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Costa Rica: Las Lajas Micromill

May 04, 2022 2 min read

Costa Rica: Las Lajas Micromill

Honey Process ∙ Light Roast

Cotton candy sweetness, black current and honeydew

Grown at 1450-1600 Meters Above Sea Level (MASL)

Each month I get the pleasure of choosing a new single origin coffee to purchase and roast for our Origin Select project. While we always carry a standard selection of single origins representing some of our favorite growing regions, this gives us the opportunity to highlight some exceptional beans on a seasonal basis that we might otherwise have missed out on!

Our Origin Select coffee this month comes from a micromill in Sabanilla de Alajuela, Central Valley Costa Rica. Oscar and Francisca Chacón are third-generation coffee producers, but the coffee is more than just in their family heritage: it's in their hearts and souls as well. The couple is committed to quality and innovation, and are among the very first farmers in Costa Rica to produce Honey and Natural process specialty coffee.

In 2005, after years of delivering their cherry to a cooperative for the going market price, they decided to join the brand-new "micromill revolution" and buy their own depulper to have more control over the quality and the price they received for their lots. "At first, we didn't know what we were doing," Oscar explains. "We were just experimenting." That experimentation led to some of the most exciting new flavor profiles we have ever tasted: Now, the Chacons produce a wide range of Honey process coffees, modulating the drying time in order to create different effects in the cup.

Necessity bred more innovation for the family when an earthquake in 2008 wiped out electricity and water to their area during the harvest. Unable to run the depulpers or to wash the mucilage off to produce Washed lots, Francisca took inspiration from her knowledge of African coffee production and quickly built raised beds on the property.

Our roasting team decided on a light roast to highlight the natural sparkle of these delightful beans, which are quite different than our standard Costa Rica single origin offering that is available year round.

We hope you will enjoy this new selection in our ongoing Origin Select series of coffees that explores different coffee growing regions, farms, and processes. We roast our Origin Select series in-house, guaranteeing you get the freshest roast possible.