What are the steps for processing Costa Rican red honey? What coffee varieties are mainly grown in Chenxi Manor?

Sweetness, a good quality that can add points to beans in the cup test, is also the flavor performance pursued by countless coffee brewers all the time. When it comes to which country's coffee beans often have high-quality sweetness, I believe many people will first think of Costa Rica, because the manor here is always good at using various styles of honey treatment, so that the coffee shows a quiet sweetness.

Today, Qianjie brings a red processed coffee from Morninglight Manor in Costa Rica, and feels with you the sweetness of the so-called honey treatment.

Tarazhu producing area

Tarrazu

Caf é Sol Naciente, located in Santa Mar í a de Dota in the Tarazu coffee region of Costa Rica, is only 40 kilometers away from the capital San Jose, and its most famous specialty is the coffee grown here.

The estate is located at an altitude of 1750 meters above sea level and covers an area of about 7 hectares, of which 6 hectares are used for planting coffee trees, half a hectare is used as a mountain reserve, and the other half hectare is used for processing and drying coffee fruits after harvest. Qianjie found on the map that the reserve next to the plantation is the starting point of the Los Santos Biological Promenade, which is connected to the vast National Forest Reserve. It not only has three different types of rainforest climate, but also the animals that inhabit the area provide 14 natural ecosystems, parallel to the Talamanca Mountains, making it a highly recommended adventure place for countless hikers.

The Los Santos area is a lush valley surrounded by three states. Almost every household here grows coffee because it is affected by warm and humid air from the Pacific Ocean all the year round. The annual rainfall reaches 2400 mm and the average temperature is 19 ℃, which provides a good planting environment for coffee trees growing at an altitude of 1500 to 2100 meters. Chenxi Manor is a paradise surrounded by such a primitive green belt and walks into the farm. All kinds of rare small animals can be seen everywhere.

Chenxi Manor

Sol Naciente

In 1990, Arturo Bonilla and his partner Xinia Mart í nez bought the land, which was originally used as a pasture, and started growing coffee. Today, the farm is run by them and their families. In order to practice fine management, they divide the manor into several micro-batch plots, and then match the appropriate treatment methods for different plots, and strive to create higher quality and traceable coffee.

Arturo and his partner officially established the ecological micro-treatment station in 2015, and named it "Morning Dawn". The logo of the manor is composed of three important elements, namely, Chaoyang, coffee and nature, which carry their vision for the concept of sustainable development.

Since its inception, founder Don Arturo Bonilla has devoted himself to the cultivation of boutique coffee and the construction of environment-friendly ecological agriculture. It is said that in the first year of its establishment, a green frog suddenly jumped on his back and later found that the frog was a rare species on the verge of extinction. This small tidbit surprised him, and also made the landowner always insist on protecting the ecological environment as the primary obligation on the way of coffee planting.

At present, the manor mainly grows three varieties, namely, Kadu'ai, Ethi í Christ 47 and Rosa. In addition, in order to improve the variety diversity of the farm, the manor owner has also cultivated many experimental varieties. The batch started in Qianjie is Kaduai variety, using red honey treatment.

Kaduai

Catua í

Friends who like to delve into varieties should be no stranger to Kaduai, because it is a name that often appears in the Central American coffee variety column. Kaduai can be found like Erida Manor, Flower Butterfly, Diamond Hill, Shirley and so on.

Kaduai was developed by the Institute of Agronomy of the State of Sao Paulo (IAC) using yellow Kaddura (Yellow Caturra) and New World (Mundo Novo) through artificial breeding, and released in 1972, originally known as "Hmur2077". Among them, the New World is the result of a natural cross between two ancient varieties, Bourbon and Tippica, which was first discovered in 1943 in Titeminiros, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

As a mixed second generation, Kaduai not only inherits Kaddura's excellent properties of small size, good acid quality and exposure to the sun, but also has the characteristics of high yield, strong disease resistance and good cup test performance in the new world. Kaduai has a good ability to resist disasters, especially in heavy rain or strong wind weather.

In addition, because the plant is short, it can be distributed at twice the density of other varieties, which makes it more convenient for people to treat insect pests and diseases. It is precisely because Kaduai has such an excellent performance in disease resistance, insect resistance, yield, and growth environment that it soon attracted a large number of Central and South American countries to introduce plants.

Red honey treatment

Red Honey

In a freshly picked coffee fruit, pectin is a very sweet substance, not only high in water content and sugar content, but also closely linked to the seeds (coffee beans) inside. When the fresh coffee fruit is processed with honey, the degree of retention of pectin is different, the color formed during drying will be different, and the naming of the treatment will be different.

The so-called red honey treatment is to keep 50% of the pectin of fresh coffee fruit in the sun, so it happens to be between water washing and sun drying, and it is also the most common type of honey color on the market. The darker the beans, the fewer times they need to be turned manually. The black honey closest to the sun is usually turned only once a day, the red honey needs to be turned several times a day, and the yellow honey has to be turned every hour. It takes about 12 days for coffee fruits processed with red honey to dry completely.

Qianjie observed from the raw beans treated with red honey that the color before baking was lighter than that of black honey and smelled of fermented fruit. After baking, it was often able to feel rich fruit aroma and clean finish, in addition to obvious sweetness. it also has bright acidity and light fermented wine feeling.

In order to retain the fragrance of this red honey treated Kaduai, while highlighting the caramelized substances in the coffee, Qianjie used medium-light baking and had a cup test for the first time.

Costa Rican Morninglight Manor Red Honey treatment Kaduai producing area: Costa Rican Tara Zhu producing area Manor: Chenxi Manor elevation: 1750 meters above sea level: red honey treatment variety: Kaduai

Flavor: orange, cream, grapefruit, honey, black tea

In terms of dry aroma, the honey treatment of this Morning Manor Kaduai gives off a distinct sweet aroma of oranges, preserved fruits and cream, accompanied by pink flowers, hazelnuts and a hint of fermentation, rich and dense. It smells very comfortable. With the impact of hot water, coffee began to turn into a sweet smell like honey and toffee.

Qianjie experienced a variety of fruit flavors in the coffee by sipping. At high temperature, it first showed the tonality of red flowers, grapes, prunes and apricots. As the temperature dropped slightly, the acidity became bright and refreshing, and the citrus-like aroma occupied the mouth. and mixed with black tea micro-rhyme, the overall taste clear, sweet aftertaste.

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