Costa Rica- Las Lajas Black Honey

Description

Costa Rica

Costa Rica is one of the top producers of coffee, and, as their number three export, is incredibly important to the country’s economy. Arabica coffee was first introduced to the country directly from Ethiopia in the late 1770’s. Like many countries’ governments, the Costa Rican government encouraged farming by offering plots of land to farmers who wanted to grow and harvest the plants. By 1829, coffee production was a larger source of revenue than tobacco, cacao, and sugar cane. Today, many Nicaraguan immigrants are often employed as seasonal workers on plantations to harvest coffee during peak seasons.

Las Lajas

The Black Honey process is a Las Lajas specialty and has been developed and refined over the seasons to produce a superior and consistent cup profile. Beneficio Las Lajas is owned by Oscar and Francisca Chacon. Las Lajas is one of the best micro mills in Costa Rica, and is well known within the industry for its unique and exceptional drying techniques for natural and honey processed coffees. Oscar and Francisca are continually experimenting and developing new processing techniques. They’re motivated in the search for the perfect technique to produce a cup that expresses the inherent delicacy, harmony, and complexity of their coffees.

Honey processed coffee is unique in that while the skin and pulp are removed from the cherry, the mucilage, a sugary, sticky outer layer, is retained during the drying stage. This mucilage is sometimes called “honey”, which is why this process is called Honey Process. Honey processed coffees are significantly less acidic than washed or natural/sun dried coffees and have much more character and sweetness than traditional fully washed coffees.

Colors are assigned to each process to indicate the amount of sunlight each cherry is exposed to, yellow being the most and black being the least. Yellow honey coffees are usually dried in the sun for around a week, red honey is dried for two to three weeks, usually in the shade, and black honey is exposed to as little light as possible and must dry for at least two weeks. The longer the dry time, the more fruit-forward the end result tastes.