Costa Rica Sonora

While fruit flavors are part of the equation, this lot strikes a balance between bittersweetness and nuanced processing flavors. Molasses, toasted caramel, cherry cola, and berry truffle. City to Full City+. Amazing espresso
 
This coffee from Hacienda Sonora is part of a family operation that goes back five generations in Costa Rica's West Valley region. The Guardia family have farmed coffee here for more than 100 years, historically selling their harvest to large mills, as was the norm. That all changed in the late 90's with the micro-mill revolution that swept Costa Rica, and, seeing value in controlling their coffee quality through to export, the family erected their own small milling operation at their farm. Currently under the management of Diego Guardia, the farm decided to move away from more water intensive process methods, favoring honey and dry process instead. This bag lot is "dry process", meaning the whole coffee cherries are laid to dry, rather than being removed from the green seed. This process method can impact the cup flavors and physical characteristics too. In the case of this coffee, it possesses fruit and wine-like notes, big body, no doubt tied to process method. The beans also look a little darker when roasting, and produce a lot more chaff than a fully washed coffee. Hacienda Sonora sits at 1300 meters above sea level, and is planted in a variety of cultivars, including this Caturra separation, which is a natural mutation of old Bourbon types initially discovered in Brazil, and known for high cup quality.