Source Analysis by Charlie Habegger with Chris Kornman
This natural process microlot comes to us from a family farm only four hectares in size, whose coffee is processed by a local specialty exporter. In the cup the coffee is clean and soft with sugared hazelnut, chocolate, raisin, and orange blossom.
This is our first year working with Bryan Rivera’s coffee as a distinctive microlot, and its first appearance as a Crown Jewel on our menu.
Finca Santa Rosa & Café De Altura de San Ramón Especial
Bryan Rivera inherited two hectares of land from the previous generation of his family. With time, he purchased another two hectares adjacent to the property. Four hectares in total may seem small, but thanks to Costa Rica’s well-equipped cooperatives, amenities for members like Bryan include state of the art processing infrastructure and rigorous quality analysis to help small farms’ coffees achieve their best. In addition to family members’ contributions to harvest work, Bryan employs 10 laborers each year for picking, which is a concentrated effort: harvest at Finca Santa Rosa only lasts about 8 weeks.
Bryan is a member of Café de Altura de San Ramón Especial, a producer organization based in San Ramon, Alajuela, with a membership of over 3,800 farmers. The group started in 2004 and produces a huge variety of qualities. Small volume, excellent naturals like this one are a regular feature.
To produce this microlot, cherry from Bryan’s farm was transported to San Ramon’s central processing plant, where it was washed clean to eliminate any impurities on the exterior. Afterward, the cherry is transferred to drying greenhouses, where the drying process takes almost an entire month thanks to lower ambient temperatures and soft, even airflow inside the structures. Once the cherry reaches 10.5% humidity, it’s moved to storage for a conditioning rest of at least six weeks, to allow the water content to stabilize and flavors to develop further.
Costa Rica, Tarrazú, and Alajuela
Costa Rica’s history with coffee dates to the late 18th century, with seedlings brought from Cuba and Jamaica. After years of repackaging as Panamanian or Chilean, a shipment direct to England caught international attention and secured British investment which included funding for European study. Revenue funded the country’s first railroads and gave rise to a coffee elite.
An export tax funds ICAFE, est. 1933, which invests in scientific research, marketing, industry oversight, and provides a guarantee of farmgate pricing based on the FOB price, unique among these types of organizations. ICAFE developed some of the country’s modern hybrid cultivars, including Costa Rica 95 and ICAFE 95, catimors.
The most famous coffee producing regions are known to American buyers as Tarrazú (San José Province, in the center of the country), where Bryan Rivera’s farm is located, and the West Valley (aka Alajuela, in the northwest bordering Nicaragua) where the coffee was processed at Café de Altura de San Ramón.
