Café La Violeta
Café La Violeta, comes from the Beneficio El Cedro mill in La Violeta, which is located in the central valley 36 kilometers south of San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital. It lies in the prime coffee region of San Marcos - Tarrazu, famed for producing some of the best coffee in the world. The harvest season in La Violeta runs from late November until mid-February.
Quality
Café La Violeta is characterized as an extremely well balanced and clean cup. It is known for its berry and citrus overtones and a hint of chocolate. This coffee is medium-bodied with a bright acidity characteristic of the altitude and region. It has high uniformity, brightness, flavor, and a great nutty finish. Café La Violeta is hand-picked and sun-dried which account for much of the superior flavor. Hand picking ensures that only the ripest beans are removed from the bush and the others are left to reach maturity. The traditional sun-drying process is slower and more gentle than conventional machine drying and is the primary process used at Beneficio El Cedro.
Roast
Café La Violeta is roasted just light of medium, the ideal roast to bring out its finest attributes. This cup is mild in flavor, medium in acidity (a term similar to the dry/tannin quality in wine), and results in a cup that is medium-bodied with an aftertaste that is crisp and slightly nutty. This is a well-balanced coffee that should please all coffee drinkers with its well-rounded flavor. Café La Violeta is craft roasted in small batches by Coastal Roasters in Tiverton, RI.
Sustainable Practices
Café La Violeta and Beneficio El Cedro have a rating of 90 in Starbucks social responsibility certification, C.A.F.E. Practices. This means that they meet the best practices standards with regards to product quality, economic accountability (transparency), social responsibility, and environmental leadership in both growing and processing. If you are interested in finding out more about this rating, please visit Scientific Certification System's website.
Members of the association of Beneficio El Cedro use only organic non-nitrogen based fertilizers that are individually assembled in response to soil conditions to provide only the specific nutrients lacking in the soil naturally. No pesticides, herbicides, or insecticides are used on their fields and the application of fertilizers is stopped three months before the harvest. Fields are interspersed with natural shade-giving trees and have areas of conservation where any removal of vegetation are prohibited. The fields are carefully planted and tended to minimize soil erosion. The coffee berries are depulped in a dry process, which significantly decreases El Cedro’s water usage compared to the majority of coffee mills. Waste water from washing the coffee berries goes through a three stage organic treatment to remove any solids and separate out the pure water, which is used as a powerful organic fertilizer for pastures and shrubs. Eighty percent of the coffee is dried in the sun, which minimizes the use of electricity and creates a better specialty cup of coffee. The skins of the coffee berries are composted with calcium and microorganisms to speed up decomposition and are then applied to the coffee fields as fertilizer.
Independent Production
Beneficio El Cedro is run by an association of thirteen families from the community. Before founding their own mill, the members of La Violeta were forced to sell their coffee through middlemen to two large cooperatives that did not pay a fair price. Due to poor management, both of the cooperatives failed in the 1990s. Private companies emerged to fill this gap, but so many intermediaries were involved in the process, that hardly a livable wage trickled down to the producers. Following the crisis in the coffee sector from 1998-2001, the thirteen families came together to found a small independent mill and eliminate middlemen by selling much more directly to buyers. As a small, independent producer, El Cedro produces around 70,000 kilograms (150,000 lbs) of coffee per year, about one one-hundredth of the quantity produced by the large cooperatives in the region.
Interested in roasting your own coffee? Contact us to find a Crosby & Baker retailer near you providing green Buena Beans coffee and home roasting equipment.