Better late than never... We would like to share some video from our trip to Beneficio Don Mayo in Costa Rica. We sampled quite a few coffees last year from Costa Rica and Beneficio Don Mayo, particularly their Bella Vista farm cupped near the top. We decided to use this coffee last year in our espresso to bring out some brighter highlights.

Pablo Bonilla, a third generation coffee farmer, works side by side with his father Don Hector Bonilla, to grow constantly the highest quality coffee in Costa Rica. Year after year, they place a few of their farms in the top 10 in the Cup Of Excellence and have even won the event a few years back. Those of you who had a chance to visit us here in the store for a cupping of their coffee last June might remember meeting Pablo Bonilla here.

What we were particularly impressed with was their attention to sorting their 3 pickings into multiple qualities. Although they were not grouping more specific lots, what they did separate gives them a lot of options in their drying to bring out different qualities in their flavor profiles. It gave us a lot of ideas for this years harvest and we hope to work more with them on a few special drying projects.

We look forward to sharing these explorations!