Costa Rica Shumava Black Honey Process Coffee Bean Flavor - What Are the Rich Nutty-Tasting Coffee Beans

Costa Rica Sumava de Lourdes Black Honey

Finca Sumava de Lourdes Caturra Black Honey

01 | Region Introduction

Coffee cultivation in Costa Rica began in 1779 when it was introduced from Cuba. It wasn't until 1820 that coffee was first exported. Currently, there are approximately 32,000 coffee farmers, with each farmer cultivating an average area of less than one hectare (10,000㎡). Costa Rica has a population of 4.1 million (as of 2006), with coffee cultivation covering 82,500 hectares and annual production of 1.7 million bags (60kg each). Domestic annual consumption reaches 380,000 bags, with an average per capita consumption of 5.5kg per year—higher than Japan's 4kg and significantly more than Taiwan's current average of just over 1kg.

Costa Rica was the first country in Central America to begin coffee cultivation, boasting a long history and a complete system from production to sales. Located in the Central American Isthmus, the country features numerous volcanoes and enjoys natural advantages of abundant sunshine and fertile land. The climate is harmoniously balanced by Pacific and Atlantic ocean currents and sea breezes, producing coffee with distinct local microclimate characteristics. In terms of both quality and quantity, Costa Rican coffee has consistently received worldwide recognition and is ranked among the world's high-quality coffees. Many towering volcanoes reach 2,000 meters in altitude, allowing coffee cherries to slowly mature in fertile volcanic ash soil and high-altitude cool environments, developing coffee beans with complete and rich flavors.

Coffee cultivation began in Costa Rica two hundred years ago, with the earliest planting sites located on the slopes of Poas and Barva volcanoes—what is now known as the Central Valley region. After years of development, Costa Rica now has eight major producing regions: Guanacastes, West Valley, Central Valley, Turrialba, Orosi, Tres Rios, Tarrazu, and Brunca.

According to ICO statistics, Costa Rica can produce approximately 1.6 million bags of Arabica coffee annually. Although production volume is lower than Central American countries like Guatemala and Honduras, its quality and price are significantly higher.

Costa Rica has two distinct seasons: the dry season from December to April, which coincides with coffee harvest time, and the rainy season from May to November. In recent years, many micro-processing mills have been established. Since they require only 5% of the water needed for traditional washed processing plants and don't require large water tanks and drying fields, the investment required is relatively much smaller. "Honey processed coffee" with low acidity, increased complexity, and rich sweet aroma has become a competitive target in the coffee industry in recent years. Costa Rican honey-processed coffee beans have performed excellently in major competitions, greatly enhancing the international reputation of various estates.

Sumava Estate

Costa Rica has seven coffee-producing regions, with Tarrazu, Central Valley, and West Valley being the three most famous and highest-quality regions. Finca Sumava de Lourdes is located in Costa Rica's West Valley region, near the city of Naranjo, at an altitude of 1,700 meters. The estate cultivates Villasarchi and Caturra varieties on 10 hectares, SL28 on 2 hectares, Geisha on 1 hectare, and other varieties. The estate is owned by Francisco Men and managed by Jose Ordonez, who leads a full-time work team. Besides cultivating diverse coffee varieties, the estate retains large areas of forest as wildlife habitat protection zones, making it one of Costa Rica's finest coffee estates.

Finca Sumava de Lourdes in Costa Rica is a relatively young estate. Francisco Mena, originally engaged in coffee trading business, purchased this land and preserved most of the original forest, developing only a small portion as coffee cultivation area to maintain the estate's natural ecological balance. The altitude of Sumava Estate ranges between 1,670-1,790 meters, in Costa Rica's other renowned region—the West Valley—featuring high temperature variations and fertile soil, making it extremely suitable for coffee cultivation.

Estate owner Francisco Mena introduced high-quality varieties that reached the top 13 in the Cup of Excellence, including the Bourbon mutation variety, Villasarchi. This is a precious variety developed through cross-breeding with Red Bourbon trees. It resists strong winds, thrives in high-altitude environments, and possesses excellent acidity with various fruit aromas. High sweetness, bright and delicate citrus acidity combined with deeper raisin and nut aromas result in high complexity and excellent balance.

Most of the estate is left as forest to maintain the natural environment. Considerable thought has been invested in estate management. Instead of traditional burning methods for broken wood, rotten wood, and weeds, the wood is shredded into fragments and mixed with organic fertilizer for use on the farm. From the El Chayote reserve in the West Valley, in the fertile volcanic soil of Poás, facing Pacific convection currents and humidity, plus significant day-night temperature differences and excellent microclimate, this small 1-kilometer radius area has produced four champion estates! Truly a place of outstanding natural and human excellence!

02 | Processing Method

Costa Rica Honey Processed Coffee Beans

The honey processing method, called Honey Process or Miel Process, produces what is known as Honey Coffee. Coffee plantations in Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, and other regions have adopted this processing method. So-called honey processing refers to the process of producing green beans by drying them in the sun while retaining the mucilage.

Estate owner Mena employs a unique sweet juice honey processing method, which he calls: sweet sugar process! The juice produced during coffee cherry processing is used to soak the parchment beans during processing. Because the cherry juice contains high sweetness and unique enzymes, the processed parchment beans contain richer flavors and very complex positive notes!

The typical harvest season is from January to April each year. Due to the estate's temperature of only 10-20°C, there are often just-ripe coffee cherries waiting to be picked in April! Simply put: processing methods that retain more mucilage result in coffee with richer final flavors and higher sweetness. Below is a flavor comparison of several Costa Rican honey-processed coffee beans:

The mucilage part is where coffee fruit contains the highest sugar content and is an important component of coffee processing fermentation. This part determines 80% of the nutritional supply during processing. Yellow honey retains 60% of mucilage, red honey retains 75% of mucilage, and black honey retains almost all mucilage.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

Green Bean Information:

• Region: West Valley
• Estate: Finca Sumava de Lourdes
• Variety: Caturra
• Altitude: 1,700 meters
• Processing: Black Honey Process
• Soil: Volcanic geology
• Harvest: December to March of the following year
• Flavor Notes: Brown sugar, floral, citrus, pomelo, sweet spices, sweet mouthfeel

Caturra: Varietal Caturra, Coffea arabica var. caturra.

First discovered in 1937 in São Paulo state, Brazil, it is a natural mutation of Bourbon. Currently widely cultivated in Brazil, Colombia, and other Central and South American producing regions.

Yang Jia 800N Roasting Analysis

Yang Jia 800N, with 550g green beans loaded, specific operations:

Preheat the roaster to 200°C and load beans, set damper to 3. After 1 minute of steaming, adjust heat to 160°C, keeping damper unchanged. When temperature reaches 160°C, adjust heat again down to 135°C. At 5'40", temperature reaches 154.9°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, dehydration complete, damper unchanged.

At the 9-minute mark, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the first crack sound. At 9'21", first crack begins, reduce heat to 80°C, open damper fully to 5 (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that cracking stops). At 50°C and 193.4°C, unload beans.

Cupping Experience

Brewing Recommendations

Light-roasted coffee beans have a harder texture. We recommend using high-temperature water at 92-93°C to bring out the floral and fruity aromas in the coffee. We recommend a medium-fine grind (78% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve). Too coarse a grind cannot extract full-bodied substances, resulting in thin coffee. Too fine a grind can lead to over-extraction at high water temperatures, resulting in bitter coffee.

• Dripper: V60
• Water Temperature: 92-93°C
• Dose: 15g
• Ratio: 1:15
• Grind Size: Fine sugar size (78% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve)
• Pouring Method: Three-stage pour

Three-stage pour: Use twice the coffee dose amount of water to wet the coffee bed, forming a dome and steaming for 30s. Then use a small water stream to pour in circles from inside out to 125g, then pause. When the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, continue with the same fine water stream for the third stage to 225g. Remove the dripper when all coffee liquid has finished filtering, total time approximately 2 minutes.

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