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Costa Rica Mon Cherry Honey Process Coffee - Characteristics and Story of Costa Rica Honey Process Coffee Beans

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, [Costa Rica Mon Cherry] Country: Costa Rica Region: West Valley, Grecia Elevation: 1550 meters Estate: Alquimia Estate Mill: Cerro San Luis Processing Method: Red Honey Process Variety: Sarchimor 01 | Mill Introduction: Cerro San Luis Micro Mill

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FrontStreet Coffee · Costa Rica Moncherry

Country: Costa Rica

Region: Grecia, Western Valley

Altitude: 1550 meters

Estate: Alquimia Estate

Processing Station: Cerro San Luis

Processing Method: Red Honey

Variety: Sarchimor

01 | Processing Station Introduction

The Cerro San Luis micro-processing station is located in the Western Valley of Costa Rica, more precisely at the foot of the Poas Volcano. Eight years ago, this station began collaborating with fourth-generation coffee family producers. At that time, the coffee market was in poor condition, and they could only sell at very low prices. They invested unprecedented energy and passion into coffee production with the goal of ending this terrible situation as soon as possible. Alexander, one of the coffee producers, said that over these eight years, he has been learning the necessary knowledge of coffee cultivation, gradually improving coffee quality year by year, and pursuing to provide customers with increasingly better experiences.

02 | Processing Method

Costa Rican honey-processed coffee beans undergo a processing method that lies between the natural and washed processing methods. It allows the coffee to retain the cleanliness of washed processing while significantly increasing the sweetness and caramel flavors of the coffee due to sun-drying with the pulp mucilage (the pulp mucilage has extremely high sugar content). The honey processing method first appeared in Costa Rica in Central America. Initially, it was mainly because some high-altitude areas in Central America lacked water resources, so coffee cherries were sun-dried with the pulp mucilage after using pulp removers.

The mucilage part is the highest sugar content portion of the coffee cherry and also an important component of fermentation during coffee processing. It can be said that this part determines 80% of the nutrient supply during the processing. Yellow honey retains 60% of the mucilage, red honey retains 75% of the mucilage, and black honey hardly removes any mucilage.

Red honey retains about 75% of the mucilage; compared to yellow honey, the drying time is longer, and direct sunlight exposure time is reduced, even using shade nets, lasting about 12 days.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

Sarchimor was originally discovered by Portuguese breeding research institutions. After research and breeding, it was distributed to coffee-growing countries in Brazil, Central America, and South America.

Sarchimor and Catimor are currently the two most important disease-resistant bean varieties in the world. Their disease resistance comes from Timor, while their flavor comes from another bean variety. For example, in Sarchimor, the flavor comes from Villa Sarchi, while Catimor's flavor comes from Caturra. Although Sarchimor is not as widely cultivated as Catimor, it has considerable production in both Costa Rica and Brazil. The disease-resistant varieties derived from Sarchimor are extremely numerous, including Cuscatleco, IAPAR 59, Limani, Marsellesa, Parainema, etc.

04 | Roasting Analysis

This FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Moncherry honey-processed coffee bean has medium size, medium density, and medium bean quality. The new season beans themselves have higher moisture content. During the roasting process, heat absorption is relatively fast, and the Maillard reaction process is also faster. The yellowing point occurs at about 5 minutes. In the first batch of roasting, the drop temperature was relatively high, with an entry temperature of 200°C and relatively high heat setting. During the roasting process, heat was gradually reduced as needed. Heat was fine-tuned when the beans reached the yellowing point, completed dehydration, and showed first crack precursors, avoiding bean surface scorching. Under this operating method, the coffee's dehydration time is relatively shortened, with a temperature increase rate of 6-8°C every thirty seconds, and it enters first crack earlier to preserve clean and bright acidity.

Roasting machine: Yangjia 600g semi-direct flame

Heat the drum to 200°C, set air damper to 3, adjust heat to 160°C after 30s, air damper unchanged, return to temperature at 1'35", maintain heat, bean surface turns yellow at 5'06", grassy smell completely disappears, enter dehydration stage, reduce heat to 130°C, adjust air damper to 4;

Dehydration completes at 7'50", reduce heat to 80, at 8'10" ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast smell clearly turns to coffee aroma, can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack starts at 8'26", reduce heat to 50, open air damper to 5 (heat adjustment must be very careful, not so small that there's no crackling sound), develop for 1'30" after first crack, drop at 193.2°C.

This FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Moncherry honey-processed coffee bean has obvious and soft sweet and sour feelings. The front section has lemon acid and apple flavors, the middle section has grapefruit peel flavors, and the back section has caramel sweetness and watermelon seed aftertaste.