This coffee comes from COOPETARRAZU of the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica. The Community Coffee program with COOPETARRAZU has made a real impact on the communities that deliver cherry to this mill. This program has allowed buyers to separate out lots from specific communities that score over 86 points and pay a quality premium that the individual communities get to receive and decide as a group how the money will be used to improve their coffee production and their livelihood.
Those premiums have been used to build roads, large water tanks to store fresh water for the community, building roofs for the children’s schools, and many other projects that have had a direct impact on these communities. This program has motivated these producers to keep upping their quality.
Some of the best individual producers in Costa Rica used to deliver their cherry to cooperatives, and in an effort to segregate their own production and quality, opened their own operation. But there are still many producers of that caliber who still deliver cherry to cooperatives. This is where COOPETARRAZU comes in.
Welcome to my Table, here in the corner of this cafe. Today we’re sipping the Costa Rica Carrizal, from Holy Schmidt Coffee Company near Tacoma, Washington, courtesy of Roasters.co. Feel free to pull up a chair.
THEDETAILS:
region: Tarrazu, Costa Rica
farm: N/A
producer: smallholder farmers
association: COOPETARRAZU
elevation: 1650 – 1750 meters above sea level
cultivars: Bourbon, Caturra
process: fully washed, patio dried
certifications: standard
BREWINGSPECS:
method: Hario V60
grind: 17, Preciso
coffee: 25 g
water: 255 g
water temp: 203°
bloom: 1:00
pour: 2:30 concentric pour
CUPPINGNOTES:
The aroma of the Costa Rica Carrizal is incredibly intense; just opening the bag fills my brewing space with wonderful scents of honey, melon, citrus, and flowers.
Taking my first few sips immediately post-brew, the cup presents my palate with a light-bodied, creamy coffee that is all together… mild. With its notes of salted caramel, brown sugar, and cantaloupe it is certainly sweet… But mildly so.
As the cup cools off, the coffee starts coming to life. The melon flavor from up front intensifies a little bit and now I’m even tasting some clean, sweet flavors of apricot, nectarine, plum, and golden kiwi. Astonishingly, the more and more the cup cools, the brighter/livelier it gets! Now the coffee is bubbly, effervescent, dancing and glistening on the tongue with flavors of raspberry, white peach, pink lady apple, lemon, and a sparkling green grape acidity that just dazzles.
Wow. That was unexpected.
Light body; effervescent mouthfeel; grape acidity; clean finish.
FINALTHOUGHTS:
The Costa Rica Carrizal, from Holy Schmidt Coffee Company, was one of those rare, unique coffees that actually got better and better as the cup progressed. There are a lot of ways you can chart a coffee’s flavor intensity, but a linear incline, I’d think, is one of the more atypical chart progressions.
Honestly, throughout the first several sips of this cup I thought it was a plain, average coffee. As the cup started to cool off, though, it got much more interesting; it grabbed my attention a bit more. By the time I took my last few sips the coffee was bright and effervescent and incredibly flavor and it had me clamoring for more!
Holy Schmidt Coffee’s Costa Rica Carizal was a heavenly cup of “Job.” It might not be the godshot you’re looking for, but it’s definitely one hell of a revelation, falling just shy of divine.
(Too many puns…? Nah.)
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Andrew is a husband, father, dog lover, craft beverage enthusiast, content creator, and niche market Internet celebrity. Formerly of A Table in the Corner of the Cafe and The Pulitzer Project and contributor to Barista Magazine and Mental Floss, he’s been writing on the Internet for years.