Costa Rica Tarrazú Cerro La Cruz

The Cerro La Cruz micro mill was built by Caesar Esquivel, along with his brother Jason, and their father, Rolando. The family farm surrounding the mill has been in the family since 1960, however,  they used to deliver their coffee to the local cooperative until erecting Cerro Alto 8 years ago. We visited the Esquivel family last year, and were surprised by the small size of their milling equipment, even by Costa Rican "micro mill" standards. They aren't producing a lot of coffee though, so the mill suits their capacity just fine. They have 10 different small plots of coffee scattered around the surrounding mountainside where they live. The mill itself sits at 1600 meters above sea level, and the coffee pushes up to around 1800. This particular lot is from the plot "El Moca", planted in Caturra and Catuaí. It is mechanically washed, which means that in stead of using fermentation to remove the sticky fruit after depulping, they strip both cherry and fruit away using a mechanical demucilager equipment (it's referred to as "White Honey" in Costa Rica). The resulting cup is a close approximation to "fully washed", fermented coffee, with clean cup flavors, and acidity that sparkles. There is a bit more chaff produced during roasting than a fully washed coffee, but nowhere near the amount of dry process or honey process coffees. The coffee also presents darker during the roasting process, which is something to pay attention to when judging roast level, as they are often slightly lighter than they appear.