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Last month Anderson's employee Amber Mason took an Educational Coffee Junket to Costa Rica. Royal Coffee Importers Robert Fulmer and Alex Mason invited coffee clients from around the world to tour the Coopepalmares Coffee Facility. They received hands on information about planting and pruning the coffee trees. They also visited the Coopecalmares processing plant where they learned about traditional and new innovative methods for processing Costa Rican coffees. The group cupped and evaluated the collaborative effort between Royal, Sucafe, and Coopepalmares to produce a more intensely flavorful Costa Rican. After the final cupping was over, an auction was held and Amber bought 5 bags of one her favorite micro lot for our store. To learn more about Pulped Natural Coffee read Amber's Coffee Junket Blog.

Photos and Excerpt From Amber Mason's Costa Rica Blog

"After a meandering drive through the hills of Palmares we arrive at the Joaquin Lorenzo Sancho Public School for a brunch with the coffee producers' children.Children in plain uniforms line a walkway like paparazzi."

"The "almacigos" or nurseries have perfect rows of glossy deep green leaves. I crouch between them and rub the leaves for scent...The older fields need pruning and I take a small saw in hand and fell half a coffee plant in a few swift strokes."

"...fresh picked cherries land at the receiving dock and are measured into three-foot square containers and counted on a primary-colored abacus. Coffee is shuttled...using compressed air and conveyor belts--water is only used a few moments and even then it is continuously recycled for use again."

"We follow the path through the de-pulping and washing and then outside to the raised African beds where the coffee dries naturally in the sun."

The special Micro Lots we will taste are the result of a project that required detailed planning by each individual grower within the co-op. Coopepalmares consists of twelve hundred small contributing producers in seven sub-districts. Field managers carefully monitor the ripening of the coffee cherries. On the peak day of ripeness, a one day harvest is selected and a couple of twenty-five bag micro-lots from each sub district are set aside. Most of the Costa Rican coffees we drink are fully washed and the mucilage is stripped off or dissolved. Sucafe decided to process these particular Costa Rican micro-lots in the pulped natural style, leaving 50-100% of the "honey" or mucilage on the pergamino. Then the beans are sun dried on the newly constructed raised African-Style beds. Compared to the typical one hundred percent washed Costa Rican coffees, these pulped natural Micro-Lots posses a more concentrated and intense flavor.