Coffea Diversa - Costa Rica - Mokka - Winey Anaerobic
Mokka is an exceptionally rare variety with famously small cherries, and in turn tiny seeds. It is a natural mutation of Bourbon that originated in Reunion Island, formerly known as Bourbon Island, where the entire Bourbon lineage began. It is most likely a misnomer, although it is clearly named after Yemen's trading-hub port of Mokka. Sadly, Gonzalo produces only a tiny amount of Mokka each year, so this is in extremely limited quantity! Expect a deep, tropical, layered coffee with notes of mango, cherry, and rum. Exceptional!
Info
Farm
Coffea Diversa is a botanical coffee garden and the world's largest private collection of coffea. It is owned and run by Gonzalo Hernández, who has been collecting and cultivating rare and unique coffee seeds for over 25 years.
Microclimate
Biolley has a humid tropical microclimate with warm temperatures year-round, typically 20–30 °C, and high annual rainfall, especially during the May–November rainy season. Its forested, mountainous surroundings create stable, lush conditions ideal for growing high quality coffee.
Future
Gonzalo believes that the sustainabilitiy of this type of coffee farming is immense, as there is no genetically uniform population like there is in a mono-varietal plantation. These traditional farms are more susceptible to pests and diseases and lack the biodiversity of a 'multi' farm.
Elevation
Coffea Diversa sits at 1200-1350 masl in Biolley, a remote part of southern Costa Rica on the border with Panama. The farm borders La Amistad International Park, which is the largest forest reserve in Central America with 500,000 hectares of primary rainforest.
Variety
Mokka is an exceptionally rare variety with famously small cherries, and in turn tiny seeds. It is also has a short 'Christmas' tree type structure with very thin pointy leaves. It is a natural mutation of Bourbon that originated in Reunion Island, formerly known as Bourbon Island, where the entire Bourbon lineage began. It is most likely a misnomer, although it is clearly named after Yemen's trading-hub port of Mokka. It is also closely related to Laurina (Bourbon Pointu).
Process
Coffea Diversa call this process 'winey', which is basically a 'natural'. Slow drying in whole cherries can produce alcohol and esters as the sugars are metabolized and produce ethanol. This is the reason for the perceievd winey/booziness.
Genetics
"We have multiple botanical variants growing in the same ‘terroir’ and microclimate. So the climatic variable is fixed, and one can assess solely the genetic expression of each variety."
Cupping through Coffea Diversa's catalogue is truly a coffee enthusiasts golden ticket. It is life-changing. Coffee, like any industry, has trends. The most recent was the 'fermentation' or processing trend, the next, or current, is certainly that of varieties and the exploration of coffee plant genetics. You then realise Gonzalo began Coffea Diversa in 2003, and that the rest of us are just late to the party. In fact the industry as a whole is still catching up, World Coffee Research lists only 53 coffee varieties in their 'Varieties Catalogue'...
Coffea Diversa
“The name Coffea Diversa is latin for 'diversity of coffee'.”
The name seems fitting. The variety garden in Biolley, Costa Rica, currently holds 850 coffee varieties, all with 10 plants of each. Gonzalo selects the most unique and interesting coffees to grow in small plots as 'production'. Gonzalo now has coffee gardens in both Guatemala and the Jamaican blue mountains, to expand production and assess how these varieties grow in different terroirs. They also need the land: some of these varieties are so incredibly low-yielding that expansion was necessary. Take Kapataka for example, Gonzalo has 750 plants of this rare species, it yielded 4 pounds of coffee...
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