Costa Rica Cerro Alto La Union

Beneficio Cerro Alto micromill is located in Costa Rica's Central Valley region at roughly 1350 meters, with the farms stretching up to around 1450 meters above sea level at their peak The land where Cerro Alto sits has been farmed by the same family for four generations, and is currently managed by wife and husband Silvia Vindas and Fernando Elias. Beneficio Cerro Alto was one of the earliest micro-mills to be erected in the early 2000's, and has since achieved carbon neutral certification. While they produce full honey and natural process coffees too, this is a "white honey" process that is the standard in Costa Rica, and their version of a wet process coffee. The biggest difference between traditional wet processing and white honey is that the coffee is not fermented to remove the mucilage. The coffee is processed in a mechanical demucilager which are capable of removing most of the sticky fruit mucilage without a fermentation step. The coffee is still soaked in clean water, though a very thin layer of fruit remains intact during the drying phase. This type of process tends to produce the more vibrant, clean Costa Rican coffees, though they still shed a lot more chaff than you're average wet process coffee during roasting.