Solis y Cordero - Costa Rica - Yellow Catuai - Black Honey
Introducing this years Cup of Excellence winner, Ivan Solis! This Yellow Catuai comes by way of his micromill, Solis y Cordero, and is categorized as a 'black' honey. Expect a deep, caramelised coffee with notes of prune, blackberry, and black tea.
Ivan has been working in coffee production for over 20 years. He started out working at one of the largest milling operations in Costa Rica, before going on to operate his own wet mill and eventually owning his own farm, Finca Voo, from which he just won the Cup of Excellence. Ivan's coffees are beautiful expressions of 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.
Info
Mill
The Solis y Cordero micromill 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.
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.
Impact
The mill helps producers differentiate their coffee by maintaining farm-level traceability and by using innovative, quality-focused processing methods to further improve their coffee. They also offer a feedback loop to the farmer about things like quality, amount of defects etc..
Elevation
The Solis y Cordero micromill sits at 1,650 meters above sea level, the climate is rainy from May-November and dry from December-April.
Variety
This lot is 100% Yellow Catuai, a Brazilian cross between Yellow 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 left to ferment for 48 hours before being pulped and laid to dry on raised beds. The seeds with their mucillage are constantly monitored and turned every few hours to ensure even drying. The beds are covered at night to avoid the humidity and 'rehydration' of the coffee mass.
Black Honey
For Ivan, the length of the initial fermentation determines the grade of honey. For this lot, 48 hours of fermentation before pulping yields a 'black' honey.
The different 'levels' of honey are loosely graded by colour: namely white, yellow, orange, red and black. As the sugars in the mucillage caramelize, they darken in colour. The more mucilage that is left on, or the more fermented it is, the more the sugars caramelize or darken. Coffee with almost all the mucillage removed would be labeled as ‘white honey’, whilst a ‘black honey’ has almost all of the mucilage intact. This variation and control is what makes the honey process so interesting, as even small changes can create substantial differences in the final cup.
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.
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