Costa Rica Imperio Rojo 18

Imperio Rojo 18 comes from producer José Elandio Alvarado and his Imperio Rojo micromill in La Piedra de Rivas, within Costa Rica's Chirripó coffee-growing region. Here, José's farms climb from roughly 1,700 to just over 2,000 meters above sea level, where elevation and cooler mountain conditions contribute to the slow development of coffee cherry.

José's path into specialty coffee is one built through persistence. After spending ten years working in the United States, he returned to Costa Rica with the goal of establishing his own coffee farm. His first property, El Higuerón, was planted primarily with Catuai, a variety chosen for its productivity as well as its potential for quality. As the project developed, José expanded his farming and processing work, experimenting with new varieties and processing techniques while building Imperio Rojo into a micromill capable of overseeing coffee from harvest through drying.

Lot 18 is a washed Catuai, a combination that places the emphasis on the coffee itself rather than an intensive fermentation or processing technique. Catuai has long been an important variety in Costa Rican coffee production, and at Imperio Rojo it is planted across some of the farm's dramatic high-elevation terrain.

What makes this coffee compelling to us is the structure behind it. Imperio Rojo represents the kind of producer-led model that has helped define modern Costa Rican specialty coffee: a farmer taking greater control over processing, lot separation, quality, and ultimately how their coffee reaches the market. Rather than delivering cherry into a larger system and allowing that identity to disappear, the micromill gives José the ability to preserve the connection between his farms, his decisions, and the finished coffee.

Imperio Rojo 18 is ultimately a coffee about that connection—a single variety, a washed process, a distinct place, and a producer continuing to refine his work from one harvest to the next.