The Costa Rican coffee from CoopePalmares is a fully pulped natural sun dried coffee. The project to produce an African natural style coffee involved 12 growing districts, approximately 20 coffee growing families per district. Additionally 20 international coffee roasters were invited to Costa Rica to witness the process, cup the coffees, and critique the results.

I have received the last container of coffees from the CoopePalmares pulped natural project. While in Costa Rica cupping the coffee was a fairly straightforward process. Although there were many coffees to cup, I had no control of the roasting and considered it to be somewhat inconsistent. Here in the shop the differences in character between the two coffees becomes fully apparent. Our first container, "San Rafael" I found somewhat lighter than expected, just a touch thin.

Palmares Especial is a thicker, chewier, more robust Costa Rica coffee. In my excitement I called my importer and purchased every available pound of this coffee left in North America. This amounted to an additional 21 sacks of Palmares Especial, enough to last through the end of the year.

This is an incredibly clean coffee, clear with the flavor of chocolate malt and deep sweet cherry. When hot the coffee seems deceptively sweet, as it cools the flavor develops a more round and robust character. A strong sharp distinct taste of ripe coffee cherry pervades the entire cup. The aroma is particularly fresh sweet cherry, imagine sniffing a freshly opened cherry coke cola and biting a chocolate malt-ball, and you have an idea of what I'm talking about!

Cupping Your Coffee at CoopePalmares