This coffee is no longer available.
Genesis de Oscar
dried strawberry, dates, dense syrupy body
Producer | Oscar Mendez |
Region | Lourdes de Naranjo |
Elevation | 1650 meters |
Process | Red Honey (Patio Dried) |
Variety | Villa Sarchi |
Harvest | December 2015 - March 2016 |
Storage | GrainPro™ |
Relationship | Second Year Direct Trade |
Genesis produces some of the most stunning coffee we've bought in Costa Rica -- and there's not much to go around. In total, they only produce 150 bags of coffee each year. The farm itself is relatively tiny, only 8 hectares, but dense: they grow at least five different varieties of coffee, in addition to banana trees and other cover crops.
We first met Oscar Mendez, who runs his family farm, on our buying trip in 2014 after cupping his coffee at Exclusive Coffees of Costa Rica. Unfortunately, he had already sold the entire harvest that year. We made it a priority this year to secure this coffee, and were able to purchase 5 bags of a Villasarchi seperation.
This coffee is the combination of all the right things: good genetics, elevation, healthy soil & care in processing. Like most other producers we work with in Costa Rica, they're using a mechanical demucliager to pulp the coffee, so most (but not all) fruit pulp is removed, then the coffee allowed to dry. More specifically, Oscar uses a Red Honey Process, where significantly more mucilage is left on the coffee than in other coffees we purchase. In other countries, they call this type of processing "pulped natural".
If you're not careful, honey processing can produce off flavors can develop from rot & fermentation, but when done well bolsters a fruit character while retaining body. The Mendez family executes the processing spectacularly, and we're excited to continue offering their coffee.