Costa Rica Las Lajas Estate Coffee Flavor Profile Taste Variety Origin Region Processing Method Guide

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Las Lajas Estate Coffee: Flavor, Taste, Variety, Origin, and Processing

Las Lajas Estate Yellow Honey Processing

Country: Costa Rica

Region: Central Valley

Grade: SHB

Process: Yellow Honey

Altitude: 1300–1500 meters

Varieties: Caturra, Catuai

Cupping Notes

Honey, tropical fruit, maple syrup, melons.

Las Lajas is located in Sabanilla de Alajuela, in the foothills of Poás Volcano in the Central Valley. Strictly speaking, "Las Lajas" is the name of the Chacón family's processing mill; the farm's official name is Finca La Mirella, but roasters around the world have grown accustomed to calling it Finca Las Lajas. Las Lajas was also the first estate in Central America to begin honey processing and natural sun-drying methods.

Natural processing is a very traditional approach that uses minimal resources, but with so many uncontrollable factors, achieving excellent results is extremely challenging. Francisca introduced many innovations — for example, using a Brix meter, a tool common in the wine industry, to measure the sugar content of the fruit. Based on Brix readings she determines the optimal harvest time and processing method, selecting only cherries with sugar content above 20% for natural processing. For comparison, typical Brix values are 14 for apples, 12 for lemons, and 18 for passion fruit — but Las Lajas coffee cherries can reach 21–22%.

The Las Lajas mill has over 80 years of coffee cultivation and processing history. In the 1990s, when the second-generation operator of Las Lajas died of cancer, the third-generation successors, Francisca and Oscar Chacón, suspected that the farm's chemical fertilizers and pesticides were the cause. Since then, they have switched to natural, homemade compost and environmentally friendly organic farming.

After five years of relentless effort, soil, branch, leaf, and fruit analyses all met organic standards. In 2000, Las Lajas became the first estate in Costa Rica to receive organic certification.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Honey processing itself grew out of Brazil's pulped natural method — depulping the cherries before drying shortens the drying time and avoids off-flavors from improper fermentation — and Costa Rica refined it by varying how much mucilage is kept and how long the beans dry, giving rise to the black, red, yellow, and white honey grades. To taste the deepest end of that spectrum, try FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Blackberry: a black honey lot with nearly all the mucilage retained, dried for at least two weeks under shade covers and turned regularly to prevent over-fermentation, then roasted medium-light to reveal fresh floral aromas and flavors of grape, berries, and ripe blackberry.

For something even more adventurous, the FrontStreet Coffee Mozart showcases the raisin honey process, in which whole cherries are first dried on raised beds for at least three days with 100% of the mucilage retained — a method even harder to control than black honey — yielding distinctive osmanthus, pineapple, and raisin aromas whether brewed as pour-over, cold brew, or moka pot coffee. And for a bright, floral everyday cup, the Strawberry Candy blend pairs Panama Geisha's signature orange-blossom honey character with raisin-honey Costa Rica coffee: gentle fruit acidity, notes of grape and dried blueberry, an almond finish, and evident sweetness.