Costa Rica La Perla Negra (250g)
Deeply rich, crisply sweet, fruit- and chocolate-toned. Dried mango, chocolate fudge, narcissus-like flowers, roasted almond, fresh-cut cedar in aroma and small cup. Lively, silky smooth mouthfeel resonant, flavor-saturated finish.
Farm: Perla Negra
The Chacon family have been growing coffee high on the slopes of the Poas Volcano in Costa Rica’s Central Valley for three generations. Finca Las Lajas, their beautiful organic farm is well protected from the all-consuming midday sun by the shade of the Flame Trees that tease your eye with their blaze of floral orange.
Oscar Chacon and his wife Francisa, who run the farm, faced their difficult yet defining moment in 1995, when Oscar’s father died of cancer. Deeply suspicious that various agrichemicals stored below the living quarters and widely used on the farm at the time were responsible for Mr. Chacon’s cancer, Oscar and Francisca responded by banning the use of such chemicals from Las Lajas.
Transitioning to eco-friendly and sustainable organic practices was the only way forward and it took five years to rehabilitate the soil and change around the whole complex and intertwined system of agricultural practices. In 2000, Finca Las Lajas became the first coffee estate in Costa Rica to be certified organic.
Since then, Francisca who has taken charge of processing the organic Cattura and Catuai coffees, through her own curiosity, creativity and entrepreneurship has developed what can truly be described as unique hand-crafted, artisan coffees. With a systematic use of a Brix sugar-meter and through rigorous experimentation she crafted the drying processes that bring about different levels and types of sweetness in the coffee while it dries in its mucilage on raised African style beds.
Las Lajas arrived to our hands from the company Olam Specialty coffees. Olam coffees is a sourcing company focusing solely on high quality green coffees. They do the groundwork to identify, improve, select, and import the best coffees from the most interesting origins. Every coffee they buy or forward to a client is selected based on the cup profile. They believe that transparency through the chain and premiums going back to the producers is the only way to achieve the best collaboration. Collaboration with olam started 2 years ago and many of our coffees are based to their quality of transparency.
About Perla Negra
PRODUCER:Chacon Family
TERROIR:Poas Volcano
ALTITUDE:1500 m
PROCESS:Natural
ARRIVED IN:15kg Vacuum
VARIETIES:Caturra, Catuai
AROMA:Narcissus
FLAVOR:Mango, Cacao
BODY:Syropy
FINISH:Chocolate, Fudge. Cedar
The farm has refined the process, and today they produce unusually delicate and consistent natural coffees made possible only by the rigorous standards and strict control over processing that the mill implements. Only the ripest and most perfect cherries are processed using to the “Perla Negra” method. After delivery to the mill, the cherries are soaked in clean water to remove any debris or dirt. They are then immediately put to African beds (raised beds) or patios, where they are slowly dry for about 15 to 22 days.
Due to the demanding criteria of the process, a maximum of 10% of the farm’s annual production is processed as Perla Negra.
Process
This work gave birth to now famous ‘Red Honey’ coffee that is ripe melon super-sweet with a big mouth feel and the farm’s most famous product, ‘Black Pearl’ or ‘Perla Negra’. Perla Negra is a natural processed dried-in-the-fruit coffee, processed using the most complex of Francisca’s profiles. The hand-picked cherries are first carefully sundried on raised beds then further dried under a black shroud to create warmth that serves as a catalyst to develop even more natural sugars. The cherries turn black and emanate a heady aroma akin to that of a Christmas cake mixture with its rich fruits, soft brown sugar and a splash of fine sherry. The final product is an organic coffee of true distinction that is sweet, syrupy and dominant with the bouquet of ripe fruit flavors.
This coffee is certified Organic.
