Crown Jewel Costa Rica Santa Maria De Dota El Vapor Carbon Neutral Natural CJ1535 – 30590 – SPOT RCWHSE

taste

Taste Analysis by Chris Kornman 

One of our seasonal mainstays, we’ve come to rely on the decadence of flavor in CoopeDota’s El Vapor selection year after year. This season’s coffee is anchored in rich and layered flavors like chocolate, cherry and plum. It is noticeably less wine-like than our 2022 selection from the same farm group, and offers especially clean sweetness like honey, caramel, vanilla. 

Stone fruit notes dominate the word cloud visualization, which should give you a sense of the fact that this is a gentle, sweet natural process with a lot of cleanliness. Doris found the coffee easy to dial on her first roast on the Diedrich, offering candy-like sweetness and some strawberry flavors. 

This is a tried-and-true classic, one of our perennial favorites from Costa Rica and a great example of coffee that goes above and beyond, both in flavor and in its commitment to preserving the environment in which it is grown. 

source

Source Analysis by Chris Kornman 

El Vapor, “The Steam,” is a special selection of coffee from the heart of Costa Rica’s coffee lands, in the town of Santa Maria de Dota.  

Santa Maria is home to one of Costa Rica’s finest cooperatives, Coopedota. It is the world’s first certified carbon-neutral coffee exporter, but it’s much more than just a supplier with a great certification. The cooperative integrates social services and environmental protections while producing some of the highest quality coffee available in Costa Rica.   

CoopeDota’s farms stretch deep into central Costa Rica and while they produce a significant volume, they also are deeply invested in highlighting exceptional microlots. Coopedota provides members with educational opportunities in addition to access to wet and dry milling services, yet the outreach extends far beyond processing: coffee by-products are used to fuel the mechanical drying guardiolas and water use during processing is reduced by using eco-pulpers. The cooperative manages trash pickup in the city of Santa Maria de Dota and has been able to repurpose waste into renewable forms of energy. They also roast their own coffee and operate three cafes and a cupper/barista training center. 

green

Green Analysis by Chris Kornman 

Great looking green coffee here, with an incredibly sweet and fruity fragrance. The green is sorted to 16+ with the majority falling into screens 17-18, so fairly large and a little above typical Central American standards. The coffee also boasts uncommonly high density and spectacular moisture figures, indicating good sorting and drying practices. 

El Vapor is comprised of the classic Central American combination of two short-stature cultivars: Caturra and its hybrid offspring, Catuaí. Caturra is a single-gene mutation of Bourbon, first reported in 1937 in Brazil, along the border of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, while Catuaí springs from a Brazilian cross of Mundo Novo (a spontaneous Bourbon-Typica hybrid) with Yellow Caturra. It was developed in the 1940s but not released into the public domain until 1970s. It retains the short stature of its Caturra heritage. The small size allows for dense planting and high per-hectare yields. 

diedrich ir-5

Diedrich IR-5 Analysis by Doris Garrido 

El Vapor is a natural coffee from Costa Rica that, in the last couple of years, has a distinct flavor that’s easy to recognize because of its funkiness; this harvest I found that flavor cleaner.  

As for the natural fermentation process, it is normal to have the funky note. On this coffee I found it particular and easy to recognize, but then I learned that it was just part of the harvest year. Also, something to notice this year on the green grading is the higher density reading. The moisture on the other hand looks normal to average. 

This is dense coffee, natural process, mostly between 17 and 18 screen size. The first roast of the day, on a summer day, that starts in an extra hot drum added to the variables that I used to build the roast, which was 5.5lb. on a 5 kilo Diedrich starting with 50% air at 411°F. I let the temperature drop for a minute, waiting until it was getting closer to turning point to add the gas. I added 70% and marked turning point at 184.9°F.  

I wanted this Costa Rica to roast in a little more than 9 minutes and decide to keep the 50% air for the rest of the roast, maintaining the gas at 70% till I passed the color change. I then dropped the gas first to 45% at 313F, and a few seconds later to 30%. I was able to spend 4 minutes in Maillard, hitting the first crack at 384.7°F. 1:29 minutes of post-development and 402.3°F of end temperature rounded out the roast.  

A sweet strawberry and chocolate presided on the cupping table; candy-like, dried cherry, and maple syrup. The coffee developed just in the right way, with the right amount of winey notes letting the coffee show all the berries. Soon this coffee will be our next espresso offer here at the Crown and I will be pleased to move it to the Loring roaster and find out how the air makes its magic.  

aillio bullet r1

Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Evan Gilman 

Unless otherwise noted, we use both the roast.world site and Artisan software to document our roasts on the Bullet. You can find our roast documentation below, by searching on roast.world, or by clicking on the Artisan links below.  

Generally, we have good results starting our 500g roasts with 428F preheating, P6 power, F2 fan, and d6 drum speed. Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing! 

Like an old friend, this unabashedly natural selection from Coopedota shows up every year. I will consistently recommend this coffee to home roasters looking for a strong fruity vibe since it has never disappointed. This year’s may perhaps be a bit less winey that years past, but the jammy strawberry notes are here to stay. With that in mind, I tried my friend Jen Apodaca’s old trick of extending Maillard to really emphasize the fruit, or “Pump up the Jam” as Philomena Cunk would have it.  

To that end, I started with a medium-high charge temperature of 446F, P6 power, and F2 fan. I kept this up until peak rate of change occurred, then boosted the heat to P8 for a short bit while increasing fan speed to F3. I then returned to P6 for the remainder of the roast, increasing fan speed to F4 at 350F / 6:05 to really slow the roast down through the beginnings of first crack. At crack, I used F5 and then F6 (wow) to really pull any smoke through the chamber and slow my roast down after crack. 

The result on the cupping table was just what I expected: phenomenal jamminess, mountain strawberry, mulberry, limeade acidity, baker’s chocolate finish, and a touch of nostalgic fruit leather to really make this feel like an after-school snack. Since this is such a consistent appearance on our menu, I was happy to find no suprises, and delighted to revel in the flavors of a coffee that’s just like an old friend. This will be excellent as espresso, and just as satisfying on drip. 

If you’re looking for a brighter touch to this coffee, you could take it a little faster, but my suggestion is to take it low and slow through Maillard for a soft and jammy sugar bomb.  

Follow along with my roast here on roast.world:
https://roast.world/@egilman/roasts/pfynOPVClXnoXJFtBgFqu 

ikawa pro v3

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Our current Ikawa practice compares two sample roast profiles, originally designed for different densities of green coffee. The two roasts differ slightly in total length, charge temperature, and time spent between color change in first crack. You can learn more about the profiles here. 

Costa Rica is known for its lush forests and biodiversity, and the diversity of the land feels reflected in the flavors we can achieve from this coffee. This farm is in Santa María de Dota, which is adjacent to Los Quetzales National Park located in the center of the country. When this coffee landed on our cupping table the team got notes of apple skin, dried strawberry, kiwi, honeydew, orange juice, and peaches. Loaded with flavor and layers of complexity from a spectrum of fruits, the profile allows this coffee to transform into these two roast profiles.  

The low density (LD) roast was up first, and Doris and I got the same green apple hard candy along with acai, dark berries, and a slight vinegar note. The cup had an interesting contrast of an incredibly round body and crisp mouthfeel. The high density (HD) had notes of caramel, dry fruits, raisin, strawberry, and basil but leaned a little toasty and had some of that natural wine funk to it.  

Doris and I preferred the LD roast, we really enjoyed how clean this roast was paired with the lush mouthfeel and crisp notes. The range of flavors gives so much to explore here and if you are looking for a cleaner crisp natural coffee this Costa Rica can do that — but it can also get a little crazy if you lean towards that high heat from our HD profile. Due to some of the toasty notes from the HD profile, an extra careful eye when roasting this coffee could go a long way. Happy roasting!  

You can roast your own by linking to our profiles in the Ikawa Pro app here: 

Roast 1: Low Density Sample Roast 

Roast 2: High Density Sample Roast   

brew

Brew Analysis by Joshua Wismans 

Another exceptional coffee from the legendary CoopeDota in Costa Rica. The investment they make into providing education and resources to their members is something you can literally taste. El Vapor is a sweet, rich natural that satisfies those who are looking for a coffee bursting with fruit, while maintaining enough cleanliness to keep it from being boozy.

This coffee was a bit less soluble than most naturals we generally brew here at The Crown. Even at relatively fine grind settings we found the TDS remained lower, hovering around 1.25. Our first brew was on an F70, and utilized a fine grind with a low dose. While the cherry and honey notes were delicious, we were hoping for a bit more cleanliness and pop.

Our second brew brought up our dose slightly and our grind size down. With the low TDS, we were trying to bring more out of the coffee. We also switched to the V60 to help bring clarity to the cup. This brew brought out more of the stonefruit and sweetness we were hoping to finesse out of this coffee, but we still believed there to be more to unlock. 

Going for broke, we tried two more experimental approaches pushing both the dose upward and the grind even finer, utilizing the V60 for both brews. We found the brew with the exceptionally large dose of 23g of coffee to 300g of water to be our favorite. Notes of apple, berry, and toffee all came into their own. The brew with the more common ratio but extra fine grind wasn’t quite as exciting. 

For this coffee, we recommend keeping your grind finer and pushing the dose upward to counteract the less soluble nature of this coffee. This will help those fruit flavors really pop. The V60 will bring clarity to the brew.

espresso

Espresso Analysis by MJ Smith 

Recipe 1: 17.5g dose, 39.8g yield, 34 seconds
Recipe 2: 18.5g dose, 40.5g yield, 28 seconds 

This coffee from CoopeDota in Costa Rica is a wild one! It had some punchy fruitiness and bright citrusy notes, as well as a lot of complexity in the background. I will admit that it was a little difficult to wrangle in as an espresso due to that complexity, but the recipes I’m going to discuss were super enjoyable all the same. Overall, you can expect notes of tart berries, citrus, cacao, and sweet botanicals.  

Up first, we’ve got a 17.5g dose, 39.8g yield, and a pull time of 34 seconds. I wanted to start out with a slightly lower dose to see just how much I could stretch this coffee out. My first few attempts landed me with some faster pull times, which proved to be a little more tangy than sweet, but I could tell that I was onto something. The shot with the 34 second brew time allowed for a little more sweetness to come through, which turned out to be really enjoyable. Right off the bat, we got a mouthful of berries and kiwi, rounded out with some honey graham cracker and chocolatey sweetness, with just a tiny bit of vermouth-like botanicals.  

For my next dial, I increased the dose and yield to 18.5g in, 40.5g out, which pulled at 28 seconds. This shot was really clean and fruity, with a pleasant brightness, my favorite of the bunch. We picked up notes of blueberry, hibiscus, orange, caramelized sugar, and baking spices, with a splash of effervescent prosecco. This shot was giving off pure summertime vibes! 

Overall, while I was able to get some tasty shots out of this coffee, I think I could be much better suited elsewhere on the bar such as pour-over or cold brew. I think its complexity made it a little harder to dial in and not quite as user-friendly. However, if you’re up for the challenge, this coffee makes for a really unique espresso which would definitely turn some heads! I recommend starting out with a dose somewhere in the lower range, and a yield on the slightly higher side. Enjoy!