Variety: SL-28
Process: Yellow Honey
Drying: Patio, 9 days
Producer: Alejo Castro Kahle
Farm: Volcan AzulElevation: 1650 MASL
Region: West Valley
Origin: Costa RicaNotes: Honeydew Melon, Dragonfruit, Golden Berry, Chestnut
Alejo's ancestors planted some of the first coffee plantations in Costa Rica in the early 1900s with the aim to produce the best coffee in the world. With over 200 years of family tradition in trading specialty coffee, Alejo's mission for the farm has been exclusively focused on improving coffee quality while making a positive impact on the environment. The highly fertile volcanic soil combined with the mill's impeccable processing methods have produced a history of award-winning coffees.
This SL-28 was planted with seeds from Alejo's friends in Kenya, growing on Costa Rican soil. This was a result of Alejo's passion for growth by introducing new varieties on his family farm, though originally met with resistance from his father. Now Alejo has proved his risk-taking a success and a blessing to our coffee world.
We hope you enjoy this delicate and silky coffee, coming from a passionate producer family.
The yellow honey process:
“First, we control ripe or over dried cherries by separating them in a screen and then select the ones who will get pulped by pressuring them against a centrifuge. Then we use a mechanical washer to wash 50% of the mucilage from the bean. The beans will then be taken to the drying patio or raised beds where they are stirred each day from 8am to 2pm. At 2 pm we start covering the coffee with plastic, so we maintain it warm during the night and prevent it from gaining humidity from the mist we normally have during the early morning. This process will take between 7 and 11 days depending on the weather. We can also pre-dry the coffee in the “patio” or raised beds and then give the final percentage of humidity in the mechanical dryers where we use low temperatures. We don't dry it continuously to give the coffee a chance to rest and slowly bring the humidity out of the center of the bean.”