At Royal Coffee New York, we have continued to grow our micro lot offerings from Costa Rica over the past several years. This year, we’ve been able to identify and source Costa Rica coffee not only from some familiar names, but also from some new and exciting ones as well.

Each year, we invite roasters to join us on our micro lot trip to Costa Rica. Once there, we typically cup 20 or more samples a day.  This continues for about three to four days. After cupping each day, we are able to visit some of the producers of that days cuppings. During our visits, we are given the opportunity to better understand the process from the farm to the mill level.  We definitely learn to appreciate the amount of work involved in producing a great cup of coffee.

Relationship-type coffees have become more mainstream over the last few years.  Consumers are becoming more educated about where their coffee comes from. We can help achieve this goal to a greater degree by bringing together roasters and producers during these trips so they can develop a connection and tell the story behind the coffee.

From this year’s crop we are primed to see some stellar micro lots from Costa Rica. We have coffees that are currently available that are making their way into the ports of NY/NJ and into our warehouses.  Eventually, into your roastery and cafes.

Oscar Mendez

Oscar owns a farm named Genesis and is a micro miller and producer in the West Valley. We’ve been sourcing coffee from his farms and the neighboring farms for whom he processes coffees for over two years now. We visited Oscar this past year again and were even more impressed by his desire and affection to maintain the producer/roaster relationships. He works diligently to make sure he is processing coffee from other farms as if they were his own. His estate is a sight in itself.  There are beautiful gardens and flowers surrounding his farm and beneficio that are quite breathtaking. He is a family man and envisions that one day his grandson will take over the family business.

Here are some coffees coming from Beneficio Genesis:

• Javier Barrantes F1 Yellow Honey – Notes of sweet cherry, caramel and grape
• Luzmilda Red Honey Process – Notes of orange, honey, cherry and peach
• Rusticus – Notes of melon, green grape and brown sugar
• Max Salazar Yellow – Notes of ripe cherry, caramel and sweet raisin

Francisca and Oscar Chacon

Our friends, Francisca and Oscar Chacon, from Cumbres del Poas or Las Lajas have been crucial to our ever expanding offerings from Costa Rica.  They supply us with macro-lot organic coffees as well as specially prepared micro lots from their multiple levels of honey and natural processes.

Here are a few coffees from Cumbres del Poas that will not disappoint!

• Alma Negra Natural – Notes of apple, blood orange, strawberry
• Perla Negra Natural – Notes of rhubarb, pineapple, melon, peach
• Black Honey – Notes of raspberry, plum and orange
• Red Honey – Notes of strawberry, orange, blueberry
• Yellow Honey – Notes of melon, strawberry, plum, kiwi
• Organic Black Honey – Notes of orange, cherry, green apple
• Organic Yellow Honey – Notes of orange, peach, mild strawberry

Costa Rica Coffee Moving Forward

It’s great to continue to support and source coffee from partners and friends for multiple years. However, what we have seen this past year is that more and more producers want to showcase their coffee to the specialty coffee market.  We are excited to help solidify new producer friends for you.

You can expect to see a lot of new offers this year.  Some include Gesha coffee from a micro mill called La Candelilla (which is the oldest known micro mill in Costa Rica).  Asoproaaa and Meca from Tarrazu.  Barranquilla from Brunca who uses natural fermentation for his coffee by washing his coffee in fermentation tanks (which you do not see very often any longer in Costa Rica).

This is an exciting time for Costa Rica coffee production.  We want to share them all with you from macro to micro level coffees. Each has a story and a passionate producer(s) behind it. Costa Rica has been an origin where you can go and visit quite easily and really meet an abundance of extraordinarily hard working people in the coffee industry.

We urge you to reach out to your trader and keep an eye out on our website to see new listings as coffees start to come in. As mentioned, we’ve already received a few deliveries and expect more to arrive from now through the middle of July. I’d expect these coffees to go quickly; volumes are in short supply so reach out to your sales rep today and get some information
on our current availability.