COSTA RICA
Finca Frailes
kôstkové ovocie, citrus, čierny čaj, horká čokoláda
The Palmichal micro-mill is an important partner for many specialty coffee producers in the Palmichal, Puriscal, Tarrazu and Frailes micro-regions of Costa Rica. Begun in the 2015-2016 harvest with 30 farmers participating, the Palmichal micro-mill is located in Palmichal, Costa Rica. With patios and elevated beds for varied kinds of drying, the mill is able to process coffees as washed conventional, a variety of grade of honey process and naturals.
The cherries for this lot were produced at the farm of Gerardo Calvo, Zaira Marín and William Méndez. The three are close friends who co-own and manage Finca Frailes. All three are lifelong coffee farmers, the second and third generations in the family to farm coffee. They planted the farm with coffee 30 years ago and have kept a regular renovation plan to maintain the farm’s health and productivity.
The trio focuses on growing the Caturra and Catuai varieties.
Farmers bring their cherry to the mill by truck. At the mill, they measure cherries by the half fanega (approximately 46 kg). The mill fastidiously separates cherry. First floating separates the cherries. They cover cherry with clean water so that half ripe, over ripe and diseased cherries float to the top while dense and ripe cherries sink to the bottom.
The second stage of separation happens when they de-pulp the coffee. The machine separates the skin and pulp from the beans and then the cherries pass through a screen called “criba.” The screen only allows ripe cherry through, the rejections pass through another way and sell as lower grade. This coffee was honey processed, so only the skin was mechanically removed. With the mucilage intact, the beans then move to the drying patios through a tube. On the patios the coffee is moved every hour to enable uniform drying. Average drying time on the patio is around 8 days.
13.50€
