Discover a Classic Offering: Costa Rica El Poeta

The arrival of Fresh crop coffee from Central American coffees is something that the team at Fratello Coffee, as well as coffee aficionados everywhere, look forward to every year. This year, we're concentrating on the traditional and in-demand products from Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras. Costa Rica El Poeta stands out among them as a genuine tribute to the great quality and varied flavour profile of Central American coffee. As a business that takes pleasure in locating and roasting the best coffee beans from across the globe, we are happy to provide our esteemed customers with more details on the iconic Fratello Coffee offering, Costa Rica El Poeta.

Some of the best coffee in Costa Rica is produced in the West Central Valley area, which is found in the Alajuela province close to San Ramon. This area, dubbed the "Land of the Poets," gets its name from San Ramon, a city with a lengthy political and cultural past. This area is well known for its spectacular landscapes, which include lowland marshes, lush tropical rainforests, active volcanoes, and breathtaking waterfalls.

Can you Describe Costa Rica El Poeta?

El Poeta coffee is a silky, smooth blend with pronounced citrus fruit and mixed nut undertones. This coffee is manufactured from the finest beans and is produced by the knowledgeable coffee producers Julia Vega Rodrguez, Olman Cruz Vega, Ricardo Chávez Garita, and Juan Bautista Mejia Rojas in the San Rafael area of Alajuela.

This coffee's flavour profile is clean and consistent as a result of the fully washed procedure used to make it, making for a genuinely memorable and pleasurable cup of coffee. This coffee is blended with their best Catuai and Caturra beans, produced at an elevation of 1200-1500 metres. Smallholder farmers process and harvest the coffee, which is then delivered to Cafe de Altura de San Ramon, a cutting-edge Micro-mill that meticulously oversees every step of the coffee-producing process. This strategy not only ensures the best coffee, but also offers technical assistance and promotes sustainable agricultural methods, enhancing the farmers' standard of living and income from coffee sales.

How is Costa Rican El Poeta Processed?

A sophisticated Micro-mill is used by Cafe de Altura de San Ramon to process cherries from several small farms and create a well-balanced regional blend. Using a recycling water system, the cherries are first sorted and depulped before being washed to get rid of any pollutants. Using a combination of forced air and a number of dryers, the washed beans are dried, bringing the moisture level down to 11% in just over 5 days. The coffee is processed for export after at least a month of resting in silos (to maintain stable water activity in the beans).

The green beans are dehulled and sorted by weight and colour on a number of machines before the coffee is processed for export. With every detail of the post-harvest operation carefully managed, producers can concentrate on sustainable farm management practices and produce coffee with special intensity and rhythmic precision. This process results in the pure poetry of El Poeta coffee.

What Makes Costa Rican Coffee So Special?

Costa Rican coffee is known for its exceptional quality and unique flavor profile. This is due to several factors, including the country's ideal climate, rich volcanic soil, and the passion and expertise of its coffee growers. The warm and humid conditions, combined with the high elevations at which the coffee is grown, produce a coffee with bright acidity, balanced sweetness, and a smooth, clean finish.

In addition to the favorable growing conditions, Costa Rican coffee producers place a strong emphasis on sustainable and responsible farming practices. This not only contributes to environmental protection but also ensures the industry's long-term profitability. The nation's strict quality control procedures and cutting-edge many micro-milling facilities are further factors in the excellent calibre of its coffee.

Overall, Costa Rican coffee is a very unique and sought-after product due to a unique combination of excellent growing circumstances, environmentally friendly farming methods, and a dedication to quality control.

Costa Rica Santa Rosa, La Lia micro-mill - Direct Trade Coffee

In February 2012 we again visited Costa Rica to see our friends at Exclusive Coffee as well as our producer partners to choose this years offerings. This is going to be a very good year for the Costa Rican coffees available from Fratello. Our most exciting offering is going to be our newest Direct Trade relationship Luis Alberto Monge, the producer/owner of the La Lia Micro-mill who won 5^th place in 2011 Cup of Excellence.

During this trip we cupped many lots of coffee in order to find the stand out offerings, and the coffee from the La Lia micro-mill continued to score 89+ points on the cupping table. It was no surprise that the coffee grown at Luis’s Finca Dragon scored at 90.67, giving him the Presidential award and 2^nd place win at this years 2012 Cup of Excellence competition.

We have a 40 bag micro-lot arriving any week now, which was grown at 1700 meters (5600 feet) on another farm of Luis’s, Finca Santa Rosa. This was another coffee which continued to score 89+ on this trip. It is extremely elegant and floral in characteristic. It is 100% Caturra, fully washed and 100% Sun Dried. The mechanical mucilage removers uses very little water, and all of the bi-product from this process is reused on the farms to limit the environmental impact.

La Lia is located in the Leon Cortez micro-region of Tarrazu and just outside its capital city, San Marco. This beautiful little mill which is able to achieve many different processing methods including the fully washed which we purchased, as well as a red & yellow honey process and a small selection of naturals. The coffee tree nursery is also located at the mill where you will find Geisha, Ethiopian, Typica, Red & Yellow Bourbon and Caturra varietals all being grown.

La Lia is only 5 years old, but capable of producing 600-700 bags of coffee per year. This is a lot considering they only have 2-5 workers at any given time making quality control practices easier. Their high quality coffee starts at the roots of their coffee trees, beginning with proper fertilization. Luis explained to me that having low calcium in the soil will result in a beautiful looking cherry but that the bean density suffers, resulting in a higher percentage of “Quakers” in the green (bad beans). By increasing Potassium levels you will begin getting harder beans and also boost flavor and overall bean development. Luis has been working very closely with Exclusive Coffee to customize the optimal mixture of fertilization to ensure these levels of accuracy. Only when cherries have reached their optimal level of ripeness are they picked and delivered to La Lia for processing.

As always, Costa Rica impresses me with their Micro-Mill revolution which continues to expand and improve. I am seeing better organization, at farm level as well as more dedication to improve quality. These producers have been getting premiums for their coffee for a few years now and are typically re-investing into their mills for efficiency’s and consistency. La Lia is going to be a shining star amongst our offerings. You need to get this before it is gone.

Costa Rican Coffee buying trip – 2011

At the end of February 2011 we visited our friend Francisco of Exclusive Coffee in San Jose Costa Rica. Our goal this trip was to re-visit our relationship not only with Exclusive Coffees, but also our current coffee producer Luis who owns the Rio Jorco Micro-mill. Below is our observation of the Costa Rican coffee growing market, as well as introduction to two great new Micro-Mills coming to Fratello.

To my amazement and delight, our trip started visiting the new offices of Exclusive Coffees. They moved into a much larger facility with a state of the art cupping lab. As always the coffees being cupped at Exclusive are roasted to perfection (which is extremely rare when visiting farms/labs at origin) and the selection of coffees for the most part where shining stars on the table. Costa Rica has many great growing regions, and now has many first class micro-mills in each of these regions. To keep our palates focused, we only cupped coffees from Tarrazu and the West Valley. Aside from the cupping facility, Exclusive Coffees has installed their own Dry Mill to assist in the grading, separation and cleaning of the micro-lots being produced by the micro-mills they work with (approximately 100 micro-mills).

It’s no secret that the current pricing in the coffee market is almost at an all time high. We’ve seen prices reach $3.00/lb at the New York Commodity Markets this year, the second highest since February 1997. (more…)

Costa Rican Coffee Micro-mill Revolution

I guess I’m a slow learner because it took me 4 days of visiting 16 micro mills (and 1 mega mill), cupping 48 individual lots of coffee and traveling through the Tarrazu, West Valley and Central Valley regions with Jason to fully understand & appreciate the phenomenon in Costa Rica.

This phenomenon is being called “The Micro-mill Revolution” by Francisco Mena of Exclusive Coffees. He has personally visited all 150 micro-mills that now operate through out Costa Rica and works with many of them to increase quality through proper growing, harvesting and processing techniques.

A micro-mill is small coffee farm (typically producing 1000 bags or less, or 152,000 lbs of coffee) that also has its own wet mill and processing on its farm. What this allows a farm to do is process their own cherries to ensure the absolute best quality and taste. This also allows the farmer to separate varietals (Typica from Caturra, etc…) for micro-lots as well as introduce unique processing methods for individual coffee roasters needs (washed, honey, red-honey, naturals). What this really means is complete traceability and a totally individual identity for each lot of coffee we bring in.

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