Finca Voo - Costa Rica - Red Catuai - Natural
Introducing this years Cup of Excellence winner, Ivan Solis! Ivan won in the Experimental category, while this particular lot took 16th place in the Honey and Natural category. Interestingly, Ivan thought that it would be this lot that would take the top prize, and we agree! It is excellent. Expect a juicy and refined, deep coffee with notes of plum, cherry, and white tea. First place in our eyes!
Ivan owns and operates his own wet mill, Solis y Cordero, as well as his own farm, Finca Voo, which means 'flight'. Finca Voo has all the right conditions for growing exceptional coffee, and the farm is in good hands. Ivan's coffees are beautiful expressions of variety and terroir and are the result of doing 'the basics' extremely well: well-suited varietals, healthy trees and fruit, selective picking and sorting, and meticulous drying. When asked to describe his coffees in one word, Ivan replied: 'intrinsic'.
Info
Farm
Finca Voo means 'flight' in Portuguese. The farm has all the right conditions for growing exceptional coffee: high altitudes, steep slopes, 2 distinct seasons, rich volcanic soils, and rich biodiversity. Add to that the skill and dedication of Ivan and his family and the result is exceptional ‘terroir’.
Region
Los Santos is a mountainous zone in central-southern Costa Rica, in the province of San José. The region is perfectly suited to growing high quality coffee: a cool humid climate, high altitudes, mineral rich soils, and a rich and diverse native ecosystem.
Awards
Coffees from Finca Voo have consistently done well in Cup of Excellence competitions in Costa Rica. More impressively, with Catuai. Ivan's Catuai took 1st place in 2024 with 91 points, while 2nd place was a Geisha with 90.8.
Elevation
Fina Voo sits very high at 1900 meters above sea level, the climate is rainy from May-November and dry from December-April. With a wet climate during the 'growing' period and at these altitudes, everything happens slowly. The fruit develops and ripens very slowly resulting in complex acids. Most coffee trees can fruit in their 3rd year, whereas the plants at Finca Voo don't start to fruit until the 4th or 5th year.
Variety
This lot is 100% Red Catuai, a Brazilian cross between Caturra x Mundo Novo. The name comes from the indigenous language of Guarani translating to "very good."
Process
Only fully-ripe cherries are hand picked and then floated to remove defects. The coffee is washed with clean water to remove any bacteria that could spoil the lot, before being laid to dry on raised beds. Cherries are constantly monitored on the drying tables and turned every few hours to ensure even drying. The beds are covered at night to avoid the humidity and 'rehydration' the coffee mass. They are also covered in the hottest and sunniest part of the day so that the bean mass temperature stays stable. This controlled slow-drying results in a complex and homogenous lot, the total drying takes around 45 days.
Finca Voo
This farm is a dream come true for us, that is why it is called Finca Voo, which in Portuguese means 'fly'.
Finca Voo is a small farm with all the right conditions to produce exceptional coffee, and so it does. Coffees from Finca Voo have consistently done well in Cup of Excellence competitions in Costa Rica. More impressively, even with Catuai. Ivan’s Catuai took 1st place in 2024 with 91 points, while in 2nd place was a Geisha with 90.8. In the past few years Ivan has planted more exotic varieties such as SL28, Laurina, and Wush Wush, which will bare fruit in the next year or so, so we expect more awards to come...
Solis y Cordero
Ivan founded the Solis y Cordero micromill in 2018 with the intention to support smallholder farmers in the Santos region.
The Solis y Cordero name is synonymous with quality. For smallholders working with Solis y Cordero, the mill helps them differentiate their coffee from group lots by maintaining farm-level traceability and by using innovative, quality-focused processing methods to get the most out of their green coffee. The mill provides a variety of services to farmers including cherry processing, selling the coffee to international destinations, selling roasted coffee in Costa Rica, consulting on processing and quality control, and export services.
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