Our latest offering from the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica is from a farmer named Minor Jimenez, who is growing incredible coffees on his family farm. Minor comes from a long line of coffee farmers, but has recently decided to begin milling and processing coffees himself to increase quality. By doing this, Minor and his team can identify the best lots from his farm and control every step of the process, from planting to post-harvest.

From Todd, Co-Founder of Firelight Coffee: Minor Jimenez's coffee represents our continuing shift toward more traceable and sustainable year-round coffees. For origins that we stock consistently, like the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica, our goal has always been to develop long-term partnerships with individual smallholder farmers that will allow us to keep these coffees in stock and affordable, while giving the farmer and their family the stability afforded from forward-booking (committing to buying a set amount of their coffee well in advance). The benefit to you, the coffee drinker, is greater transparency into the coffee supply chain, more consistency, and almost always a much higher quality coffee. Relationships like this are difficult to find, but worth the effort! We hope you enjoy Minor's coffee.

From our exporting partner, Selva Coffee:

Minor's Story

Minor Jimenez is a down to earth family man who is extremely passionate about quality coffee. Together with his wife and extended family, they founded and operate La Cumbre which is both a wet mill and coffee roaster. Minor has been surrounded by coffee his entire life - coming from a prominent growing family in the renowned Tarrazu region. He has always found a deep love and appreciation for coffee and the yearning for taking it to new levels. The young family became craftsmen of their product, starting both a processing station as well as a local roastery. First, pulping their fruit with neighbors and drying the parchment next to their house, but today they have finally established their own micro mill. This is the first harvest from their new structure.

Lot Description

La Esmeralda is one of Minor’s most prized lots and his first choice to process fruit from the plantations his family has to choose from. This particular plantation is located just to the north of the family’s residence in the town of San Lorenzo de Tarrazu. This has been a long known high quality producing area for coffee growing in the area due to its drier climate as it is more exposed to the sun. Since the family has been growing large amounts of coffee for so long they really know how to manage their plantations. The most important thing is to work in harmony with the surroundings and focus on quality.

Processing 

The Jimenez have a very close relationship with the harvesters which come to collect coffee during the season. They really make sure that they are well accommodated and there is an understanding of how to operate in the fields. The outcome is that some very well selected coffee fruit arrives at the wet mill. Minor allows the fruit to rest and take on a slight ferment in large piles overnight before pulping the next day. The coffee passes through their nice, new system - getting cleaned up and removed of some of its mucilage. Afterwards, the parchment is put out on raised beds in thin layers to be sun dried for around 10 days.   

Read a full review of this coffee at the Coffee Review website.

• Origin: Costa Rica
• Region: Tarrazu
• Process: Honey Processed
• Elevation: 1650-1750 masl
• Variety: Caturra-Catuai
• Tasting Notes: Sweet Lemon, Creamy Vanilla, Chocolate Orange
• Fermentation Info: Fermented overnight before pulping
• Washing Station: La Cumbre
• Farm size in hectares: 20
• Water loss in roasting: 14%
• Importing Partner: Selva (export) & Trabocca (import)
• Brewing method recommendation: Drip, Pour-Over, Aeropress
• Origin Cupping Score: 85.5
• Firelight Cupping Score: 85