San Jose Costa Rica Wholesale Customers

A stylish, go-to coffee that combines elegance and accessibility. Caramel sweetness melds harmoniously with zesty citrus, notes of persimmon and syrupy texture.

Producer: Jhonnathan Camacho

Region: San Juanillo, Alajuela Province, Valle Occidental, Costa Rica

Farm: San Jose, Genesis Micromill

Cultivar: Mundo Maya

Process: Red Honey Process

Altitude: 1500m - 1900m asl

Costa Rica’s West Valley is synonymous with honey processing in coffee, and arguably the place where the method first found widespread global recognition. Developed in response to forward thinking countrywide rules designed to minimise water use at wet mills water, the process is based around keeping as much of the coffee fruit mucilage on the seed as possible. Lacking the altitude of the Tarrazú region, the West Valley micro-mills embraced honey processing as a means to innovate, enhance flavour profiles, and explore new techniques in coffee farming.

This coffee from a small farm called San Jose is a great example of how delicious red honey coffee can be. With this variation of honey processing the post-harvest fermentation is medium in intensity. This retains sugars, focusing on dessert-like caramel and dried fruit flavours rather than the more fermentation forward flavours found with black honey or anaerobic coffees. Owner Jhonnathan Camacho splits his time between farming and working as a doctor. He also enlists the expertise of the well-known Genesis micro-mill, trailblazers in honey processing since the early 2000s, to process his coffee.

One aspect of this micro-lot from Jhonnathan that continues the forward-looking West Valley approach, is the selection of coffee Cultivar, Mundo Maya. This F1 hybrid, developed in Nicaragua, combines an Ethiopian Landrace with a Sarchimor (an Arabica/Robusta hybrid), offering both exceptional flavour and disease resistance. These F1 hybrids represent an exciting evolution in Central American coffee cultivation, marrying the high, aromatic notes of Ethiopian coffee with classic, accessible caramel-like characteristics.