Willow (Costa Rican)

This coffee comes from Hacienda Miramonte, a family farm in Naranjo, Alajuela, up in Costa Rica’s West Valley. It started in 1917 when Lucila Duval de Morales bought land and planted coffee—unusual for a woman at the time—and the family’s been running it ever since. Her great-grandson Ricardo handles the farm now, while his daughter Viviana runs the Willows brand that gets it over here. The name Willows comes from the old metal tokens pickers used to get paid with back in the day. The farm sits around 1,200–1,300 meters, which is high enough for the beans to grow slowly and dense in the volcanic soil under shade trees.

The bag is a Fancy SHB EP green coffee from the 2025/2026 crop. SHB means Strictly Hard Bean, the Costa Rican grade for coffee grown at altitude (generally 1,200 meters and up), and EP means European Preparation—extra hand-sorting to remove defects. They hand-pick the cherries and process them the traditional washed way most Costa Rican coffee is made, then dry and mill them carefully. The farm’s stayed family-run for over a century and carries certifications like Rainforest Alliance.

In the cup it’s a clean, structured Costa Rican classic— but in this case it's more of a subtle floral and fruit tones and mostly honeyed sweetness and a soft cocoa or caramel mid-palate. A complex cup. Medium body, silky texture, and a clean lingering finish without any muddiness or heavy ferment. It’s the kind of high-grown SHB specialty folks reach for when they want balance and clarity rather than wild fruit bombs from natural-process lots.