
Granitos Typica
This is the fifth time we have bought from the the Calderon family’s micro mill, Granitos de Altura.
The mill is mainly run by Omar Calderon, and lies just outside the town of Santa Maria de Dota, in the Tarrazu region. We have visited Omar several times, and dined with the family at their house, located next to the mill, high in the Talamanca Sierra, overlooking the beautiful Los Quetzales National Park. They have several small farms scattered around the mill, effectively creating one larger farm.
This Typica comes from cherries grown at Ortiz 2000, named for its high altitude, reaching over 2000 masl. Omar then takes the ripe Typica cherries and processes them at Granitos, using a white honey method. To accomplish this, they leave a small amount of flesh on the seed during drying, adding sweetness and fruit character to the cup, but aiming to maintain a very clean representation of the Typica varietal.
The florals shine through, with a very clean and sweet cup, one of the most transparent representations of Typica we have tasted this year.
Costa Rica
We buy coffees from a long spine of Costa Rica, running through the country’s capital San Jose. This spine is famous for high quality coffee production the world over, resulting in high prices for farmers. One of the reasons for this is plentiful high altitude, the Talamanca Sierra runs through the region, with peaks of above 3000 masl. The main spine is split into 3 regions, the West Valley and Central Valley to the north of San Jose, and Tarrazu to the south.
In all of these areas, but especially in Tarrazu, agriculture and coffee growing is a main employer, vital to the economy. In fact, the population of Tarrazu is multiplied by three during harvest season, when workers flock to the region for the high wages paid to skilled pickers. The entire spine is mainly of volcanic origin, helping to provide fertile soils conducive to the production of consistently high scoring coffees, which we keep going back for.