Long and Short Coffee - Don Chico - Costa Rica - Honey

This classic Central-born coffee has the hallmarks of a Costa Rican honey, with a sugary sweet tone running throughout. There’s a fruit and nut vibe in the opening which dulls down to a Nutella-like aftertaste. The hazelnut is present throughout if you pay enough attention. Body is full yet smooth.

The Don Chico farm sits within the Santa Cruz sub-region of the famous Tarrazu estate, and fairly extraordinarily for the region, it’s high at 1600-1700 metres above sea level giving it close to the highest altitude required for optimal growing conditions. (Highest coffee regions in the world are around 1800-2000 masl)

The farm was originally bought by Adolfo Gamboa’s grandfather, who passed it down to his father, who then passed it down to Adolfo. Adolfo then eventually named the farm after his father, Don Chico, and has been working on the farm for over 40 years. As he grows older, so will the tradition continue and the farm will be passed on to his children.

Finca Don Chico produces just 170 bags of coffee in total, 40 of which are processed by the Palmachil micromill and we are just lucky enough to have some.

THE HONEY PROCESS

This is somewhere between the wet (washed) and natural/dry processing methods, and the honey process is native to Costa Rica, although the Brazilians might have a thing to say about it too, since it’s fairly similar to the “pulped natural” process you might have heard previously from the packet of any Brazilian coffee you might have seen.

The cherries are pulped as they are in the washed process and then sun dried with their mucilage left on, just like a natural processed coffee. This is in an attempt to get the best parts of the washed process — the clarity/acidity found using this method — but to then save water they are left to sun dry which also helps enhance body and sweetness in the cup.

LETTERBOX friendly (single bag): YES