Altos Villa Sarchi

Altos del Abejonal sits at 1800 metres above sea level in the Tarrazu region, only 70 kilometres south of the Costa Rican capital San Jose. The Talamanca Sierra runs through the region, with peaks of above 3000 masl. The farm is also close to the regional capital of San Marcos, which sits at 1350 masl and is home to 9000 people, providing the hub to an area famous for its high quality coffee production. The volcanic soil and afternoon cloud cover in the region provides the perfect conditions for Mauricio to produce excellent coffees at Altos. Most Arabica varietals grown across the world are descended from the same small set of varietals taken out of Ethiopia and cultivated in Yemen in the 1600’s. This creates somewhat of a genetic ‘bottleneck’ for coffee, coming from incredibly diverse within Ethiopia, to almost 98% of coffee production in Latin America comprising of plants descended from just two varieties, Bourbon and Typica. These were the first ever cultivated coffee varietals, isolated from wild growing coffee in Ethiopia, and slowly used to populate the coffee growing lands of Yemen, India, and then the New World as it was colonised by Europeans. Bourbon arrived in Latin America from Yemen via the French Island of Réunion, at that point known as Bourbon. Villa Sarchi is a natural dwarf mutation of Bourbon, discovered in the village of Sarchi in Costa Rica. The small size of the plants make them far easier to pick, and the cup profile is known for being very high quality, with intense fruit tones. This coffee also used a fully washed process, very rare for Costa Rica. Mauricio processed this small lot for us using the same depulper he uses to process his honey coffees, but then fermenting the coffee under water for 18 hours, breaking down the mucilage until it can be washed away. The coffee seeds were then dried with no fruit contact, for around 18-20 days. This results in a fresh fruit filled cup, with brighter notes of cherry, but still with the familiar Altos hazelnut backbone.