The Complex and Varied Flavors of Costa Rica's Western Valley Orange County Honey Processed Villa Sarchi

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FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Costa Rica's Western Valley Naranjo Region

This rich, complex, and unusually distinctive coffee comes from Herbazu. Herbazu belongs to the Don Tono Barrantes family's micro-mill, and the family's farms sit in the Lourdes valley of the Naranjo region. Naranjo is part of Costa Rica's West Valley.

Before 2005, Costa Rica was almost entirely dominated by large processing plants, some with annual production above 100,000 bags and thousands of member farmers. But a farmer who could produce high-quality coffee yet turned out only about a hundred bags a year had no path to sell it under his own farm name unless he built his own small processing facility—his coffee would simply be absorbed into a large cooperative. Some of those high-quality smallholders began to wake up to that, and the awakening gave rise to the micro-mill movement.

These new micro-mills often handle only a few containers a year, unless they process green coffee for neighboring farms. The advantage is that they can attend to and fine-tune every stage to reach the ideal processing flow, without worrying that a large buyer will pass them over. As long as the quality is good and specialty buyers know about it, they can build direct trade relationships—the model specialty coffee buyers strongly promote.

Only a micro-mill can produce honey-processed beans of the caliber of Brumas and Herbazu, because a large cooperative struggles to hold different mucilage levels in small batches; the economics simply do not work, and unless a customer's volume justifies a big run, the cooperative processes to an average. A micro-mill, by contrast, begins monitoring and adjusting from the harvest, making constant tweaks based on the condition of the beans. The "post-harvest processing" the two perform may look alike, but the thinking behind it is not the same.

Herbazu is a pioneer of that micro-milling trend. It comes from 13 small farms belonging to the same family, owned by the children of Don Tono Barrantes. They are all siblings, each with an average farm of 2.5 hectares. Because the family is close-knit and wants to save on labor, they help one another at every stage of cultivation—planting, pruning, picking, milling, and drying—dividing the work and looking after each other's farms. Herbazu's mill processes only the family's coffee, making it a true family operation: it neither processes for other farmers nor buys their cherries.

Honey Processing

Honey processing, also called Miel, was developed by micro-mills and originated on small farms. Growers harvest their own cherries, remove the skin, retain varying amounts of mucilage, and then continue drying. The method was inspired by Brazil's pulped natural process: the coffee is dried in its husk, whether by sun or machine, to about 11.5%–12% moisture content, then sent to a dry mill for hulling and grading. The advantage is that the grower only has to coordinate with the final dry mill, while retaining almost 100% control over the quality and processing method of the green coffee.

For high-quality honey-processed coffee, cupping is not enough—visiting the micro-mill in person to watch each stage of the process is an important check against buying a lot that only looks good for a moment. Once honey processing and sun-drying are complete, the hulled beans can be divided by color into white honey, yellow honey, red honey, and black honey.

The Rare and Excellent Villa Sarchi Variety

Villa Sarchi is a variety that originated in Costa Rica and suits high-altitude sites with wide temperature swings and occasional strong winds. It needs little in the way of windbreaks. Its tree shape and leaves resemble Caturra and Pacas, but with more lush foliage. It has better wind resistance, a more consistent cherry ripening period—which makes harvesting easier for farmers—and it grows well at altitude. During cupping, we tested different varieties from Herbazu, and we have bought Villa Sarchi for four consecutive years precisely because of its quality.

Basic Information:

Origin: Costa Rica, West Valley, Naranjo region, Lourdes

Farm Name: Cafe Herbazu

Brand: HBZ estate coffee

Variety: 100% Villa Sarchi

Processing Method: White honey processing, with sun-drying in the final stage

Dry Aroma: Chocolate, floral notes, honey sweetness, berries, vanilla plants

Wet Aroma: Berries, chocolate, creamy fragrance, honey

Cupping Notes: Delicate mouthfeel, lime, citrus chocolate, grapefruit, tea-like sensation, honey sweetness, varied fruit acidity, cherry, vanilla plants with a long-lasting finish

Knowledge Point: Coffee roasting is the process that triggers Maillard reactions and caramelization within the green bean, producing more wonderful flavors.

In Summary: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research center dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation, aiming to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month we hold three coffee promotion events with significant discounts, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more friends to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price. That has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Honey processing began as a refinement of Brazil's pulped natural method. It removes the coffee's skin before drying, which shortens the drying time while addressing the off-flavors that come from poor fermentation—and FrontStreet Coffee's Cerrado is a classic Brazilian pulped natural, with marked cream, peanut, nut, and chocolate notes. Costa Rica borrowed the approach and, by varying how much mucilage is retained and how long the coffee dries, developed the finer gradations now known as black honey, red honey, yellow honey, and white honey.

FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Blackberry uses a distinctive black honey process, which leaves nearly all the mucilage on the bean and dries for a longer period—at least two weeks—under cover to keep strong sun from drying it too fast and to ensure the sugars convert fully. The beds must be turned at intervals so the fruit does not heat unevenly and over-ferment, which makes black honey one of the more labor-intensive methods. Roasted medium-light, the Blackberry gives off intense floral aromas when ground and pours with grape, berry, and ripe blackberry flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy is a blend that pairs Panama Geisha with a Costa Rica coffee processed as raisin honey, keeping 100% of the mucilage and using no washing at all. On harvest day the cherries go into a large water tank, where the ripe, dense fruit sinks and the underdeveloped or overripe fruit floats and is skimmed off. The selected cherries dry on raised beds for at least three days, then the skin is removed and drying continues with the mucilage intact, with constant turning for evenness. The result carries Geisha's floral-tea character along with grape and raisin, soft fruit acidity, an almond finish, and clear sweetness.

Beyond standard honey processing, some estates have introduced an innovative raisin honey method that departs from the traditional yellow, red, and black honeys: the cherries are pre-dried on raised beds for at least three days before the skin and pulp are removed, after which the usual honey steps continue. Retaining 100% of the mucilage makes raisin honey harder to execute than even black honey, because timing has to be controlled very precisely, and it gives the coffee a richer, riper fruit sweetness. FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart is a good example—whether brewed as pour-over, cold brew, or in a moka pot, it shows the distinctive aromas of osmanthus, pineapple, and raisin.