Costa Rica Tarrazú El Mango

This coffee comes from a farmer named Cesar Esquivel in Costa Rica's famed Tarrazú growing region. This particular lot is from a small plot called "El Mango", named for the fruit trees that are also planted here. It's a mechanically washed, which means that instead of using fermentation to remove the sticky fruit after depulping, they strip both cherry and fruit away using what's called a mechanical demucilager. It's the same machinery used to produce honey process coffee too. A simple adjustment to the demucilager affects how much fruit is left intact after depulping. The amount of fruit left intact often correlates to the color change as it dries, which is how they came up with names like "yellow", "red", and even "black honey". This lot was processed as what's referred to as "White Honey" in Costa Rica because there's so little fruit that you can see the white parchment layer that surrounds the seed. It's a close approximation to "fully washed", fermented coffee, with clean cup flavors, and acidity that sparkles. There is a bit more chaff produced during roasting than a fully washed coffee, but nowhere near the amount of dry process or honey process coffees. The coffee also presents darker during the roasting process, which is something to pay attention to when judging roast level, as they are often slightly lighter than they appear. The city of San Marcos is in the Talamanca Sierra highlands, with peaks reaching as high as 3000 meters. It's an ideal micro-region and climate for growing coffee with rich volcanic soil, great altitude, and is shaded from the hot afternoon suns by mountain peaks. The farms surrounding the Cerro La Cruz mill top out around 1900 meters above sea level.