Costa Rica Black Soul Coffee - Rare Natural Processing Method

FrontStreet Coffee, An Introduction to Costa Rica Alma Negra Natural

Costa Rica Finca Las Lajas

Region: Sabanilla de Alajuela, Central Valley

Altitude: 1,300–1,500 masl

Las Lajas sits in the Central Valley at the foot of the Poás volcano in Alajuela and has been farming for over 80 years. Today it's run by third-generation owner Francisca Cubillo and her husband Oscar Chacon. Francisca spent years rethinking how the estate's coffees taste: at harvest she screens cherries with a Brix meter to keep only fruit at standard ripeness, and her views on processing are unorthodox in the best way.

Conventional Costa Rican producers dial the depulper to control how much mucilage stays on the bean, then sort the result into yellow, red, or black honey. Francisca goes the other way, after depulping she keeps 100% of the mucilage, the highest ratio there is, and instead shapes flavor by adjusting drying time and how often the beans are turned on African raised beds.

Three generations of care have paid for extensive improvements to the estate's equipment and facilities. Not every neighboring farmer has those resources, so Francisca also processes and markets coffee for the farms around her. Lots from surrounding farmers that pass Las Lajas' highest standard are given the name "Alma Negra", Black Soul.

Finca Las Lajas Alma Negra

Country: Costa Rica

Region: Central Valley

Altitude: 1,300–1,500 m

Processing Method: Natural

Grade: SHB

Varieties: Caturra, Catuai

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Honey processing, Costa Rica's signature, evolved from Brazil's pulped natural method: pulp the cherry, then dry the bean with its mucilage still on. It shortens drying time while taming the off-flavors of uncontrolled fermentation (FrontStreet's Cerrado lot is the classic Brazilian pulped natural, cream, peanut, nuts, chocolate). Costa Rica took the idea further, grading honeys by how much mucilage is kept and how long the dry lasts: black, red, yellow, and white honey. If you love this style, try these FrontStreet Coffee lots:

• FrontStreet Costa Rica Blackberry (black honey), black honey keeps virtually all the mucilage and dries longest, at least two weeks, often under shade covers so the sugars convert fully rather than drying too fast; the beans are turned irregularly to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation. It's the most laborious honey of all. Roasted medium-light, it smells of fresh flowers when ground and brews up with grape, berry, and ripe blackberry.
• FrontStreet Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend, Panama Geisha meets raisin-honey Costa Rican coffee. The Costa Rican component keeps 100% of its mucilage with zero water: harvest-day fruit is floated in tanks (underripe and overripe floaters are removed), dried on raised beds for at least three days, then depulped with mucilage retained and dried with constant turning. The blend carries Geisha's tea-floral character plus grape and dried blueberry, soft acidity, an almond finish, and obvious sweetness.
• FrontStreet Mozart (raisin honey), an inventive twist beyond the classic yellow-red-black ladder: the whole cherries are pre-dried on raised beds for at least three days before the skin and pulp come off and the honey process continues. Keeping 100% of the mucilage makes it even trickier than black honey, timing is everything, and it pays off in richer hot-dried-fruit sweetness. Pour-over, cold brew, or moka pot, you'll find osmanthus, pineapple, and raisin.