Costa Rica- Salazar Natural

Description

Costa Rica

Costa Rica produces much of the worlds coffee and its the country’s third most exported product. In the late 1770’s, Ethiopia introduced Arabica coffee to the country. 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 work as seasonal workers on plantations to harvest coffee during peak seasons.

Removing the skin and pulp from the cherry creates the mucilage. This a sugary, sticky outer layer, and is left on during the drying stage. The mucilage is referred to as “honey”, which is why this process is known as Honey Process. Honey processed coffees are significantly less acidic than washed or natural/sun dried coffees.  They also tend to have much more character and sweetness than traditional fully washed coffees.

Farmers have begun to assign colors to each honey process, which indicate the amount of sunlight exposed to the cherry. Yellow/white honey process being the most and black honey process being the least amount of sunlight. Coffees dried in the sun for around a week are Yellow/white honey. Red honey is dried for two to three weeks, usually in the shade. 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.

Danilo Salazar and Finca San Cristobal

Finca San Cristobal de Llano is owned by Danilo Salazar Arias, and is located on 17 hectares of land in Llano Bonito, Naranjo. Danilo has been producing coffee for over fifty years, and grows not only coffee, but also bananas, plantains, and peaches on his farm. He is a member of Cafe de Altura de San Ramon, an organization founded in 2004 to process coffee throughout Costa Rica. This particular lot comes to Royal from the association’s micro lot program, which sources coffee from West Valley, Central Valley, Tres Rios, and Tarrazu and trucks them to a central milling facility in San Ramon for processing. The association works hard to provide its more than 500 producers with the knowledge and resources they need to sell their coffee for the premiums it deserves.

Image Credit: McKay Savage