Region // Tarazzu - San Martín de Leon Cortes

Varietal // Caturra, Catuai, Bourbon

Process // Wet-Process 

Tasting Notes // Apple Cider, Cherry, Lasting

Cup Characteristics: Heavier on the tongue than your classic Costa Rican. Rich and chocolaty up front, with notes of spiced cider in the finish. Cafetín 1900 remains a favorite here at Verve.

Sourcing information: We at Verve are very fortunate to have an exclusive relationship with Cafetín, continuing our 4-year relationship with Tim O’Brien and his mill. From countless hours riding in pickups and talks of experimentation in coffee (including the development and discovery of the petite-berry concept), we continue to forge ahead with this year’s beautiful crop. Located at the end of an uncharted dirt road, on a high mountain ridge in the coffee-growing region of Tarrazu is the small village of San Martín. Tim O’Brien was a coffee-loving former Peace Corps volunteer who had previously lived and worked in this village. Together with the farmers, he built a small processing facility (micromill) to provide the farmers of San Martín with the means to process their coffee on their own schedule and with their own mark. This changed the lives of these farmers because as a result of its altitude and the cool mists that cover the mountain tops, the farms around San Martín come into full production much later than they would in a warmer, more typical area of Costa Rica. By the time harvest came around for the San Martín farmers, the large cooperatives in control of most of the country’s coffee would have already stopped buying coffee. The farmers were left with two options: harvest and sell immature cherries (effectively wasting what would later produce an amazing cup), or wait for the cherries to mature and risk the chance of having no buyers. Now, with a micromill in the area, the coffees not only could be harvested at peak ripeness, but they could also be sold with a label that shined a light on their own niche coffee community; one that produces some of the best coffees in Costa Rica, and would otherwise never be heard of. In many ways, Tim literally put San Martín on the map.

With this particular lot of Cafetín, O’Brien found something special. In experimenting with different lots that all fall under the Cafetín umbrella, he found that coffee from one lot stood out among all the others. It was from a farm located at 1,900 meters, which makes it one of the highest grown coffees in Costa Rica.

We are proud to have an exclusive relationship with both of Tim’s farms this year and look forward to sharing them with you.