Costa Rica Roble Negro

This washed processed lot from Tarrazu, Costa Rica yields a vibrant cup with a juicy-like mouthfeel; expect lively notes of Strawberry, Pie Crust, and Lychee

This coffee was processed at Jorge Vasquéz Ureña’s Roble Negro micromill in the town of Aserrí in Costa Rica’s Tarrazú region. The micromill partners with local coffee growers like Ana Lorena Jiménez Castro to produce quality, traceable lots and to help facilitate access to international markets.

Coffee producer Ana Lorena Jiménez Castro operates Finca El Zapote and Finca El Cristóbal in Tarbaca, Aserrí, in the Tarrazú region of Costa Rica. Lorena purchased Finca El Zapote in 2019, initially working alone and planting Red Catuai and Caturra plants. She quickly expanded production, adding Yellow Catuai and Gesha varieties with the help of her son, Christopher. After working together through the 2020 season, the two would go on to acquire Finca El Cristóbal.

As a producer, Lorena aspires to be recognized for the high quality of her specialty coffee. To achieve this, she works as sustainably as possible using no herbicides and only calcium sulfate as a natural fungicide for her plants. Currently, Lorena processes all of her coffee at the Roble Negro mill.

The Roble Negro mill is located at Finca Cedral Alto in Tarbaca, Aserrí, Costa Rica. The mill was founded in November 2019, initially only fitted with drying beds and patios. The team made several important investments in the mill in 2020, growing the infrastructure to be able to process Natural, Honey, and Washed coffees. Currently the mill’s infrastructure includes:
– Gravity station, Floatation tanks, Pulper, Fermentation tanks, Drying beds and patios, Sorter, Peeler, Density table, Storage warehouse

The Roble Negro mill is well-known for its high quality standards and thoughtful sustainability practices. Operations at the mill aim to reduce the use of nonrenewable resources like water and electricity, repurpose waste products into natural fertilizers, and even ensure that the GrainPro used for packing and shipping coffee is reused or recycled by the mill’s global partners.

This lot of Catuai coffee underwent Washed processing at Roble Negro. Harvested cherries were sorted via floatation before being pulped. The pulped coffee is then fermented in tanks for 36–40 hours. The fermented coffee was then washed to remove any remaining mucilage before being moved to raised drying beds. The washed coffee was dried for 6–8 days to reach 11% humidity. Dried coffee was rested in the mill’s warehouse for at least two months before being milled and packaged for export.