Costa Rica Villa Sarchi Natural – Finca Las Mercedes

Villa Sarchi Natural is about as Costa Rican as coffee gets. This compact Bourbon mutation was discovered in the hills of Sarchí and never left home. It's the quiet backbone of Costa Rican coffee, and a parent of Obata and San Isidro 48. Mela Gamboa grows it in Mela's Garden at Finca Las Mercedes in Tarrazú, 1,800 meters up, and dries it slowly in the sun on raised beds. The cup is rich and bright, with notes of dark cherry, tart pomegranate, and a smooth cocoa finish.

• Certifications: Direct-Trade Partnership
• Flavor Notes: Cherry, Pomegranate, and Cocoa
• Varietal: Villa Sarchi (Bourbon mutation)
• Processing: Natural Process
• Roast: Light Roast
• Drying: Sun-Dried on African Raised Beds
• Farm: Finca Las Mercedes (Mela Gamboa), San Marcos, Tarrazú
• Altitude: 5,900 Feet (1,800 m)
• Tags: Single Origin Coffee · Microlot · Mela's Garden Collection

Villa Sarchi: Born in the Hills of Sarchí

In the 1950s, coffee growers in Sarchí, Alajuela noticed a small, compact Bourbon plant growing in their fields. That natural dwarf mutation became Villa Sarchi. It's wind-hardy, well suited to high elevations, and it went on to parent the Sarchimor line behind Obata and San Isidro 48. Family line: Bourbon → dwarf mutation → Villa Sarchi.

Part of Mela's Varietal Garden

Mela planted Villa Sarchi about eight years ago as one of the first varieties in her varietal garden, a program built to produce exclusive microlots with high cup-quality potential. Those original plants are still producing. With lots this small, the team can focus on quality and cup profile rather than volume.

Regenerative Farming, Natural Process

At Finca Las Mercedes, coffee shares the land with avocado, citrus, guava, plantain, banana, and ornamental and shade trees. It's a diverse, regenerative system rather than a monoculture. Villa Sarchi is processed natural and dried slowly and completely under the sun on African raised beds, which deepens its cherry and pomegranate fruit and rounds it out with cocoa.