How Do Growing Conditions for Coffee Shape Red Honey Sweetness?

Costa Rican honey-processed coffee is known for its sweetness, and Café Sol Naciente in the Tarrazú region shows why. The micro-estate sits in a valley at 1,750 meters, with about 7 hectares total: 6 planted with coffee trees, half a hectare kept as mountain reserve, and half a hectare for processing and drying cherries. It grows Catuai, Ethiopia 47 and Geisha.

The red honey Catuai Front Street Coffee acquired is roasted medium-light and cups with layers of sweet orange, cream, grapefruit, honey and black tea. Altitude, the reserve adjoining the Los Santos Biological Corridor and the estate's careful processing are part of the growing conditions for coffee that concentrate sugars in the cherry. Growing conditions for coffee of this kind, combined with variety choice, explain much of the sweetness in the cup.

Costa Rican honey-processed coffee has always been famous for its outstanding sweetness, and Café Sol Naciente is one of the representatives of this style. This micro micro-estate located in the Tarrazú region sits in a valley at an altitude of 1750 meters, mainly cultivating three varieties: Catuai, Ethíopia 47, and Geisha. The red honey-processed Catuai from Café Sol Naciente that Front Street Coffee has acquired this time is presented with a medium-light roast, showing rich layers of sweet orange, cream, grapefruit, honey, and black tea in the cupping. This article will take you through the specific steps of red honey processing, as well as the varieties grown at Café Sol Naciente and the estate's story, to explore the mystery of honey processing's sweetness together.

Sweetness is a premium trait that can make coffee beans stand out in cupping, and it is also a flavor expression that many brewers constantly pursue. When it comes to which country's coffee beans often possess excellent sweetness, Costa Rica is often the first name mentioned, because local estates are proficient in various honey processing techniques, giving coffee a clear and elegant sweetness.

Today, Front Street Coffee brings a red honey-processed coffee from Front Street Café Sol Naciente in Costa Rica, to experience with everyone the unique charm of the sweetness brought by honey processing.

Tarrazú Region

Tarrazu

Café Sol Naciente is located in Santa María de Dota in the Tarrazú coffee region of Costa Rica, only 40 kilometers from the capital San José, and the most famous local product is coffee.

The estate is at an altitude of 1750 meters, with a total area of about 7 hectares, of which 6 hectares are planted with coffee trees, half a hectare is designated as a mountain reserve, and the remaining half hectare is used for processing and drying coffee cherries after harvest. After checking the map, Front Street Coffee found that the reserve adjacent to the plantation is exactly the starting point of the Los Santos Biological Corridor, connected to the national forest reserve, covering three different types of rainforest climates, providing 14 natural ecosystems for the animals inhabiting here, extending parallel to the Talamanca Mountains, and is an adventure route highly recommended by many hiking enthusiasts.

The Los Santos area is surrounded by three cantons forming a lush valley, and almost every household grows coffee, thanks to the year-round influence of warm, moist Pacific air currents, with annual rainfall of 2400 millimeters and an average temperature of 19°C, creating ideal growing conditions for coffee trees at altitudes of 1500 to 2100 meters. Café Sol Naciente is situated within this pristine green belt, and walking into the farm, various rare small animals can be seen everywhere.

Café Sol Naciente

Sol Naciente

In 1990, Arturo Bonilla and his partner Xinia Martínez jointly purchased this land, which was originally used as pasture, and began planting coffee. Today, the farm is managed by them and their family. To achieve fine management, the estate is divided into multiple micro-lot plots, matching corresponding processing methods to the terroir conditions of different plots, striving to create higher quality and traceable coffee.

Arturo and his partner officially established an ecological micro-processing station in 2015, named "Sol Naciente," and the estate logo consists of three core elements—the rising sun, coffee, and nature—each carrying their expectations for the concept of sustainable development.

Since its founding, founder Don Arturo Bonilla has been fully devoted to specialty coffee cultivation and the construction of environmentally friendly ecological agriculture. It is said that in the first year of establishment, a green frog suddenly jumped onto his back, and later it was discovered that this frog was actually a rare locally endangered species. This little episode both surprised and delighted him, and also prompted the estate owner to always regard protecting the ecological environment as the primary responsibility on the path of coffee cultivation thereafter.

Currently, the estate mainly grows three varieties: Catuai, Ethíopia 47, and Geisha. In addition, to enhance the variety diversity of the farm, the estate owner also cultivates many experimental varieties. The Front Street Café Sol Naciente coffee beans in the batch acquired by Front Street Coffee this time are of the Catuai variety, using red honey processing.

Catuai

Catuaí

Friends who enjoy studying varieties should be familiar with Catuai. It is a name that often appears in the coffee variety column of Central America, for example, on Front Street Coffee's bean list, Front Street Coffee's Balzomar Elida Estate, Front Street Panama Butterfly, Front Street Panama Diamond Mountain, Front Street Honduras Sherry, and others all feature Catuai.

Catuai was artificially crossbred by the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC) in São Paulo, Brazil, using Yellow Caturra and Mundo Novo, released in 1972, and initially named "H-2077." Among them, Mundo Novo is the result of natural hybridization between two ancient varieties, Bourbon and Typica, and was first discovered in 1943 in Tietê, São Paulo, Brazil.

As a second-generation hybrid, Catuai not only inherits Caturra's excellent characteristics of small size, good acidity, and sun tolerance, but also possesses Mundo Novo's advantages of high yield, strong disease resistance, and good cupping performance. In terms of cultivation, Catuai also has relatively good disaster resistance, especially in the face of heavy rain or strong winds.

In addition, because the plant is short, it can be planted at twice the density of other varieties, and it is also more convenient for pest and disease control. Precisely because Catuai performs outstandingly in disease resistance, pest resistance, yield, and growing environment, it quickly attracted many Central and South American countries to introduce and plant it upon release.

Red Honey Processing

Red Honey

In a freshly picked coffee cherry, pectin is a very sweet substance, with high water content and high sugar content, and is closely attached to the inner seed (coffee bean). When fresh coffee cherries are processed by honey processing, different degrees of pectin retention result in different colors formed during drying, and the naming of the processing method also differs accordingly.

To taste the honey-processed coffee with the highest sweetness, Front Street Blackberry is the first choice. It uses standard black honey processing, retaining the most complete pectin during sun drying, thus bringing richer fruit notes to the coffee beans, very suitable for friends who are afraid of bitterness and do not like sour coffee. Front Street Blackberry is a medium-light roast, and when extracted, you can taste the flavors of orange blossom, berries, dried blueberries, and liqueur chocolate. Made as cold brew, it is refreshingly sweet and sour; made as pour-over, the sweetness explodes; made as espresso, it is rich and aromatic.

The so-called red honey processing is to retain 50–80% of the pectin of fresh coffee cherries for sun drying, exactly between washed and natural processes, and it is also the most common honey color type on the market. The darker the bean color, the fewer manual turns are needed. Black honey, which is closest to natural processing, usually needs turning only once a day; red honey needs turning several times a day; while yellow honey must be turned every hour. Coffee cherries processed by red honey take about 12 days to dry completely.

Front Street Coffee observed from red honey-processed green beans that the color before roasting is lighter than black honey, and it smells of a faint fermented fruitiness. After roasting and cupping, one can often perceive rich layers of fruit aroma and a clean finish. In addition to obvious sweetness, it also has bright acidity and a light fermented vinous feel.

In order to preserve the clear fragrance and honeyed charm of this Front Street Café Sol Naciente red honey-processed Catuai, while highlighting the caramelized substances in the coffee, Front Street Coffee adopted a medium-light roast and conducted cupping and tasting immediately.

Front Street Costa Rica · Café Sol Naciente Red Honey Process Catuai

Region: Costa Rica, Tarrazú Region

Estate: Café Sol Naciente

Altitude: 1750 meters

Processing Method: Red Honey Process

Variety: Catuai

Flavor: Sweet Orange, Cream, Grapefruit, Honey, Black Tea

In terms of dry aroma, this honey-processed Catuai from Front Street Café Sol Naciente emits obvious sweet aromas of orange, candied fruit, and cream after grinding, accompanied by pink floral notes, hazelnut, and a hint of fermentation. The aroma is rich and dense, making it very pleasant to smell. As the high-temperature hot water hits, the coffee begins to transform into sweet aromas of honey and toffee.

Through slurping, Front Street Coffee perceives diverse layers of fruit flavors in the coffee. At high temperature, it first shows notes of red florals, grapes, dried prunes, and apricot. As the temperature drops slightly, the fruit acidity becomes bright and refreshing, and citrus-like aroma fills the mouth, mixed with a subtle black tea note. The overall mouthfeel is clear, with a sweet aftertaste.

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