Costa Rica West Valley | Helsar White Honey Caturra from Laura/Elsa Processing Station's Flavor?

Costa Rica Western Valley | Helsar de Zarcero Micro-Mill White Honey Caturra Flavor Profile

Helsar de Zarcero is considered one of the earliest micro-mills introduced to Taiwan from Costa Rica's micro-mill revolution, appearing on the market as early as 2007. It stands alongside first-wave micro-mill pioneers such as Herbazu, Brumas, and La Hacas. The mill owner, Ricardo Pérez Barrantes, has been cultivating coffee in Costa Rica for over 40 years and is an experienced coffee producer dedicated to innovation in processing methods. From early washed processing to honey processing in recent years, he has demonstrated outstanding performance.

Like other small farmers in the early days, Ricardo delivered harvested coffee cherries to medium and large processing plants for production. High-quality green beans were mixed with other general batches for export, allowing farmers to receive only minimal profits in the industry chain. This not only failed to motivate farmers to pursue better green bean quality but also could not improve farmers' living standards.

In response to this situation, the Ricardo family joined the micro-mill revolution in 2004 and established Helsar de Zarcero. Initially, it mainly collaborated with his brother Marvin and Felipe Rodriguez to process green beans from their own Santa Lucia Estate. In recent years, it has also begun handling high-quality coffee cherries produced by small farmers in micro-regions such as Lourdes de Naranjo and Llano Bonito de Naranjo in the West Valley. It has received high evaluations and considerable award records in the international coffee market in recent years.

Costa Rica is a model producing country for specialty coffee and micro-batch coffee. More than a decade ago, many coffee farmers began establishing their own micro-mills. Through continuous improvement of their coffee bean quality year after year, they maintained distinction from general commercial bulk beans, enabling them to obtain better prices in the market and provide more superior green coffee beans.

Helsar de Zarcero is a standard medium-sized processing plant in Costa Rica, not only a local model but also with outstanding achievements internationally over the years. In 2007, it received a high evaluation of 91.37 points in Cup of Excellence (CoE), gaining recognition with third-place honors. In 2010, the internationally renowned coffee rating Coffee Review awarded 92 points for three consecutive months in August, September, and October. In 2011, it won the Canadian Coffee Masters Championship with 651 points, and the following year represented the country in the Vienna World Competition, once again proving the extraordinary value of green coffee beans produced by Helsar de Zarcero.

Coffee Information

Region: Western Valley

Producer: Rola Estate

Processing Station: Helsar de Zarcero

Altitude: 1700m

Variety: Caturra

Processing Method: White Honey

Flavor Notes: Floral, white wine, citrus gummy, delicate and bright, light and lively acidity

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Brewing Method

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal R-440 #3.5

Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, using 15g of coffee. First pour with 25g of water for a 25-second bloom. Second pour to 120g, then pause. Wait until the water level drops to half before continuing to pour slowly until reaching 225g. Total extraction time around 2:00.

Analysis: Using a three-stage brewing method to clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. Because the V60 has many ribs and faster drainage, pausing during pouring can help extend the extraction time.

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