Category: Green Beans > Central America

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Costa Rican "SM Select" Peaberry

Sweet Maria's Coffee

For the second year, we are able to offer a really special Peaberry lot we had prepared for us with the the help of an extremely fine cupper in Costa Rica, and an excellent mill. This year, we have focused on Tres Rios for our special Peaberry (the Tarrazu crop was small this season), and the results are a Costa RIca coffee with excellent intensity and aftertaste. Once again, I have to be a bit vague about the friends who have helped us select this lot, but when you think of extremely high quality Costa Rican coffees, the correct name will come to mind. They were willing to hand-select peaberries from lots through this excellent Tres Rios mill and assemble the lot based on overall cup profile of these coffees. The project was overseen by a true "master cupper", Sergio Cruz, and this resulting coffee is more a tribute to his abilities than to anything I did. (I suppose I had the good sense to start the project!) Just like a master vintner would combine wines made from particular parts of the vineyard, Sergio has created a really complex cup with a lot more character and intensity that many Costa Rican offerings. And there is a lot to be done in the roaster with this coffee, with fantastic results for those with the ability to slow the roast in the interstice between first and second crack. The dry fragrance from the ground coffee is impressive; a dusky, pungent chocolate with toffee sweetness. The aroma is sweeter, with lingering spicy hints of clove and cinnamon, and vanilla. In the cup, there's a caramelly body, perhaps more body than any Costa I have had as of late. There's mild rose-floral nuances in the lighter City+ roast, with roasted hazelnut and pepper pungency. A bit darker means a bit more pungent spice, and more bittersweet in the chocolate. It alternates between sweet and bittersweet long into the aftertaste (which is particularly long for a Costa Rican). Now, Costas are still mild to medium intensity, clean coffees, but this is a cup you can explore on your palate and find subtlety in... and toying with roast levels and profiles yields some neat variations in the cup!

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For more information on this product, visit Sweet Maria's Coffee's website.