Cafetalera Herbazu is a well-known farm in the West Valley region, the Lourdes de Naranjo area to be exact. It is one of the early pioneers in independent, small mill coffee farms, the work of the Barrantes family. They grow a type of Villa Sarchi cultivar that they have used for so long, it has become their own mutation in a way. It's quite a short plant (Villa Sarchi is a dwarf mutation of Bourbon, as is Caturra). The mill and drying patios are right in the center of the farm, which ranges from 1550 to 1700 meters. I have been there a couple times and have always been impressed with how efficient and neat the mill looks, as well as the trees, which are kept well-pruned and short. They don't employ much shade on the farm, and their particular type of Villa Sarchi seems adapted to this exposure. But it is a proven winner, with a consistently bright, dynamic, clean cup flavor, and Herbazu won 4th place in the 2009 Cup of Excellence! Sadly, the crop is very small this year at the farm, due to climate and rainfall patterns this past year. But even from the earliest samples I cupped of this '10 crop while in CR, the cup quality has been superb. We have offered the pulp natural "honey" coffees from Herbazu: This lot is their wet-process style estate grade, which is a forced demucilage process (as opposed to traditional fermentation wet-process).

The result is a classic, citric Costa Rica flavor profile, vividly bright, crisp and clean. The fragrance of the dry coffee grounds is full of honey, refined toffee sweetness, and citrus blossom accents. The wet aroma has dynamic orange and Meyer lemon notes, with a graham cracker scent as well, malty and honeyed. The cup is dynamically bright, with fresh-squeezed lemon juice adding a high-note zing to the cup, while there is a tenor-level flavor of honey, caramel and barley sugar. It's that aspect, the fact that there is such excellent bright acidity (meaning the high flavor notes, not the stuff that hurts your stomach), as well as well-defined sweetness, that makes Herbazu my choice for a take-home, weekend coffee! I like the City+ roast level, but it might be too bright for some folks. In the slightly darker roasts levels (FC, FC+) a berry note emerges, so adding a bit more roast time to tone down the coffee a bit is always an option. It also balances out with more rest (48+ hours) and the body improves. This is an amazing cup, with a sour-and-sweet polarity that makes it a very exciting tasting experience. I find it is very versatile, and works anywhere from City roast, through the middle ranges, and into 2nd crack, if you are so inclined.

Los Crestones is an area of unique rocky outcroppings in the area of the Chirripó National Park. It is also a region of coffee production adjacent to the parklands, and this lot was a late harvest selection from 1600-1700 meters. This is a small lot, a really new coffee region that we have never offered before. It might be surprising to some to note how we received this lot. I rejected a Crestones offering last year with no complaint except that I found it boring and it didn't inspire many descriptors. I can't deal with a coffee like that. Any mill, especially a good one, that separates their lots by producer, by coffee plot, or by micro regions within their growing areas, is going to have variable qualities. Not every coffee can be a winner, even if you do everything right; harvest well, select ripe cherry, process and dry correctly, etc. You will maximize quality for each respective lot, but you can't elevate it beyond the threshold of the coffee shrub's potential, it's health, the soil and microclimate, the organic input factor, and all the other agricultural variables. Anyway, Finca Alaska is one farm that is part of the Los Crestones group, who share a micro mill but each farm processes their coffees separately. Finca Alaska is actually three small farms, all owned by Asdrubal Acuña Hernández, one of the founding members of the group. This lot comes from a small 1650-1750 meter area, and it was completely different than what we rejected in 2009; this is so sweet and bright! The dry fragrance at lighter roast levels has a "jam on toast" scent; sweet grain, currant jammy note, as well as honey. I was really surprised by the sweet aromatics here; stone fruit notes, peach and apricot, come through in the cup as well. Clean and bright, buttery, caramel and cane sugar sweetness, toffee, hazelnut, cleanly disappearing; these are my notes for the City-City+ roast of Finca Alaska. With a good 48 hours of rest after roasting, the lightest levels were my favorite: intensely bright and fruited. The body is light, but has a good density to it, giving the coffee some good viscosity on the palate. It is not a super complex coffee, and fades elegantly, though rather fast, on the palate. I like that: Sometimes you don't want a coffee that will hang around in your mouth for a half hour after drinking it. Sometimes it's nice to have a break from crazy dry-process fruit bomb lots, or exotic leathery-hidey Yemeni coffees. Crestones is like pushing the reset button, to recall what a really clean, delicate, bright, mild, sweet cup of coffee actually tastes like.

San Marcos is the name of a micro-mill in Tarrazu, run by Jorge Gutierrez. It is just outside the town of San Marcos de Tarrazu, in the Tarrazu valley proper. While the mill is a new Penagos type system and will take coffee from cherry to export-ready green coffee, Jorge has years and years of experience as a member of the local coffee cooperative. But the fact is, coop membership has not allowed many of the farmers to actually get ahead in their coffee business, since they trade their coffee cherry to the coop mill, rather than a more valuable finished product. Given that building a micro mill is a large investment for a farmer, but ultimately he will receive the value of a finished, exportable product, not a raw material. The fact is, the Gutierrez family has some fantastic farms: This coffee is from specific farms that are side by side, San Luis and San Pedro, located at 1700-1750 meters altitude. They are planted in a mix of Caturra and Catuai Rojo cultivars, and the total land is 6 manzanas (about 4 hectares or nearly 10 acres).

This San Pedro/San Luis lot has a potent dry fragrance from the ground coffee; cocoa, chocolate-almond biscotti, hazelnut. They sound like mid-range muted roast tones, but the way they are manifested in this cup, it's almost aggressive. The wet aroma is actually a little less potent, but has a nice chocolate-covered raisin scent, and a hint of cherries. The cup flavors have that classic Tarrazu origin character, a balance of brightness, bittersweet chocolate, fruit and citrus. Cocoa-powder and light fudge is paired with more piquant apple and orange brightness. The aftertaste lingers as a zesty citrus acidic snap, with sweetness of honey, and soft chocolate notes elegantly disappearing. The warming sensations of chocolate, braced by brightness and balanced with sweet sapid tastes make this a very pleasurable cup. It's not exotic, but if you wonder why Costa Rica has a reputation for fine coffee, this San Marcos lot should provide a good object lesson.