This coffee is part of a special trio of releases and tasting opportunities provided by our good friends at Origin Coffee Roasting. Along with the Rivense Caturra Honey and the Rivense H3 Honey, not only do these coffees provide the type of comparative tasting that we specialty coffee lovers live for, but it offers a brief glimpse and illustration of the important role that Costa Rica has played in specialty coffee in the last half-century.

You could argue that it is thanks to excellent lots of coffee from Costa Rica, due in part to its fantastic micro-climates and terroir, that we have the term ‘specialty coffee’. According to the Specialty Coffee Association, Erna Knutsen coined the term to describe such coffees back in the early 1970s. She is known by many enthusiasts as the ‘Godmother of Specialty Coffee’ and was a lifelong advocate for Costa Rican coffees.

It was also in Costa Rica that the honey process, a version of which this coffee underwent, was employed for the first time. A honey process is a kind of hybrid of the more common 'washed', and more traditional African 'natural' process. The honey process is meant to offer the best of both worlds: some of the clarity and acidity that washed coffees enjoy, but also the sweetness and body that naturals are known for. This is achieved by drying the coffee bean (seed) in some of its mucilage, but not in the entire coffee cherry. You might think of it as the rose wine of the coffee world, though there are many variations on the process employed today.

All three of the lots released by Origin come from the Café Rivense del Chirripó Micromill, a processing facility and organisation that has earned awards for the quality of its coffees, and specialises in this now ubiquitous, originally Costa Rican honey processing method. Run by the Ureña-Rojas family, the mill processes cherries from many smallholder farmers. Like in Africa, most Costa Rican coffee farmers operate on a small scale, and smallholder farmers actually represent 85% of the country’s coffee production.

This lot was processed using a more traditional version of the honey process which should offer that balance between acidity, sweetness, and body. It’s also worth pointing out that this lot, like one of the others in the trio, is of the Caturra variety, which is actually named after a town in Brazil where it was first discovered. While Brazilian in origin, Caturra has become one of the most popular varieties to grow in much of Latin America, including in Costa Rica.

Origin’s notes

“In the cup, this lot shows flavour notes of dark chocolate, dried apricot, candy apple, cherry, and cacao nibs.”

• Flavour: Dark chocolate, dried apricot, candy apple, cherry, cacao nibs
• Body: Dedium
• Acidity: Pear-like
• Roast: Medium
• Suggested brewing methods: Pour-over, siphon, plunger, AeroPress, espresso & milk-based

Coffee details from Origin

“Rivense Caturra is grown by the Ureña-Rojas family at their Café Rivense del Chirripó Micromill. The coffee varietal is Caturra, cultivated at altitudes of around 1,300–2,000 metres in their Brunca / Chirripó estate. 

“The Chirripó micro-region lies in Costa Rica’s Brunca area, nestled between the peaks of Cerro de la Muerte and Cerro Chirripó. This high-altitude terrain (up to ~2,000 m) has volcanic soils, cool temperatures, and well-distributed rainfall — ideal for high-quality Arabica. The Ureña-Rojas family’s micromill receives cherries from various plots, and they use shade-grown systems and sustainable practices to support biodiversity and soil health.”

• Origin: Cafe Rivense del Chirripó, Brunca region
• Country: Costa Rica
• Altitude: 1,300 - 2,000 masl
• Variety: Caturra
• Processing: Honey
• Owner: Régulo Ureña and Isabel Rojas