El Desafio
A Funky Repeater
A beloved classic has returned as this month's coffee. We have been looking forward to presenting you with the new harvest of our very special El Desafio.
For some of you this may be a reunion and for others a new and exciting experience awaits. Nevertheless, the new harvest of El Desafio is as delicious as the coffees from Café Rivense usually are.
The Family Farm
Café Rivense is located in this beautiful location in Costa Rica. The farm was founded back in the 1940s and is today run as a real family business by Ricardo, his father Régulo, his mother Isabelle and his brothers Mario, Luis and Esteban.
They have supplied coffee to our selection for several years – including La Catarata and El Cristobal – and the family's production covers several different carefully selected varieties and processes.
A Coffee You Won't Forget
Unique is probably a good description of El Desafio. It's one of our more unusual coffees, but also one of the most popular we've had over time.
This is a Natural processed coffee. So the beans are dried inside the intact berry. This way, it's possible to extract a high degree of sweetness and fruitiness from the pulp. It produces flavours that may seem very different from more traditional coffee flavours, but which are absolutely wonderful.
This coffee often shocks even the seasoned coffee drinkers enough to ask "stop it, what just happened there," and it is certainly not a coffee you just forget.
Visit from Costa Rica
What Does Rhubarb Really Taste Like?
Good memories come to mind in connection with the release of this harvest. About a year ago, we had a visit from the Ureña family here in Fillerup. We tasted the coffee, discussed production and roasting profile and held an open event in the coffee bar with Ricardo.
It was the kind of visit we find completely invaluable for us, and where we get the opportunity to create an even closer relationship with the coffee farmers we collaborate with.
The visit also came with a fun unexpected experience. We have described one of the flavour notes in El Desafio as rhubarb, which was not a plant that the Ureña family was familiar with. To solve that problem, we had to dust up some rhubarb soda so they could get to know that flavour note. It was in December, so unfortunately they couldn't taste the real thing.
Specifications
Origin: Costa Rica
Region: Chirripõ
Variety: Villa Sarchi
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1500
Harvest: April 2022
Notes: Sweet and creamy with notes of strawberry, rhubarb, papaya and guava
Flavour notes
The new harvest of El Desafio made us do some slight adjustments in the flavour notes.
This time the coffee has a distinct hint of tropical fruit. It is sweet and creamy with notes of strawberry, rhubarb, papaya and guava.
Look forward to tasting it – and feel free to share your experiences with us.
Our Purchase
We have paid the cooperative $9.09/kg for the coffee (FOB).
The market price at the time of the contract was $4.57/kg
In this case, we have therefore paid 199% of the market price for the coffee.
Read more about why we pay more for our coffee here.
