What Does Costa Rica Tank Manor Estate Taste Like & How to Brew Villa Sarchi Coffee

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee
Ingredients: House-roasted
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Coffee Bean Raw/Cooked Degree: Roasted coffee beans
Contains Sugar: Sugar-free
Origin: Costa Rica
Roasting Degree: Medium roast

Villa Sarchi

Villa Sarchi originated in Costa Rica and is a variety of Typica. Like Typica, the angle between its branches and the trunk is 60 degrees, and its leaves are bronze-colored. It performs particularly well at high altitude and resists wind strongly. It can also grow in poor soil, though it does better under shade trees. The most striking feature of its flavor is an excellent sweetness paired with a wonderful acidity.

Costa Rica West Valley Monte Solis El Tanque Villa Sarchi Natural

Country: Costa Rica

Grade: SHB

Region: Central Valley

Roasting Degree: Medium roast

Processing Method: Natural processing

Variety: Villa Sarchi

Estate: El Tanque Estate

Flavor: Lime, caramel, nuts

Costa Rica's premium beans are graded "Strictly Hard Bean" (SHB), followed by Hard Bean (HB) and Semi-Hard Bean (SH) in descending quality, and this grading doubles as the national classification system. Strictly Hard Beans are grown above 1500 meters, and altitude has long stood in for coffee quality: higher means better. A large drop in elevation also brings abundant rainfall, which benefits the trees, and low night temperatures at altitude slow the tree's growth so the cherries absorb more nutrients and develop richer flavors.

Pour-Over Villa Sarchi

15g of coffee, medium grind (ground on a Fuji ghost tooth burr grinder at setting #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water and steam for 27 seconds, then pour to 105g and stop. Wait until the water level in the bed drops to half before pouring again. Pour slowly until the total reaches 225g. Discard the tail end. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Growing Regions and Processing

The three best-known growing regions are Tarrazú, south of the capital San José, along with the Central Valley and the Western Valley. Natural processing is a very traditional method that uses minimal resources, but too many factors sit outside the producer's control, which makes doing it well extremely difficult. Francisca introduced a number of innovations, among them a Brix meter of the kind commonly found in the wine industry to measure the sugar content of the fruit. She uses Brix readings to decide the best harvest time and processing route, and only cherries above 20% sweetness go to natural processing. For comparison, general fruit Brix values run about 14 for apples, 12 for lemons and 18 for passion fruit, while Lahas's coffee cherries can reach 21-22%. Lahas produces not only natural and honey-processed beans but washed beans as well, and the farm grows Caturra, Catuai and Villa Sarchi, along with small quantities of Kenyan varieties such as SL28 and Obata.

Natural Processing

Natural processing is labor-intensive. Hand-picked, high-sugar cherries are first laid on African raised beds to sun-dry for about 10 days, then moved into greenhouse structures covered with plastic sheeting, which creates a more direct transfer of heat energy for the remaining dry, until moisture content reaches 11.5%. Slow drying lets the green beans develop more sweetness from within, but it also demands careful attention and precise calculation of how often to turn the fruit. When the bright red cherries finally turn black and give off aromas of fruit cake, caramel and even sherry, the process is finished.

Flavor Profile

Flavor: Lime, caramel, nuts

Mouthfeel: Excellent sweetness, gentle fruit acidity, round and full-bodied, with a long-lasting aftertaste

What a Brix Meter Changes in the Field

Refractometers like the Brix meter are common equipment in wine, but applying one to coffee introduces a measurable standard where producers previously relied on color and feel. Cherries are sampled before picking, and only fruit above the threshold is set aside for natural processing, which is why a well-made natural lot can taste clean instead of muddy. The reading also decides timing: fruit that is not yet sweet enough is left on the tree or routed to the washed line, and fruit that is past its peak is separated before it can contribute a fermented defect. That single change explains much of the difference between modern Costa Rican naturals and the inconsistent examples of a generation ago.

Reading the Cup

The Villa Sarchi in this lot shows what the combination of variety and method can produce. The variety supplies the sweetness and the structure, with a bright, well-defined acidity, while the slow covered dry layers in the lime and caramel notes and rounds off the texture. The cup finishes on nuts rather than fruit, which keeps the whole thing grounded. It is a coffee that rewards brewing at 88-89°C: warmer water flattens the lime and pushes the finish toward bitterness, while cooler water leaves the caramel undeveloped and the body thin.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Natural processing is the thread that connects this Villa Sarchi to a whole set of coffees, and FrontStreet Coffee roasts several that show how far the method can be pushed. FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry is a good place to start: only fully ripe cherries are selected and spread on raised beds away from the ground to protect them from insects, dust and bacteria, then turned at irregular intervals so they dry evenly rather than scorching on one side. Over 27 to 30 days of clear weather the fruit sugars work their way inward, and after a medium-light roast the result carries elegant florals and bright acidity alongside tropical fruit, a full fermented character and notable sweetness. FrontStreet Coffee Natural Guifei goes further still, drying cherries on raised beds for 21 days with regular turning and hand removal of moldy or defective fruit every few days, which after a light-medium roast yields a faint fermented wine aroma, florals, citrus and mango, honey sweetness, a cocoa note and a touch of spice on a thick, persistent body.

Two more coffees round out the picture. FrontStreet Coffee 2013 Yunnan Typica is grown on our own estate, where the dry and rainy seasons rather than four distinct seasons mean the fruit ripens under clear skies, so the cherries are dried whole and the cup shows a nutty base with balanced sweetness and acidity, berry-like acidity over apricot, brown sugar and a light tea note. FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen Estate takes the opposite approach to drying, spreading the fruit on racks with constant turning and then finishing mechanically to reach the right moisture, which stabilizes the beans and extends their shelf life; the cup is fresh sugarcane and black tea with a soft fruit sweetness, nuttiness, balanced gentle acidity, very little bitterness and a bright chocolate finish. If you want the most intense version of the style, FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian double anaerobic natural seals whole cherries in tanks under carbon dioxide before drying, slowing the breakdown of sugars and driving up both sweetness and texture, and delivers passion fruit, apricot, preserved fruit, grape and almond.