Artisan Roast: Costa Rica, Planada, La Perla Del Café Micromill, Honey Process

The Perla Del Cafe micro-mill in Costa Rica's West Valley sits at the top of a ridge overlooking the town of Naranjo, and has consistently produced some of Costa Rica's most exemplorary coffees over the past decade. At around 1600 metres above sea level this is not the highest farm in Costa Rica, but a cool micro-climate slows the ripening phase and sugar development of the coffee cherries down creating the potential for delicious coffee.

The mill's 17 hectares is split into a number of smaller farms to manage micro-lots and quality over the season. This micro-lot comes from Planada, a plot sitting towards the highest altitude of the overall farm. It has a number of cultivars sitting side by side and we've brought selected Villa Sarchi from the plot, the most planted cultivar in the block. Like the majority of Perla Del Cafe's coffee, is processed by the yellow honey method.

Owner Carlos Barrantes' hands on quality focus led to the installation of a brand new parabolic drying system in 2016 and this makes sure the coffee dries in a controlled and consistent environment over ten to fifteen days. This control retains the sugar stability in the green coffee, giving Artisan Roast an exceptional raw product to work with in the roastery.

In this seasons Villa Sarchi microlot the sweetness is crammed full of dense and creamy caramel notes. Depending on the brew method there are then slight variations in the fruit like flavours present. Brewed as a filter the flavours are more towards dried apricot, pineapple with a medium intensity zesty acidity. Moving towards aeropress and espresso look for subtle hints of hazelnut, vanilla and red berries as well.