Costa Rica - Santa Fe Geisha Honey

Costa Rica is one of our favourite coffee producing countries, and we love being able to trade directly with producers via the help of Selva Coffee. Selva is a small export business based in Tarrazu with their own cupping lab and direct connections to some of the best coffee producers in the country. Costa Rica is a beautiful country know for its focus on environment and sustainability, and this is very evident in the coffee industry. Coffee from Costa Rica can showcase many different processing styles and flavour profiles from wild, juicy natural process coffees to soft, delicate honey processed coffees. Some small producers and co-operatives also produce washed coffees, and experimental processes like anaerobic fermentation have also become very popular. 

Producer Overview:

The Sante Fe wet and dry mill is owned by Ivan Solia and his wife and 3 children. The mill was founded in 2017 and set up to support local speciality coffee producers by providing a bespoke post-harvest processing facility.

Ivan Solis comes from a very humble background and started working for the Dota co-op as a young man taking on many challenging roles including carrying wood, lighting fires for the mechanical dries and cleaning the mucilage tanks. Over the years he progressed through different roles at the co-operative including gaining his Q grader qualification in 2009 and taking a variety of high-level coffee processing courses.

In 2017 he setup his own mico-mill focusing on processing coffee from local farms as small microlots. This collaborative approach allows farmers who don't have their own processing facilities to work with a specialist in post harvest processing. This helps to ensure coffees reach their full potential and sell for the best possible price.  

Harvesting and Processing:

This Geisha microlot comes from several local farms. Many coffee producers in this region grow small amounts of the Geisha varietal. This will be harvested separately from the other coffees and delivered to the mill for processing.

The coffee is sorted using flotation and pulped to remove the outer layer of fruit. After processing the coffee was dried on raised tables in a thin layer to ensure low fermentation and very consistent and even drying.

Tasting Notes: 

This is a lovely clean and juicy Geisha that highlights the wonderful character of this varietal. The honey process has contributed incredible sweetness and body and fruit notes that remind us of red apple, caramel with a cocoa-like finish. 

Brewing:

This coffee works well for all brew methods. 

Filter: Dose 15g, water 250g. 

Espresso: Dose 17 gram to 40 gram yield over about 30 seconds. 

This coffee is available as whole bean and pre-ground, but we recommend always grinding fresh before brewing. We sell a range of grinders if you would like to grind this coffee fresh at home.