Flavour Description: Peach, Apple, Floral.
Producer: Ivan Solis.
Region / Country: Costa Rica.
Varietal: Typica.
Process: Natural Process.
Lot Name: La Aurora.
Roast Level: Medium.
Ivan Solis is a success story built on the foundation of the coffee producing culture of the growing region, Tarrazu. Today, he is somewhat of a coffee magnate in the prestigious micro region of Santa Maria de Dota - he seems to know about all the farms and people comprising his beloved, small town. However, Ivan had to struggle and earn his way into the position he is in now from extremely humble beginnings. His hard work ethic, passion, experience, and vision have brought him to create the Santa Fe wet mill with his wife and 3 kids.
Copey is a little known yet highly respected area within the Tarrazu producing region of Costa Rica. Its immense altitude and uniquely cold and wet climate have created the perfect place for growing extremely high quality micro-lot coffees. In fact, only around 10-20 years ago the farming community did not believe that coffee could be grown there. Over that time the climate has slowly but surely gone up in temperatures and some valiant growers began cultivating coffee in the micro region. Some of those first farmers to plant in Copey found a few years later that the coffees preformed especially great. The untouched soils and newly formed climate along with the right selection of varieties planted in Copey resulted in an amazing new coffee producing area. If you ever visit Copey you will find that it is almost akin to the Swiss Alps - rolling hills, lots of green and water, cute cabins and towns, and very gentle hard working people.
After decades of working in coffee and literally starting from the bottom, Ivan and his family were finally able to purchase their very own farm. They came up upon an outrageous opportunity and got a plot in, the now famous, Copey. It was already planted with Catuai, Caturra, and Geisha - the family is planting many more varieties to have. It did not end there, the family chose to submit a Catuai lot from their newly acquired Copey farm and received SECOND PLACE! It was a real astonishing feat for a normal Catuai variety to garner such a high spot in this highly contentious competition.
Processing:
Once the cherries are properly collected and delivered to the wet mill they are washed with clean water, passed through a floating system. Afterwards, the cherries are moved to raised drying beds and laid in a medium layer for slow drying. The whole family is involved in drying the coffee which needs to be moved frequently to ensure a homogenous drying that is slow and controlled. During the day there is direct sunlight and at night or when it rains the family covers the drying beds with a plastic tarp. The drying typically takes between 15-25 days of drying. The whole process results in a cup with fruity flavours and great sweetness.