Don Alexis Thermic - Costa Rica
Ripe cherries are picked then they are rolled inside black plastic bag and layed over raised beds inside a greenhouse to ferment for 72h. Particular microbes resist to a temperature of 40 to 45C allowing each batch to ferment at a constant rate. The fermentation breaks down the sugars developing amazing fruit character and enhancing the Red Catuai natural sweetness.
Origin: Costa Rica, Los Santos Producer: Don Alexis Coffee
Altitude: 1800 masl
Variety: Red Catuai
Process: Natural Thermic Aerobic
Tasting Notes
APRICOT JAM / RED CURRANT / GREEN APPLE
The thermic aerobic process from Don Alexis Coffee really elevates the flavour profile of this Red Catuai without hiding the origin identity. A beautiful fruity experience from the Los Santos region of Costa Rica.
Owned by the Ramirez-Navarro family, its founder and father of the family Mr. Alexis Ramirez was a farmer that dedicated his entire life to agriculture.
In 2015 as an overcoming challenge, they made the big step of building their own micro-mill, "Los Campos" with the idea of processing the coffee themselves in order to focus on the quality and traceability of their micro-lots and stop depending on the cooperative system. Working via direct trade has always been a dream for the family, reason why working with Grounds has been such a milestone.
The main variety they cultivate is Caturra-Catuai, although they are taking new steps into planting F-1 Hybrid varieties on their farm. Now they also have the Esperanza variety. So we can expect to see new genetic innovation in their future offer.
Many of their lots are processed using fermentation techniques (aerobic and anaerobic), reason why their coffees tend to be complex, sweet and fruity.
The variety
Red Catuai
This Red Catuai lot from Don Alexis Coffee grows at 1800masl and it showcases wonderful flavour characteristics as well as a juicy and complex mouthfeel.
A cross between highly productive Mundo Novo and compact Caturra, made by the Instituto Agronomico (IAC) of Sao Paulo State in Campinas, Brazil. The plant is highly productive compared to Bourbon, in part because of its small size, which allows plants to be closely spaced; it can be planted at nearly double the density.
The processing
Natural Thermic Aerobic
Despite the catchy name this style of processing is truly interesting and in our opinion really impacts positively the character of this variety without hiding its identity.
Ripe cherries are picked then they are rolled inside black plastic bag and layed over raised beds inside a greenhouse to ferment for 72h. Particular microbes resist to a temperature of 40 to 45C allowing each batch to ferment at a constant rate. The fermentation breaks down the sugars developing amazing red fruit character and enhancing the Red Catuai natural sweetness.
The high temperature allows to drastically reduce the fermentation time whilst keeping the complexity of an extended one, controlling constantly temperature at least 2 a day allows to avoid any unwanted alcohol or bad flavours.
