Description
A wonderful Costa Rican Natural – a new operation this season for the premium Costa Rican Natural/Honey coffees but it has paid off well. Diego knows his processing and is producing wonderfully clean and fruit forward offerings. Similar to the Lajas coffees but a bit more refined and smooth, less fermented than the Black Soul/Pearl coffees of last season but still plenty fruit forward. High rated, fresh and clean new wave beans.
Alto San Juan Micromill is owned by an intrepid young producer named Diego Abarca, who took a plot of land from his family’s farm, given to him by his father, and transformed it into a successful business as a coffee producer in his own right. His yields have grown every year, and it has allowed him to attempt more experimentation in addition to having tighter quality control: Diego has been at the forefront of coffee processing, now doing many different processes for his coffees.
Diego owns and operates Finca San Calletano, a beautiful farm on the top of a hillside that is often filled with clouds you can nearly touch. San Calletano is divided into various lots for the sake of crop management and traceability.
Tasting Notes: A very sweet and fruit forward bean. Clean cup, medium to full bodied with higher acidity. Light to medium roasts are where this bean will shine. Being a brighter natural processed it has some great sweetness and a stronger winy/citric and red fruit tone upfront, which balance with classic Costa nutty and slightly chocolate like darker tones. A fun bean to play with roast level: tip the scales either lighter and fruitier or darker toned nutty/chocolate like. Very light roasts (with a longer setup) can introduce a little toasted grainy note giving a comparable to jellied toast like tastes, but with a lemony citric kicker. Medium roasts build great body and mouthfeel, cut out much of the citric but still overlays the nutty & chocolate like tones with a wonderful and sweet fruitiness. Darker roasts are strong and have a bit of bittersweet contrast. It keeps the sweetness and will still be slightly fruity, but contrasts with stronger bakers chocolate like tones with some roasty/smoky accents.
Roasting Notes: Higher chaff and will be slightly two toned in its roast color, we found it on the easier to roast side besides the higher chaff levels, one can reduce batch size slightly depending on the roaster to keep it on the easier to roast side. If air roasting, too quick can promote a little herbal/grainy tone at lighter roasts, good to get a little slower development at the lighter roast points. A longer setup really helps the tastes pop, good to drink the next day but if looking for the best, let it rest for 3-5 days before drinking.
The Cup: Lots of cooked cranberry with cocoa, clove, and mild fresh coffee cherry flavors. Higher winy/boozy acidity and mellow sugary sweetness.
A fun video of San Juan Micromill & Finca San Calletano:
travis.penn (verified owner) –
I roasted light-medium. The fruit smell and taste before and after roasting is intense. It clearly stands out as a high quality bean with no off notes in the smell or taste. The taste as espresso is almost too fruity despite that’s usually my preference. When I diluted with some ice and a dash of cream, the strong flavor milded into the perfectly flavored iced coffee. I felt a bit more caffeinated than usual but pleasantly. This hit the spot for the summer.