Costa Rica – Tarrazu Cerro De la Cruz

ORIGIN: San Marcos, Tarrazú

ROAST LEVEL: Medium

TASTING NOTES: brisk black tea, torched sugar, red raisin

FARM NOTES: This microlot is a blend of coffees from the various plots managed by Cesar Esquivel at Cerro La Cruz, a relatively new micromill that he has built in Tarrazu. This particular lot 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 the same machinery used to produce honeys. A simple adjustment to the demucilager affects how much fruit is left intact after depulping. The more fruit, the wilder the cup flavors. This lot was processed as what's referred to as "White Honey" in Costa Rica, which just means they remove as much fruit as possible without scoring the seed. The resulting cup is a close approximation to "fully washed", fermented coffee, with clean cup flavors, and acidity that sparkles. The city of San Marcos is in the Talamanca Sierra highlands, with peaks reaching as high as 3000 meters. It's an ideal micro-region and climate for growing coffee with rich volcanic soil, great altitude, and is shaded from the hot afternoon suns by mountain peaks. The farms surrounding the Cerro La Cruz mill top out around 1900 meters above sea level.

PROCESSING: Washed

DRYING METHOD: Patio Sun-Dried

ELEVATION: 1900 MASL

CULTIVAR: Catuai

**Photo Credits: Sweet Marias**