What Is Arabica Bean Flavor Like in Black Honey Processing?
Finca Sumava de Lourdes black honey Caturra grows at 1,700 meters in Costa Rica's West Valley on volcanic soil. The cup shows black sugar, florals, citrus, pomelo and sweet spices, with a sweet, syrupy, rounded mouthfeel. This is what an arabica bean can taste like when honey processing preserves fruit sweetness.
The estate, near Naranjo, plants Villasarchi and Caturra on 10 hectares, plus SL28 and Geisha. Costa Rica's main regions are Tarrazu, the Central Valley and the West Valley; Tarrazu, south of San Jose, is the most recognized, and estates there keep refining washed and honey methods.
Costa Rica's Finca Sumava black honey Caturra, grown in high-altitude volcanic soil of the West Valley, cups with a complex profile of black sugar, florals, citrus, and sweet spices, with a sweet, syrupy, rounded mouthfeel. This article systematically breaks down the flavor origins and brewing key points of this bean, from the region's background, the estate's story, the characteristics of the Catuai variety, and the classifications of honey processing, to pour-over extraction parameters. It also includes Front Street Coffee's brewing recommendations and purchasing references, helping coffee enthusiasts fully understand the appeal of black honey processed coffee.
Costa Rica Sumava de Lourdes black honey
Costa Rica. Finca Sumava. Caturra. Black Honey
Region: West Valley
Estate: Finca Sumava de Lourdes
Variety: Caturra
Altitude: 1700 meters
Processing method: black honey
Soil: volcanic geology
Harvest: December to March of the following year
Flavor notes: black sugar, florals, citrus, pomelo, sweet spices, sweet and syrupy mouthfeel
Costa Rica's most renowned major region is Tarrazu, adjacent to the capital San Jose. This region has the highest average latitude in the country, with excellent climate and soil conditions, so Tarrazu is recognized as Costa Rica's most outstanding and consistently high-quality major coffee region, while Tres Rios is a well-known sub-region within Tarrazu. In the specialty coffee world, Costa Rica's most widely known single estate is La Minita in the Tarrazu region, with an annual output of only 160,000 pounds.
Costa Rica's three well-known origins are: Tarrazu, located south of the capital San Jose, as well as the Central Valley and the West Valley. These regions are dotted with numerous excellent independent estates that continuously refine washed and honey processing techniques, constantly bringing surprises to the coffee world.
Finca Sumava
Costa Rica has a total of seven coffee regions, among which Tarrazu, the Central Valley, and the West Valley are the most famous and also the most outstanding in quality. Finca Sumava de Lourdes is located in the West Valley region, near the city of Naranjo, at an altitude of 1700 meters. The varieties planted on the estate include Villasarchi and Caturra on a total of 10 hectares, SL28 on 2 hectares, Geisha on 1 hectare, and other varieties. Estate owner Francisco Men and estate manager Jose Ordonez lead a full-time team managing the farm. In addition to cultivating diverse coffee varieties, they have also preserved a large area of land as a forest reserve, providing natural habitat for wildlife, making it a quite exceptional coffee estate in Costa Rica.
Finca Sumava is a relatively young estate in Costa Rica. Francisco Mena, originally engaged in coffee trading, after purchasing this land, preserved a large area of primary forest and developed only a small portion for coffee cultivation, in order to maintain the estate's natural ecological balance.
The estate's altitude ranges from about 1670 to 1790 meters, located in another well-known Costa Rican region—the West Valley. The relatively large temperature difference between day and night, combined with fertile soil, provides ideal conditions for coffee cultivation.
Estate owner Francisco Mena introduced Villa Sarchi, a high-quality variety that placed in the top 13 at the Cup of Excellence—a Bourbon mutation. This is a rare variety bred by crossing Red Bourbon; it resists strong winds, thrives at high altitudes, has excellent acidity with rich and varied fruit notes, high sweetness, and combines bright, delicate citrus acidity with lower-toned raisin and nut aromas, offering high complexity and full balance.
Most of the estate's land has been left to forest to preserve the natural environment. In estate management, the owner has also put considerable thought into it: fallen trees, decaying wood, and weeds are not disposed of by traditional burning, but rather the wood is broken into chips, mixed with organic fertilizer, and used as farm fertilizer. From the El Chayote reserve in the West Valley, on the fertile volcanic soil of Poas, facing the convection and moisture of the Pacific, combined with significant day-night temperature differences and an excellent microclimate, this small area of only 1 kilometer in radius has actually produced 4 champion estates—truly a place that nurtures outstanding people.
[Coffee Variety]
Catuai is a coffee variety artificially bred by crossing Caturra and Mondu Novo, with strong resistance to natural disasters, especially wind and rain.
The Catuai tree is relatively short, and compared to other coffee trees, its fruit grows more firmly and is harder to pick. The fruit comes in red and yellow colors. To date, no evidence has been found that yellow fruit is superior to red fruit; on the contrary, some cuppers have found that although coffee processed from some yellow fruit has acceptable acidity, its cleanliness in the mouthfeel is inferior to that of red fruit.
Catuai was developed in Brazil and is currently widely planted in Central America.
[Honey Processing]
Common honey processing methods are divided into three types: yellow honey, red honey, and black honey.
Yellow honey: about 40% of the mucilage is removed; the drying process requires the most direct heat absorption and receives the most sunlight, lasting about 8 days to reach a stable moisture content.
Red honey: about 25% of the mucilage is removed; drying takes longer than yellow honey, with reduced direct sun exposure, even using shade covers, lasting about 12 days.
Black honey: almost no mucilage is removed; drying takes the longest, lasting at least 2 weeks, using covers to avoid excessive sunlight and prevent overly rapid drying, allowing sugar conversion to be more complete.
Brewing Recommendations
Pour-over Costa Rican black honey: 15g coffee, medium grind (Fuji ghost teeth burr at setting 4), V60 dripper, 88-90°C water temperature. First pour 30g of water, bloom for 27 seconds, pour until 105g of water then stop, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before continuing to pour, pour slowly until 225g of water, discard the tail end, water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.
Costa Rica has won coffee lovers' recognition through honey processed coffee beans, which is inseparable from the country's superior geographical and climatic conditions and its complete selection of Arabica varieties for cultivation. Costa Rica's high-quality coffee beans are called "Strictly Hard Bean" (SHB), and there are also Hard Bean (HB) and Semi-Hard Bean (SH), with quality decreasing in that order, which is also its grading method. Strictly Hard Bean grows in areas above 1500 meters in altitude. Altitude has always represented the quality of coffee—higher altitude means better quality. In addition, the elevation differences at high altitudes bring abundant rainfall, which is very beneficial for coffee tree growth; low nighttime temperatures at high altitudes cause trees to grow slowly, allowing coffee cherries to better absorb nutrients and making the flavor richer.
Flavor: preserved plum, honey, brown sugar, orange blossom, white chocolate
Mouthfeel: good sweetness, soft fruit acidity, rounded and full-bodied, persistent finish
Purchase link:
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.5-c-s.w4002-15673140460.49.56706805zWfB30&id=542185309497
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
