Costa Rica - Cordillera del Fuego A16 - Anaerobic Honey - 250g

This Costa Rican coffee has notes of brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.
 
In addition to this distinctive flavor profile, this coffee is surprisingly high in acidity and has a particularly pleasant and smooth texture, qualities that are also very stable throughout the tasting.
 
Available in our 3 roast levels.
 
Region: Alajuela Province
Producer: Luis Eduardo Campos
Variety: Caturra, Catuai
Harvest: 2022
Post-harvest treatment: Anaerobic Honey
 
 
Luis Eduardo Campos has been working in coffee for 36 years. He was originally a member of a cooperative in Tarrazú that collapsed in the early 2000s. 567 of the producer members decided to buy out the cooperative's debt and restart it in 2004, naming it Altura San Ramon. Luis was the director of Altura San Ramon for 11 years and it was during this time that he developed his unique anaerobic processes. In 2015, he started his own micro mill. He began by purchasing only 300 bags of cherries per year, but today 7,000 bags are delivered to the mill from over 300 growers, including Luis' own farms. Specialty lots account for 5% of the total volume.
 
Luis developed his anaerobic processes after observing the fermentation process in wines. The process begins with ripe coffee cherries that have a high sugar content (measured by a Brix meter) that can fuel the anaerobic process. The variety is not the most important factor, but he has found that Yellow Catuai works well. Luis has three tanks for his anaerobic process, which are filled by adding mucilage (coffee pulp) from another batch - to prevent oxygen from entering the process. Fermentation lasts between 22 and 24 hours, with the temperature kept just below 10°C. Fermentation should stop when the sugar in the mucilage has been consumed, but before the production of alcohol. During fermentation, the release of CO2 exerts pressure on the grains, which contributes to the aromatic development. Temperature, pH and Brix measurement are the three most important factors in Luis' anaerobic process. After fermentation, the coffee is dried: it is spread out in 7 cm layers and turned over every 20 minutes during the first days. Each of the three tanks can only produce two bags of exportable coffee per day, and the extra drying time and turning increases labor costs, which explains the high price of coffees that benefit from this treatment.