Costa Rica La Candelillas Washed

This one is a great story. This crop is all from one family, four amazing sisters who both grow the coffee and do the processing on their own coffee mill. They are in the Tarrazu region and call their farm "Candelillas" which means fireflies because of the great number of them on the farm.

Unlike some Costa Rican coffees where the dominant flavor is floral and fruit, the taste here is more of chocolate and caramel. It does have a nice sweet fruity aroma which then turns into sweet chocolate as you taste it. Washed Costa Ricans are not known to be particularly complex, but rather they are enjoyable for their subtle nuances. The acidity is not overbearing, and the aftertaste is clean and pleasant, making it easy to go back for another refill. We usually describe washed Costa Rica as "Balanced" because it has a medium acidity, medium complexity, and medium body.

We roast it 45 seconds past the 1st cracks, and not into the 2nd cracks. Roughly half way between the first cracks ending, and the second cracks beginning, is a great ending point for this bean. There’s a surprising amount of body and smoothness for a coffee of this fairly light roast level. The beans like as much airflow as possible while being roasted. If you're roasting in an oven, you may find the outside to get overdone while the inside is underroasted. But if you have an air-roaster, they will do particularly well. In a drum roaster, just make sure to keep them spinning and keep the airflow high, and don't overdo the flame.

US Arrival June 2023