Costa Rica Palmichal Natural

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Ureña Family
Varietal: Caturra & Catuai
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1,500 - 1,600 MASL
Cupping Notes: Black Cherry, Brown Sugar, Sweet Tea

Description: Palmichal Micromill has a state-of-the-art micro-mill that has been under constant improvement since it was first built in 2015. Their goal is to enhance the already very high quality of some of the top farms that they work with, through alternative processing methods. They are always experimenting to find the best process for each varietal and farm to maximize the complexity of each coffee and create the most value for everyone involved. They process all grades of honey, natural, and several anaerobic fermentation types (this year we got a fun “cinnamon anaerobic” from Palmichal).

Paul Cascante Ureña (age 32) is currently the manager of all his family farms, which are located near the town of Palmichal and sum up a total of 14 hectares. Paul has a degree in agronomy, and at a young age, his vast knowledge shows not only by talking with him but also by seeing his pristine plantations. Paul is currently planting different varietals that will give him better yields and cup qualities. It's always refreshing to see a young farmer who is motivated and doing such a good job.

After ripe cherries are hand-picked they’re floated to removed low density cherries. The cherries are fermented for 30 hours in a hopper. Coffee is dried for 18 days on a patio (always covered at night). Once the coffee reaches a humidity of 10.5% it rests for 2 Months before being hulled out of the dry husk and then going through weight, screen, density, and color sorting.