Costa Rica - Roble Negro Espresso

Tasting notes

In the roaster’s words

Surprisingly nice. We keep hitting that description - this coffee is just a really, really nice washed Catuaí from Costa Rica. Fresh, singing, incredibly sweet and moreish, we were so surprisingly delighted at this coffee we decided to run it as the next single origin espresso. Having first featured coffee from Roble Negro ("Black Oak") out of season as Interval V1, which even nearly a year off the trees were holding up super well - we were dead set on getting some fresh crop lots. We also had the pleasure of hanging out with Alexander Vasquez (of the Familia Vasquez who run Finca El Cedral and the Roble Negro micromill) at the last World of Coffee in Brussels, an all-round lovely chap. Trad washed Catuai from Costa Rica: If you judge this book purely on its cover, you will be sorely missing just how nice this coffee is. Roble Negro is an incredibly ecologically minded farm, growing the majority of their coffee under shade (so they are often late to harvest with longer ripening) and with native forest reserves. This year was a down year for volumes from Costa Rica, with less cherries on the trees competing for nutrients and energy and the extended ripening that Roble Negro finds this is really a best in class for the type. We were down to the wire on releasing this as a filter, but circumstances/logistics made us pick espresso in the end - and leaning on the roasting a little bit to emphasise body and sugar browning sweetness really seems to bring out the best possible version of this coffee. Brew Guide: Best Brewed with: Espresso & Chunky Filter Medium-Light Roaster Influence: We've been really enjoying stretching out the total time of our smaller batch espresso roasts recently - which to be honest, for us means bringing them closer to more "normal" roast times, closer to 8 minutes+ total. If we think of the sort of specs we might give a Central American house filter, when we take a similar coffee like this that bit further for espresso we're adding another 20-25s at the end of the roast and a degree or two more to the end temperature. Especially for a more traditional washed coffee like this, we're looking for ooey-gooey still syrupy body as an espresso and all the sugar browning character, without hitting more heavy generic "roast" flavours of the sort we might find in something like Interval Best Rested: 3+ weeks Filter: 65g/L, 92°C when fresh; 90°C when rested Espresso: 18g/40g/30-34s We're tasting: Super sweet and syrupy bodied - we get morello cherr

Notes

Roble Negro micromill; Finca El Cedral; shade-grown with native forest reserves; best rested 3+ weeks; espresso recipe 18g in, 40g out, 30-34s; filter guide 65g/L at 92°C fresh or 90°C rested.