Costa Rica La Pastora Black Honey

INFORMATION TASTING NOTES I met Minor way back in the mid-teens, and instantly fell in love with his family and his coffee. Early on, we featured his yellow honey as our Christmas coffee, and have served various naturals and honeys from La Pastora over the years. This one is a “black honey,” which means he stripped the skin off the coffee cherries and left all the mucilage inact to dry on raised beds. The coffee seeds turn black like raisins and the sugars promote fermentation, creating a coffee with more complexity and sweetness than a traditional washed coffee. Every time we return to visit Minor, he breaks out a bottle of rum and his daughters serve up sweet desserts. In recent years, he’s built a cupping lab that’s elevated overlooking the mountainside of coffee trees and the city of Santa Maria. It’s a view as sweet as the company. MAPLE SYRUP APPLE WALNUT