Costa Rica Los Cipreses Coffee

Costa Rica Los Cipreses

Local - Single Origin Coffee - 100% Costa Rican Coffee

Tasting Notes: Cherry, Kiwi, Milk Chocolate

Region/Farm : Los Cipreses, West Valley, Costa Rica

Producer: Max Salazar

Harvest Year: 2024

Processing Type : Special Black Honey

Variety : Mixed

Height : 1700-1800m

Roasting Date: It is on the packaging.

Despite its small area, Costa Rica is a country with a diverse climate; This has led to the formation of a very rich and diverse coffee industry. The business, called Los Cipreses, consists of two farms and a processing station and is located in the West Valley, which is influenced by the Pacific climate and is therefore drier than the Central Valley. These different climatic conditions reveal a unique aroma profile in coffee.

Max Salazar runs the farms San Cristobal (10 hectares) and La Isabella (13 hectares) with his family. These farms are named after Max's parents. Max's cousins and uncle Danilo also play an active role in the business. The name "Los Cipreses" comes from the cypress trees grown on the communal farm and sold as Christmas trees in December.

Initially, mainly Typica and Villa Sarchi varieties were grown on farms. However, over time, new plots were purchased and Villalobos, Catuai, Caturra, Geisha, varieties of Ethiopian origin, Millennium and SL28 were planted in these areas. In addition, promising new varieties such as L12-28 are first kept in the nursery for a year and then planted in the fields.

The structure of the farms has led to the formation of different microclimates. For this reason, special management strategies have been developed for each slope and direction. The winds in the area are quite strong (Hurricane Nate in 2015 greatly affected coffee production in this region), so Max and his family had to take various measures to protect their coffee plants from the wind.

Until 2019, Max and his family were shipping coffee berries to a neighboring processing station. However, from 2020 onwards, they decided to process part of the harvest in-house. For this, they built a small mill and greenhouse. The processing plant and the lowest altitude area of the farm are located at 1,680 meters above sea level. During the harvest period, about 30 additional pickers are employed.

Since 2017, production has been low due to various climate challenges. In previous years, harvests were around 600–700 fanega (1 fanega = 250 kg of coffee fruit), but since 2017 they have remained at around 300 fanegas. Most of this amount is generated during the mid-harvest period – which is usually when the highest quality coffee is harvested.

Max doesn't want to spray his coffee trees with chemicals. He prefers to fight diseases such as coffee rust with natural methods. In this context, he implements a good fertilization plan and plants resistant species. He doesn't use herbicides either; Weeds are kept under control by mulching (covering the soil with organic material).

The honey and semi-washed coffee lots produced on the farm are rested in bags for a few hours and then laid out on African-style raised beds. The yellow honey lots are turned over every hour, while the dark ones are moved less frequently. This process takes about 12 days. In addition, a limited number of naturally processed coffee is produced.

Max's special lot called "Special Black Honey" is a semi-pulped honey coffee, which is accompanied by a "juice" obtained from a natural batch just beforehand. This process works like this: naturally processed coffee berries are placed in a bag and this bag is hung and the juice leaking from it is collected in a container. This concentrated fruit juice is added to the batch of black honey to increase the flavor intensity. Thus, by-products that would normally be disposed of are efficiently evaluated.

The family also owns a cattle ranch in the San Carlos area with 50 head of cattle. They divide their time between the two production areas. However, since Max is more embracing coffee, he devotes most of his time to coffee. Max is also an active member of the specialty coffee and barista community in San José and has developed many ideas to innovate processes and improve quality at the mill. Instead of selling his coffee to large markets, he prefers to build few but stable and long-term customer relationships.