How Does the Black Honey Process Shape Costa Rica Coffee Aroma?

Sumava de Lourdes Estate in Costa Rica's West Valley grows Caturra coffee that is processed with the black honey method, a technique that leaves much of the fruit mucilage on the seed during drying. The result is a cup with black sugar, floral notes, and a sweet, syrupy mouthfeel, plus the nutty, sweet aroma the estate is known for.

Costa Rica has roughly 32,000 coffee farmers, and most holdings are under one hectare, so lots like this stay small and traceable. Coffee cultivation there dates to 1779, when seeds arrived from Cuba, and the first exports followed in 1820. High-altitude volcanic soil and dual-ocean breezes give the beans their layered flavor.

Costa Rica, with its microclimates and high-altitude volcanic soil, nurtures specialty coffee with rich layers of flavor. Sumava de Lourdes Estate, located in the West Valley, showcases black sugar, floral notes, and a sweet, syrupy mouthfeel through its black honey process and Caturra variety. This article provides a complete analysis of the flavor code of this bean, from the production region background, the principles of honey processing, and green bean analysis to Front Street Coffee's roasting and brewing recommendations, while also exploring the allure of coffee with nutty tones.

Costa Rica Sumava de Lourdes black honey

Costa Rica. Sumava de Lourdes Estate. Caturra. Black Honey

01 | Production Region Introduction

The history of coffee cultivation in Costa Rica can be traced back to 1779, when seeds were introduced from Cuba, and it was not until 1820 that coffee was first exported overseas. Currently, the country has approximately 32,000 coffee farmers, with an average cultivated area of less than one hectare (10,000 m²) per person. According to 2006 data, Costa Rica's population was 4.1 million, coffee cultivation area reached 82,500 hectares, annual production was about 1.7 million bags (each bag 60 kg), domestic consumption was 380,000 bags per year, and per capita annual consumption was 5.5 kg, even surpassing Japan's 4 kg, while Taiwan region's per capita consumption is only slightly above 1 kg.

Costa Rica was the first country in Central America to cultivate coffee, with a long industrial history and a highly complete organizational system from production to sales. Located in the Central American isthmus, it is dotted with volcanoes, enjoys abundant sunshine and fertile land, and its climate is simultaneously regulated by the Pacific and Atlantic ocean currents and sea breezes, giving its coffee the terroir characteristics of local microclimates. Whether in quality or yield, Costa Rican coffee has always been renowned internationally and is rated as one of the world's high-quality coffees. Many volcanoes within the country reach an altitude of 2,000 meters, allowing coffee cherries to grow slowly in fertile volcanic ash and a cool high-altitude environment, thereby nurturing beans with complete and rich flavors.

Costa Rica began planting coffee two hundred years ago, with the earliest areas located on the slopes of Poas and Barva volcanoes, which is today's Central Valley. After long-term development, there are currently eight main production regions: Guanacastes, West Valley, Central Valley, Turrialba, Orosi, Tres Rios, Tarrazu, and Brunca.

According to ICO statistics, Costa Rica can produce about 1.6 million bags of Arabica coffee annually. Although its output is less than that of Central American countries such as Guatemala and Honduras, its quality and price are far higher than theirs.

Costa Rica has two seasons in a year: December to April is the dry season, which is also the coffee harvest period; May to November is the rainy season. In recent years, micro-processing plants have been established one after another, with water consumption only 5% of that of traditional washed processing plants, and they do not require large water tanks and drying yards, resulting in a relatively low investment threshold. Honey-processed coffee, with low acidity, high complexity, and rich sweet aroma, has therefore become a target pursued by the coffee industry in recent years; Costa Rican honey-processed coffee beans have repeatedly achieved excellent results in various competitions, greatly enhancing the international visibility of various estates.

Sumava de Lourdes Estate

Costa Rica has seven coffee production regions, among which Tarrazu, Central Valley, and West Valley are the most well-known and of the best quality. Sumava de Lourdes Estate (Finca Sumava de Lourdes) is located in Costa Rica's West Valley production region, near the city of Naranjo, at an altitude of 1,700 meters. The planted varieties 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. In addition to planting diverse coffee varieties, the estate also preserves a large area of land as a forest reserve, providing natural habitat for wildlife, making it a quite excellent coffee estate in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica's Sumava de Lourdes Estate is a young estate; after Francisco Mena, originally engaged in coffee trading, bought this land, he preserved most of the primary forest and developed only a small part as a coffee planting area to maintain the estate's natural ecological balance. Sumava de Lourdes Estate is at an altitude of about 1,670 to 1,790 meters, located in another well-known Costa Rican production region—West Valley—where large temperature differences and fertile soil are very suitable for coffee cultivation.

Estate owner Francisco Mena introduced a high-quality variety that once entered the top 13 of the Cup of Excellence—Villa Sarchi, a mutation of Bourbon. This is a rare variety bred by hybridizing Red Bourbon trees. It is resistant to strong winds, prefers high-altitude environments, has excellent acidity and rich, varied fruit aromas, high sweetness, bright and delicate citrus acidity, and lower notes of raisin and nuts, with high complexity and full balance.

Most of the estate's land is left as forest to maintain the natural environment. In estate management, much thought has also been invested: for fallen trees, decayed wood, and weeds, traditional burning methods are not used; instead, the wood is crushed into chips, mixed with organic fertilizer, and used as farm fertilizer. Coming from the El Chayote reserve in the West Valley, under Poás's fertile volcanic soil, Pacific convection and moisture, plus significant day-night temperature differences and an excellent microclimate, this small area within a 1-kilometer radius has actually produced 4 champion estates, truly a remarkable place that nurtures outstanding people.

02 | Processing Method

Costa Rican Honey-Processed Coffee Beans

The honey process is called Honey Process or Miel Process, also known as Honey Coffee, and is used in coffee estates in places such as Costa Rica, Panama, and Guatemala. So-called honey processing refers to the process of making green beans by sun-drying with mucilage still attached.

Estate owner Mena adopts a unique sweet juice honey processing method, which he calls sweet sugar process. The juice produced during the processing of coffee cherries is taken to soak the parchment beans being processed. Because the cherry juice contains fairly high sweetness and unique enzymes, the processed parchment beans contain richer flavors and complex positive flavor notes.

The harvest season is usually from January to April each year. Because the estate temperature is only 10 to 20°C, there are often coffee fruits just ripening and waiting to be picked in April. Simply put: the more pectin retained, the richer the final flavor and the higher the sweetness of the processed coffee. The following is a flavor comparison of several Costa Rican honey-processed coffee beans:

The pectin mucilage part is the part with the highest sugar content in coffee fruit and is also an important component of coffee processing fermentation. It can be said that this part determines 80% of the nutrient supply during processing. Yellow honey retains 60% of the pectin, red honey retains 75% of the pectin, and black honey removes almost no pectin.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

Green bean information:

Production region: West Valley

Estate: Finca Sumava de Lourdes

Variety: Caturra

Altitude: 1,700 meters

Processing method: black honey

Soil: volcanic geology

Harvest: December to March of the following year

Flavor description: black sugar, floral, citrus, pomelo, sweet spices, sweet and syrupy mouthfeel

Caturra, Caturra, varietal Caturra, Coffea arabica var. caturra.

First discovered in 1937 in São Paulo State, Brazil, it is a natural mutation of Bourbon. It is currently widely planted in Central and South American production regions such as Brazil and Colombia.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Recommendation Analysis

Yangjia 800N, green bean charge 550g, specific operation:

Charge when the drum temperature reaches 200°C, set airflow to 3, after 1 minute of steaming adjust heat to 160°C, keep airflow unchanged, at 160°C adjust heat once, lower to 135°C, roast until 5'40'', temperature 154.9°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete, airflow unchanged;

At the 9th minute, ugly wrinkles and dark streaks appear on the bean surface, and the toast aroma clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully to the sound of the first crack point. At 9'21'' first crack begins, reduce heat to 80°C, fully open airflow to 5 (adjusting heat must be very careful, not so low that there is no cracking sound) 50°C, drop at 193.4°C.

Cupping Taste

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendation

Lightly roasted coffee beans have a harder texture, and Front Street uses hot water at 92°C-93°C to stimulate the floral and fruity notes in the coffee. For grind size, Front Street recommends medium-fine grinding (78% passing rate on China standard No. 20 sieve). Too coarse cannot extract mellow substances, and the brewed coffee will appear thin. Too fine is prone to over-extraction at high water temperature, and the brewed coffee will easily become bitter.

Filter cone: V60 Water temperature: 92-93°C Dose: 15g Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: fine granulated sugar size (78% passing rate on No. 20 standard sieve)

Pouring technique: three-stage

Three-stage pouring: wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds to form a dome and bloom for 30s, then pour in a small stream in circles from the inside out until 125g, pause, wait until the coffee bed drops to half the height of the filter cone, continue pouring the third stage with the same fine stream to 225g, until all the coffee liquid has filtered through, remove the filter cone. The time is about 2 minutes.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.