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 and Rivense Caturra 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. However, this lot is different from the other Rivenses traditionally-processed-honey lot in that it is of the H3 variety rather than Caturra.  It is an F1 (first-generation) hybrid between Caturra and an Ethiopian landrace variety. In Central America, F1 hybrids are part of an effort by producers to increase the genetic diversity of coffee varieties in the region, to increase yields without sacrificing the quality of the resultant cup. 

This variety of coffee that has been through the full-Honey process, is known as ‘H3’.The full Honey process involves leaving most of the coffee cherry mucilage on the bean as it dries. H3 is thus the product of intense research and dedication for excellent single-origin coffees from Costa Rica.

Origin’s notes

This full-honey lot often develops deep fruit character, with tasting notes that have been described as concord grape, gummy candy, and raspberry lambic.

• Flavours: Red grape, mixed berries, wild honey, herbal tea, mixed dried fruit
• Body: Syrupy
• Acidity: Grape-like
• Roast: Medium
• Suggested brewing methods: V60, AeroPress, siphon, espresso & milk-based

Coffee details from Origin

“Rivense H3 Honey is a honey-processed Arabica coffee from the Ureña-Rojas family’s Café Rivense del Chirripó Micromill. The cherries are depulped but left with most of their mucilage (“honey”) intact, then dried on raised beds.

“The coffee comes from the Chirripó micro-region in Costa Rica’s Brunca area, where the Ureña family’s operations include several farms and a processing mill. The land lies at high altitude (above 1,500 m), with volcanic soils and abundant shade, giving the cherries a long drying period in a stable climate. The Ureña-Rojas family practices sustainable farming, protecting water sources and managing shade trees to maintain soil health.”

• Country: Costa Rica
• Origin: Café Rivense del Chirripó, Brunca region
• Altitude: 1,300 - 2,000 masl
• Variety: H3
• Processing: Honey
• Owner: Régulo Ureña and Isabel Rojas