FLECHA ROJA RED HONEYDIRECT TRADE PARTNERSEl CidralREGIONDota, TarrazuCULTIVARS Red & Yellow Catuai, CaturraELEVATION1850 - 1950 m.a.s.l.HARVESTFebruary 2017

STRAWBERRY • MAPLEHONEYDEW MELON

For over a dozen years now, the coffee in our annual Flecha Roja offering has come from the Coopedota cooperative. The mill and surrounding farms are nestled deep in the Talamanca mountain range in the heart of Dota County, Tarrazu.

Each year, both there and in our cupping lab, our green coffee sourcing team tastes dozens of different lots of coffee to identify the ones that will earn the Flecha Roja designation. These are all day lots, small batches of coffee harvested on one specific day, in one specific region, and often on one specific farm. We have grown accustomed to sourcing extraordinary coffees from Coopedota over the years, but this year’s offerings are some of the most exciting that we have seen in quite a while. We cupped over 60 individual lots, selecting just six for Flecha Roja. In all that cupping, this single red honey nano lot stood out. It was so distinctively sweet and clean that we set it aside for a limited release offering.

This year, the coop had more time on its hands than normal, so it paid an unusual level of attention to detail at every step in the process.

Coffee production in Costa Rica and across Central America tends to follow a biennial production cycle in which a year of

high production is followed by a year of lower production. This year, the biennial effect was even more pronounced than usual due to erratic rains in the spring of 2016, so the harvest was much smaller than last year’s.

Because the cooperative had less coffee to process, it made a daring choice (as it is known to do): it decided to wait 8-12 hours before depulping the cherry it received at its mill. This is not an uncommon practice. In fact, some of the producers we work with use this technique exclusively. It was new to Coopedota, however. Due to the the high volume of coffee that normally passes through the Coopedota mill, it does not usually have time to try something like this. The cooperative also used the low volume to experiment on the drying patio with “volcanoes,” forming parchment coffee into conical mounds to cool and slow the drying process.

Roberto Mata, General Manager at Coopedota likes to say “the coffee can not wait, it has to keep moving.” Well, this year the coffee was able to wait just long enough, gaining a more defined body, a more developed structure, and ultimately bringing the bold fruit flavors we’ve grown accustomed to from Flecha Roja, even more spectacularly to the forefront.

But this increased attention to detail in the milling process is only part of the story of this year’s fantastic Flecha Roja. Cooperative members implemented new practices in cherry selection and hand-sorting, and continue to invest in an experimental farm and agronomic assistance to foster cherry development and improve production.

The coffees in this year’s Flecha Roja Limited Release Red Honey was harvested in February 2017 from El Cedral; a cooperative owned farm with elevations that reach more than 1950 meters above sea level that has long been one of our favorites. This mixture of Caturra, Red and Yellow Catuai was sun-dried on the drying patio for 15 days and presents itself as refreshing, intricate and fruit-forward in the cup. We find clean, fresh notes of strawberry, maple and honeydew.

- J Mlodzinski GREEN COFFEE BUYER

A Dota nursery.

Daniel amongst the coffee trees at El Cedral.The view from El Cidral.