Producer: Eduardo Duran
Farm: El Roble - Los Duran
Region: West Valley, Costa Rica
Variety: H3
Process: Black Honey
Altitude: 1.475 masl
Harvested: 2023
Cupping notes: Blackberry, honey, cocoa nibs, dried figs, herbs, spices. Creamy and round mouthfeel. Long and sweet dark chocolate aftertaste.
Transparency - we believe in open and honest communication about our pricing. Here's a breakdown of what we paid for this batch of coffee:
-Coffee: 15.04€/Kg
-Shipping: 1.30€/Kg
-Packaging: 1.50€/bag
Quantity bought: 69 Kg
We have been sourcing Los Duran's coffees for three years now, and they undoubtedly offer some of the best coffee in Costa Rica.
Centroamericano H3 is a coffee plant developed through the crossbreeding of Caturra and Ethiopian varieties using a process called somatic embryogenesis, which involves cloning the plant tissue and then reproducing the H3 cultivar.
In recent years, coffee growers in Central America have increasingly adopted the cultivation of H3 due to its resistance to rust, an exceptional yield of nearly 30% more coffee compared to other widely-used varieties, and its ability to maintain the high-quality cup characteristics inherited from its parent plants.
H3, Los Duran, Costa Rica
The Duran family farm is in the village of Sarchí in the West Valley. Eduardo works the farm with his three sons; Barney is actively involved in coffee processing and production on the farm, and Kendall and Arnold work as software engineers. They all show great passion for coffee, and for continuing the work, their father has been doing for decades.
All three brothers spent most of their school holidays working in the field, picking, stumping, or planting trees. The Durans recognise that today, besides carrying on traditions, one must be innovative in coffee production. Kendall is working hard with his brothers to help bring their coffee to better markets.
The El Roble parcel ranges from 1300 meters to up to 1650 meters and grows different varieties such as Catuaí and Caturra and other new hybrids such as H3 and H17. These hybrids can have great results in production levels and the cup while being more resistant to disease and fungi.
Over the past year, Eduardo and Kendall have been building a micro mill, which is labour-intensive, on the small coffee plot behind their house. The Duran family opted for a traditional depulper instead of a high-end mechanical demucilager that scrubs all the mucilage off coffee using friction. This saves a lot of money and helps create more unique profiles in the cup. The new mill also has more space to accommodate the drying process, including a greenhouse with drying beds to keep up with the increasing micro-lot production.
This lot of Black Honey coffee was dried on raised beds for 21 days.
The unique honey process is employed to ferment the coffee. H3 cherries, picked at peak ripeness, undergo immediate de-pulping after harvest. The coffee, stripped of its pulp, is then fermented with its mucilage in bags for 24 hours before entering a six-day drying phase in the shade on white sheets. Following the initial drying, the batch is transferred to raised beds for an additional 21 days to complete the drying process.
This method is known as the black honey process, with the term "black" indicating that the beans take on a completely dark appearance upon completion of processing. This darkness signifies a high sugar content in the beans and signals that they have reached the optimal moisture level.
