Costa Rica - Santa Rosa 1900 "Washed Red Catuai"

Flavour notes: Raisins, Yellow plums, Red Berries

This Red Catuai is processed as a “reposado” - the coffee cherries are rested in big plastic barrels for 48 hours before being processed as white honey. This leaves us with a coffee that taste absolutely incredible. Packed with notes of cherries, orange, raspberries and milk chocolate and yet so elegant.

Producer: Macho & Herberth Naranjo

Farm: Finca Macho - Santa Rosa 1900

Origin: Santa Rosa de Leon Cortes, Tarrazu – Costa Rica

Altitude: 1900–2000 masl

Cultivar: Red Catuai

Process: Double fully washed

Harvest: Jan – april

In 2007 Efrain “Macho” Naranjo bought his first piece of land on the mountain slopes of Santa Rosa de Leon Cortes in Tarrazu, Costa Rica. The first few years he worked between 18-20 hours per day convinced that he could create something magical on his land. After a few hard years he was able to buy more land and now his farm Santa Rosa 1900 has 28 hectares planted with all kinds of coffee varieties. He runs the farm together with his two sons – Herberth and Kevin.

The micro mill is situated at 1900 meters above sea level and the land stretches up to 2000 meters, which makes it one of the most elevated in Costa Rica.

Macho is mainly growing Caturra, Villa Sarchi and Red Catuai at the farm but he also has smaller plots of land where he is growing alternative varieties like SL28, Tipica, Moka, Geisha to name a few. The coffee trees grow in steep slopes with a lot of natural shade vegetation. Avocado, citrus and banana trees have been planted to give more shade and the produce from the shade trees also works as an extra income throughout the year.

The cherries are carefully hand picked and then sorted at the washing station before being processed. The coffee is separated into day lots. This means that every lot can be traced back to when it was picked and of course how big the lot was.

The coffees are processed in different ways depending on variety and lot size. After the coffee has been processed it is dried on raised beds. The drying process is slow thanks to the rather cool and ever-changing weather in the mountain passes of Tarrazu and as average the coffee is dried for 16-18 days. Macho, Herberth and Kevin drive 2.5 hours to San José each week during the harvest to cup their coffees so that they can evaluate processing methods etc.

The coffee is sorted several times. The “Oliver” which is a machine that shakes the beans into different funnels depending on weight/density does the last sorting. Macho is very careful during all the stages of the production. He knows that attention to detail matters when it comes to producing coffee of the highest quality and the micro mill is kept meticulously clean at all times.

We have been working with Herberth and his family since 2011 and each year they have delivered stunning complex coffees. When we visit them each season it feels like coming home to see family.

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