Costa Rica Zarcero Monte Brisas Cassiopea

The Cassiopea variety (also spelled "Cassiopeia" and "Casiopea") is a hybrid of Caturra and Ethiopia landrace that's becoming a much more common site in Central America. It was designed as part of an "F1" hybrid program, aimed at creating new varieties with climate resistance and high cup potential by crossing genetically distinct varieties. One of the main disctinctions of an F1 hybrid, is that farmers can't propogate new plants from the seeds of an F1 Shrub, and must buy starts that can be quite costly for many small holders. This 20 bag lot of Cassiopea is from El Danto farm, located in Zarcero, part of Costa Rica's famed West Valley growing region. The farm sits around 1750 meters, and is also planted in other cultivars as well (We recently ran out of a Villa Sarchi lot). The coffee is processed at their Monte Brisas mill, an impressive, well cared for, micro-mill that feels a bit like a museum with all of its meticulously maintained older machinery! The coffee is mechanically washed on a Desacafe machine and sun dried on raised beds adjacent to the wet mill. Leaving that fruit mucilage intact instead of washing it away is the hallmark of honey process coffee. This lot, however, is what some call "semi-washed", or "white honey", which is the Costa Rican equivalent of a fully washed coffee. The demucilager machine is calibrated to remove as much fruit as possible. Then the coffee is soaked for a short period to help wash away some of the remaining fruit. Without fermentation, there is still a very thin layer of fruit intact.