Bags 10
Warehouses Oakland
Producers members of Café de Altura de San Ramón Especial S.A.
1100 masl
Catuai, Caturra
Volcanic loam
San Rafael de San Ramón, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Fully washed and dried in the sun and mechanical driers
November – February
Conventional
Sourcing Details
It's pretty special when a large cooperative, with amazing infrastructure built for the collective efforts of many farmers promotes the collective work of producers featuring a blend such as the San Ramon Peaberry Especial. This is the case of Café de Altura de San Ramón Especial S.A., which owns and operates a state-of-the-art mill designed to receive cherries from small farms and add meticulous processing.
Processing Detail
Cafe de Altura de San Ramon, which owns and operates a state-of-the-art mill designed to receive cherries from many small farms and consistently process this well-balanced regional blend. Cherries are placed in a large tank with water to remove the less dense and damaged beans which float. Next, the cherries are depulped and passed through a demucilager that mechanically strips the mucilage from the beans.
All of this is done with recycled water. The washed beans move down from the wet mill through a long, elevated conveyor belt into a machine that uses forced air to shed any remaining water. The coffee then passes through a series of dryers to gently reduce the moisture to 11 percent. This happens in a matter of just over 72 hours (about 3 days), which seems fast until you stop to consider that not a minute is wasted in the process. Then, the coffee is rested for at least a month in silos. After resting, it is milled for export with another equally impressive series of machines dedicated to dehulling and sorting green beans by weight and color. With every detail of the post-harvest operation covered, producers can turn their full attention to farm management practices with a special emphasis on sustainable practices.