batch.
- Origin: Costa Rica
- Region: San Marcos, Tarrazu
- Producer: Don Oscar Micromill
- Altitude: 1800m
- Cultivar: Catuaí
- Processing: Honey Process
- Sourcing: Sweet Maria’s