Costa Rica Las Lajas

Origin: Costa Rica 

Producer(s): Finca El Cerro

Variety:  Sarchimor 

Altitude: 1400-1600 meters above sea level

Processing: Honey Process 

Flavor Notes: Blueberry + Sweet Almond

We are excited to have a coffee from the Las Lajas Micromill back on our menu!  Coffees from here have been some of our favorites over the years. The mill is owned by Oscar and Francisca Chacon and located in the Central Valley growing region.  The story of the mill is a testament to the sharing of knowledge and to the willingness to take necessary risks.  

In 2005, after years of delivering their cherry to a cooperative for the going market price, they decided to buy their own depulper to have more control over the quality and the price they received. This was a risk, and required a lot of experimentation to dial in their processes.  Then, in 2008, an earthquake prevented the mill from having access to water for several weeks.  Oscar had heard about the pulped-natural process coffees from Brazil and natural-processed coffees from Ethiopia.  Lacking access to water during the harvest, he decided to take a chance and experiment with these methods (washed process was the standard processing method in Costa Rica). At around the same time, the founder of one of our coffee importers, Cafe Imports, visited the area and was impressed by the quality of the coffee.  Cafe Imports became one of the first to purchase coffee with this new (for Costa Rica) processing method: the honey process.

Many of the guiding principles of Las Lajas are rooted in concerns for environmental impact: mitigating water usage by making natural and honey-processed coffees, and planting shade trees to help against excessive heat from climate change. Their decision to take risks has since changed the landscape of specialty coffee in Costa Rica, inspiring more of the surrounding farmers and mills to embrace new and innovative ways to process coffee. 

This particular offering from Las Lajas comes from Finca El Cerro. They chose the black honey-process for this lot, which involves taking the skin off of the coffee cherries and allowing them to dry in the sun, only rotating them once per day.  The extra contact time between the fermenting fruit and the seed yields some fun, wild and intense flavors.  This densely sweet and juicy cup features a tart, orange acidity alongside blueberry, sweet almond, black tea and floral flavors.  There is so much depth and complexity in this coffee.  It is absolutely phenomenal!  

All coffees are available in whole bean only. 

We roast and ship on Mondays and Thursdays.  Orders placed Thursday through Sunday at midnight will roast and ship on Monday. Orders placed Monday through Wednesday at midnight will roast and ship on Thursday.