Medium Roast
The Cup: Intense cooked coffee cherry with dark chocolate flavors. Winey acidity and mellow candy-like sweetness.
Oscar and Francisca Chacón are third-generation coffee producers, but the coffee is more than just in their family heritage: It's in their hearts and souls as well. The couple is committed to quality and innovation, and are among the very first farmers in Costa Rica to produce Honey and Natural process specialty coffee.
In 2005, after years of delivering their cherry to a cooperative for the going market price, they decided to join the brand-new "micromill revolution" and buy their own depulper to have more control over the quality and the price they received for their lots. "At first, we didn't know what we were doing," Oscar explains. "We were just experimenting." That experimentation led to some of the most exciting new flavor profiles we have ever tasted: Now, the Chacons produce a wide range of Honey process coffees, modulating the drying time in order to create different effects in the cup.
Necessity bred more innovation for the family when an earthquake in 2008 wiped out electricity and water to their area during the harvest. Unable to run the depulpers or to wash the mucilage off to produce Washed lots, Francisca took inspiration from her knowledge of African coffee production and quickly built raised beds on the property.
Micromill |
Las Lajas |
Process |
Black Diamond Natural |
Variety |
SL-28 |
Elevation |
1400–1600 MASL
|
Region |
Sabanilla de Alajuela, Central Valley |
Country |
Costa Rica |
Harvest |
December–April |
Black Diamond
is a natural aerobic process, where once the cherries are harvested, they are transferred to the mill for their classification, where only those with a high percentage of brix degrees are chosen. After this they are transferred to the greenhouse patio for their dehydration. During the first week the cherries are placed in a thick layer, in order to ferment aerobically. After this first week the coffee is spread in a thin layer until the drying process is finished.