Pleasantly rounded sweetness, raw sugars, hints of herbal and green teas in light roasts, layered bittersweets when roasted dark, Ibarra spiced cocoa, cacao bar, and carob.
As you enter the gates of Jardin de Aromas, the stunning floral gives meaning to the “garden of aromas” name. There are coffee shrubs too, of course, but the brightly colored bougainvilleas offer splashes of color to the pathways throughout the farm. Jardin is truly one of the most beautiful of the larger farms I’ve visited in terms of the grounds, as well as organization on the part of owner/operator Carol Binden.
The farm is broken into several plots, the names coinciding with the surrounding flora: papaya, aguacate, quizarra, carrizal…etc. When I visited a few years back, Carol explained how they prune their coffee trees in 5 year cycles, with a complete replant after 4 cycles. You can see this as you walk the farm, rows of coffee at varying heights, a physical representation of the tight order that is kept. The latter is also apparent as Carol explains her lot numbering system, numbers assigned to each day lot from each individual plot that follows the coffee from the day is is picked, to when it is finally bagged and stored in her storage facility (which happens to be an old horse stable on the property – see the 2nd photo). The farm sits on the low part of the slopes of Barva Volcano in Costa Rica’s West Valley, affording nutrient rich soil from age old mineral deposits from ancient volcanic eruptions.
Bean Spec:
- Origin: Costa Rica
- Region: Central Valley
- Producer: Jardin de Aromas
- Altitude: 1500m
- Cultivar: Caturra
- Processing: machine washed
- Sourcing: Sweet Maria’s