Costa Rica Don Oscar Aguacates

This lot was produced at a family run micro-mill, "Don Oscar", in the Tarrazu valley. This area is part of the Talamanca Sierra highlands, with peaks reaching as high as 3000 meters. It's an ideal micro-region and climate for growing coffee with rich volcanic soil, great altitude, and is shaded from the hot afternoon suns by mountain peaks. The farm is run by brothers Horacio "Tacho" and Alejandro Solis, and the name "Don Oscar" is in honor of their late father, Oscar Solis, who began farming on this land. Oscar is also the cousin of Roger Solis, who owns La Casona mill down the road (who we also buy). Their farm is broken into 40 different plots, this lot being "Aguacates", which sits around 1800 meters and is planted in a mix of Catuai and Caturra. They produce mechanically washed coffee, which is fairly standard in Costa Rica. In this case, they are running a Penagos brand mechanical demucilager that uses very little water to remove most of the coffee cherry fruit, forgoing the fermentation stage altogether. The coffee is then laid to dry outside in the sun on raised beds, often finished off in a mechanical dryer that they use the parchment that is removed from green coffee to fuel. We paid the brothers another visit this past harvest (2025), and were impressed by how organized it is, from their meticulous farm maintainance schedule run by Tacho, to Alejandro's managing of the coffee at their mill, and to making sure their employees are taken care of. The latter is something they are very proud of, registering each and every employee, and offering health insurance to permanent workers.