Notes: Chocolate, lychee and apricot
Origin: Central Valley
Producer: Oscar and Francisca Chacon
Altitude: 1600 masl
Variety: Starmaya
Process: Alma Negra
Information:
This coffee comes from a family micromill run by Oscar and Francisca Chacon, a third-generation producers. In 2005, frustrated by cooperative prices and limited control over quality, they invested in their own depulper and began experimenting. When a 2008 earthquake cut power and water to their farm mid-harvest, Francisca drew on her knowledge of African production methods and improvised raised drying beds on the spot. That necessity-born innovation shaped everything that followed, and Las Lajas is now one of the most respected names in Costa Rican specialty coffee.
This lot features Starmaya, an F1 hybrid crossed from Marsellesa and an Ethiopian landrace, bred in Nicaragua for rust resistance and high yield, and increasingly sought for its nuanced cup with bright and fruit-forward character.
The process is the Chacons’ own invention: Alma Negra, meaning dark soul. Only ripe cherries selected for high sugar content. They begin drying in a greenhouse for 2–3 days with constant movement, then spend their days on raised beds in open sunlight before being returned to the greenhouse each night, piled into mounds to slow the curing. Total drying takes 20 to 30 days.
