Diversa Estate - Ultra Micro Batch | Honey Processed Flavor Profile of Venice, Cera, and Dilla Alghe Varieties

Costa Rica - Finca Divisa | Micro-Batch: Venecia, Purpurascens, Cera, and Dilla Alghe Honey Process Flavor Profile

Finca Divisa lies within La Amistad International Park (parque internacional la amistad), which spans Costa Rica and Panama, and it is home to some of the world's rarest varieties and processing methods. Any one of its experimental batches could become a future star of the coffee industry. Costa Rica — the Garden of Varieties, Finca Divisa — is the only place in the world cultivating more than 200 rare and precious coffee varieties, which is why the owner does not call it a coffee estate but a coffee garden.

Over two hundred botanical varieties, mutations, and cultivars grow in this exotic Costa Rican coffee garden, Finca Coffea Diversa, including some of the rarest varieties you have never heard of or tasted.

For each variety, Gonzalo keeps only a few trees, and sells them in 10kg small packages to knowledgeable roasters and friends on a first-come, first-served basis. Paradise first visited Coffea Diversa five years ago and met Gonzalo there, and has looked forward to sharing his rare variety coffees ever since.

This time, Paradise selected four varieties from the Coffea Diversa collection: Purpurascens, Cera, Rume Sudan, and Dilla Alghe. All are honey processed and lightly roasted, in 4-ounce quantities of each variety.

Purpurascens

Purpurascens is a variant of Bourbon, with both leaves and cherries showing a deep purple color.

Flavor: Citrus, clove flowers, berries, honey.

Cera

Cera is another exotic and rare Bourbon mutation, but its seed color is yellow rather than green.

Flavor: Citrus, berries, grape candy, heavy body.

Rume Sudan

Rume Sudan is a wild native species collected from the Boma Plateau in Sudan. Sasa Sestic used Rume Sudan to win the WBC championship in 2015.

Flavor: Lemon, lime, ginger, intense character.

Dilla Alghe

Dilla Alghe is a wild coffee originating from southwestern Ethiopia, near the town of Dilla Alghe, hence its name.

Its new leaves are slightly reddish, and yields are extremely low; few people have ever tasted it.

Flavor: Tropical fruits, chocolate, berries, nuts, balanced.

Flavor Description

Malic acid, honey texture, lime, plum, longan, and citrus peel aroma and aftertaste, similar to Cabernet Sauvignon wine in flavor and prominent character.

The estate sits within La Amistad International Park, which spans Costa Rica and Panama, in one of Costa Rica's most remote regions. It was traditionally not considered a coffee-producing area because the geography is so challenging that few farmers have attempted to grow coffee here. Yet the region has one of the world's best microclimates, soils, and altitude ranges for coffee, from 1,200 to 1,350 meters above sea level.

Variety: Venecia/Venice

This rare variety was developed in Costa Rica. It was discovered by a farmer named Isidro Rodriguez in the village of Venecia, San Carlos, Alajuela province, at the foot of Poás Volcano in northern Costa Rica, and named after its discovery site in much the same way as Villa Sarchi. Venecia is a special selection from a natural mutation of Caturra. Alongside the excellent flavor inherited directly from the Caturra line, this mutated and screened variety matures more slowly and tolerates heavy rainfall better — its main characteristics, and the chief reason it was specially preserved.

The Honey Wine Aroma Process

Beyond its special beans, the estate often experiments with different processing methods, and this 48-hour sun-dried honey wine aroma process is one of them. After fully ripe red-purple cherries are harvested, they undergo 48 hours of sun-drying, then honey processing while some cherry pulp is retained. Other versions in the same series include 24-hour and 72-hour sun-drying methods. The estate grows many special varieties, but production quantities are small. As the name suggests, micro-batches are tiny — limited in quantity, but refined.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Suggestions

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5

Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, with 15g of grounds. First pour 25g of water and bloom for 25 seconds. Second pour up to 120g, then pause. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops by half, then continue a slow pour until you reach 225g. Extraction time is about 2:00.

Analysis: The three-stage method clearly separates the front, middle, and back-end flavors. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains faster, pausing during the pour helps extend the extraction time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Rare varieties and micro-lots like these share a home with Panama, another region celebrated for its uncommon coffees. If the honeyed, citrus-and-berry character of the Divisa batches appeals to you, the FrontStreet Panama Boquete Gesha is a good place to start. Grown at 1,600 meters on fertile volcanic-ash soil amid misty mountain valleys and cool nights, it is an estate-level, entry Gesha that pours into the classic Gesha profile: jasmine florals, green tea, honey, citrus, and orange.

For a higher tier, the FrontStreet Esmeralda Red Label Gesha is harvested from a single plot above 1,700 meters and must cup at 91 points, showing a refined citrus-honey charm. Esmeralda is both the discoverer and the great promoter of the Gesha flavor, and its tiered red, green, and blue labels grew out of cupping beans from different parts of the farm and matching plots to altitude. Whichever you choose, both beans echo the precision and rarity of a Costa Rican coffee garden.