Costa Rica Honey

Tematica means subjects or topics in Spanish. It was Carlos’ vision to have a place where he could do and share with others various disciplines - with focus on environment, coffee, sustainable agriculture, and exchange of ideas. That was his dream when he was finally able to take out a loan and purchase the land which became available in the early 2010’s - just on the other side of the Pirris River from his home. After years of hard work, sacrifice, and development the farm now houses the wet mill, Don Eli, a structure for visitors to stay and host events, as well as an “organic” farm for research and demonstration. The area of Tematica where coffee is grown in an organic or biodynamic style is actually referred to as the Chamaco Lot. This is because Carlos bought the land from a man named Chamaco who had not disturbed the land since he purchased it in the 70s.

Unlike many farms in the area, the forest which makes up the Chamaco Lot was not destroyed in order to make way for coffee plantations. Rather, the land has coffee planted among the indigenous growth that has always resided there. Many of the coffee trees found in this farm were planted nearly 100 years ago. Back then, the Typica Variety or as it’s often referred to as Cafe Arabigo was popular to plant. Until today you can see those same tall, strong, and low yielding plants growing under the canopy of the natural forest. As time went on, Carlos added plants where he could within the woods - experimenting with a few other varieties ie Catuai, Villa Sarchi, Mundo Novo, Yellow Bourbon, Ethiopian Lineages, and others. 

These efforts were always to see how each variety would behave in this shaded, crowded, and organically managed plantation. Carlos has been dedicated not to use any synthetic products in this farm - which is nearly unheard of in a productive field. The only materials added or used in this farm are made on this property from byproducts also coming from the same land. While it is not the most productive farm Carlos has, it definitely attracts a lot of intrigue and results in a quality in which one can taste the sustainable nature of. This is a natural coffee farm that the entire family is very proud of, has taught and inspired many coffee lovers, and creates some beautiful coffees to drink.

Milenio is a first-generation (F1) hybrid originating from a cross between rust-resistant T5296 and Ethiopian landrace Rume Sudan.The variety was part of the first wave of F1 hybrid varieties created by a consortium including French research institute CIRAD, a regional network of national coffee institutes in Central America (PROMECAFE), and CATIE. F1 hybrid varieties are still relatively new in coffee agriculture; only a handful have become commercially available to farmers in the last 15 years, and only in select countries. As a side note, this variety took 3rd place in cup of excellence a couple of  years ago, coming out of the growing region of Brunca - shocking the coffee community.

Jacob wanted to make a standout process for a standout variety of coffee. On it’s own Milenio is big and intense and the skin and mucilage are thick. He chose to do a honey  process which he dries with the utmost care and patience. The technique for this drying takes a lot of space and time, but it’s worth it. It is all done on raised drying beds after a couple of days fermenting the fruit in poly bags.The fruit is pulped and only some of the mucilage is taken away. The coffee is constantly being watched, turned, sorted, and covered by shade at times so that the process is not too fast. The coffee takes a good 3 weeks  to reach it’s optimal moisture content and when it comes to dry milling the utmost care continues into it.

This was the third season that Don Eli could peel their own parchment, but the second year that they truly sorted the vast majority of their own coffee from start to finish. Since the anaerobic lots are so small Jacob usually sorts them by hand at the very end. Carlos does it once again with his visionary idea of having their own dry mill. He sourced used, but good, equipment and Jacob quickly picked up how to use them to prepare excellent coffees for export.