Costa Rica Cerro Dorado SHB EP

Ticos have a way of producing coffee with special intensity and a level of rhythmic precision. This lot begins and ends with the vertically integrated Cerro Dorado (the 250-acre coffee estate), San Carlos (the wet-mill) and Coffee Experts (the export company, which includes a dry mill called Marespi), which is owned and operated by three generations of the Marin family. Rafael Lorenzo Marin Zuñiga established the coffee estate, then his son Angel Marin Espinoza established the wet-mill, and Angel’s son Juan Carlos Marin Valenciano manages the export company. During the harvest cherries are placed in a large tank with water to remove the less dense and damaged beans that float. All of this is done with a recycling water system. Then the cherries are depulped, fermented and washed before being transported to raised beds to gently reduce the moisture to 11 percent. After drying, the coffee is rested for a period of at least a month in silos and then milled for export with an impressive series of machines dedicated to dehulling and sorting green beans by weight and color.