Costa Rica: Cerro San Luis Micromill White Honey
Cerro San Luis Micromill — SL-28 White Honey Farm: Cerro San Luis Micromill (Finca La Alquimia / Los Cipreses) Region: West Valley Country: Costa Rica Process: White Honey Variety: SL-28 Altitude: 1200–1900 MASL Harvest: December–April PROCESSING: Honey processing leaves some of the sticky, sugar-rich mucilage on the bean as it dries, adding sweetness and body to the cup. White honey is the lightest version of the style: nearly all of the mucilage is removed after depulping, so the coffee dries quickly and cleanly. The result is a polished, delicate cup rather than a heavy or funky one. Depulped cherries are spread thin on raised beds for the first days of drying, then moved to a covered patio and turned regularly until they reach their target moisture. ABOUT CERRO SAN LUIS: Cerro San Luis — "Saint Louis Hill" — is a family micromill run by siblings Alexander and Magali Delgado together with their spouses, who own and operate both the farms and a small mill in Grecia, in Costa Rica's West Valley. A micromill is a processing setup a family builds at or near its own farm so it can control every step from picking to drying, rather than sending cherry off to a large central mill. That means more care, more consistency, and far greater traceability. In the interest of improving quality and staying competitive, the family replaced their older stock about four years ago with ten or more varieties, including Caturra, Red and Orange Bourbon, SL-28, Catuai, Villa Sarchi, and Maragogype. Their plots sit adjacent to one another but are named separately for lot separation, and the mill sits at the family home just a few miles away. ABOUT THE VARIETY: SL-28 is a celebrated arabica variety selected by Scott Laboratories in Kenya between 1935 and 1939 from a drought-resistant Tanganyika line, with possible lineage tracing back to coffees from Yemen. Long prized in East Africa for its outstanding cup quality, it has become one of the more sought-after "experimental" varieties grown in Costa Rica's West Valley, where the cooler high-elevation climate encourages high sugar development in the cherry. SL-28 is known for structured acidity and pronounced sweetness, qualities that shine in a clean, light-roasted honey process. FLAVOR NOTES: HIBISCUS, VANILLA, BLUEBERRY
Whole Bean, French Press, Chemex, Kalita, Auto Drip, V60, Aeropress, Espesso