This is a natural-processed coffee we have from our good friends at Cafe Rivense in Costa Rica, and it's a coffee to remember!
We recommend that you give the coffee a rest period of 2-4 weeks after roasting. Here you will experience that the taste and aroma of the coffee has opened up.
The coffee
The name of the coffee is El Desafio, which means 'the challenge' – and that is exactly what it has been for Ricardo and the Ureña Rojas family. Since 2006, they have perfected their approach to honey processed coffee, and now their coffee is among the absolute best we have tasted. The Ureña Rojas family has challenged themselves to do the same with natural processed coffee, and this is the first they are sending to the market. We were sold immediately when we got it on the cupping table – what a debut!
The coffee is super fruity with flavours of rhubarb, strawberry, papaya and guava.
Villa Sarchi
The variety 'Villa Sarchi' is a special coffee variety found in Costa Rica. It is a natural mutation of the Bourbon variety, which was brought to the country from East Africa.
Villa Sarchi is what is called a "single-gene mutation" of Bourbon. The plant does not grow nearly as big, so it is more like a dwarf plant. Villa Sarchi was discovered in Costa Rica in the 1950s-1960s in the northwestern province of Alajuela. This coffee variety is grown almost exclusively in Costa Rica, but is also seen in some places in Honduras.
The farm
More than 30 years ago, Régulo and Isabelle Ureña Rojas bought the farm on Mount Chirripó, the highest mountain in Costa Rica, and planted their first coffee plants here. Since the beginning, the goal has been to look after nature and the environment as much as possible. In 2006, they began work on a generational change, and today the driving forces are mainly Ricardo and Esteban.
The generational change was a difficult choice because the farm was not a good business at the time. The family chose to take a chance and put everything into raising their quality. They wanted to move away from conventionally traded coffee at market prices.
The family borrowed money to build a micro-wet mill and they got their own export license. The measures should ensure them better control over the processing and an opportunity to get even closer to the roasteries around the world – without being dependent on others.
In addition to growing really good coffee, great consideration will also be given to the environment on the farm. Here, the family has managed to create a sustainable system, where reducing the farm's CO2 emissions is paramount. On the farm, no water is used for the processing itself, and the water that is used does not go unwanted into nature. The farm is located between two nature reserves, so it is important that water drainage is taken care of.
The family uses as little fertiliser as possible, and instead of regular fertiliser, they use natural fertiliser in the form of the residual products from the coffee. In this way, it all forms part of a circular and natural process.
Cup of Excellence
The process has been long and hard but, as Ricardo says, it has been all worth it.
They are incredibly proud and very humble about their coffee, which today is among the absolute best in all of Costa Rica. In 2019, the family had their coffee in the Cup of Excellence for the first time. The competition is national and here impartial judges choose the country's best coffee. In 2019 they ended with a lovely 5th place. To put it bluntly: in 2019, their coffee was the 5th best coffee in all of Costa Rica – a country generally known for providing some of the best coffee in the entire world! It's awesome.
Direct Trade
Why deal directly? Because the farmer is the most important part of the entire chain from bean to cup. Without their work, we would not have the opportunities to roast the fantastic coffees that find their way to our roastery!
In part, it is ethically most important for us to ensure that the coffee farmer gets the payment for his work that he and his employees deserve - and that they need to be able to continue developing these fantastic coffees. When we deal and communicate directly, we help to guarantee that part of the profit for the hard work they do goes to the pickers and the owners of the coffee farm.
Roasting style
Good coffee starts with fresh beans. The beans must be of high quality and gently roasted, so that the sweetness and characteristic flavour of the beans is preserved. Our coffees are from micro lots all over the world, carefully selected and gently roasted with individual roasting-profiles. We omni-roast all our coffees, so you can brew them exactly as you want.
Our purchases
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 99% above the market price for the coffee.
