SUMAVA
This is the fifth time we have purchased coffee from the Sumava de Lourdes micro-mill in the West Valley of Costa Rica. The mill is located just outside the town of Naranjo de Lourdes, and the two farms that serve it, Monte Llano Bonito and Monte Lourdes, sit between 1600 and 1790 metres above sea level. This mill is owned by Francisco Mena, who also co-founded Exclusive Coffees, our export partner in Costa Rica.
Francisco is very well-known in Costa Rican coffee circles, having been one of the driving forces behind the country’s ‘micro-mill revolution’, empowering smallholder producers to take control of the types and quality of coffee they produce. After founding Exclusive in 2008, Francisco set about developing microlots with these producers, based on the needs of the expanding specialty coffee market. He also continues to work tirelessly to connect these producers with buyers like us who are willing to pay a premium for their expertise and the quality of the coffee they produce.
Francisco decided to distill all of the knowledge he had gained from working with these talented producers into his own project, and in November 2014, he took control of the Sumava de Lourdes micro-mill and its two attached farms. With help from a Czech investor, he took over the farm, which had not been invested in and cared for properly for some time. The investor also brought the name, Sumava is a national park that straddles the border between Czechia, Austria and Germany. Francisco is a big proponent of young plant tissue and of new varietals, so he set about planting many thousands of trees, and repairing the soils. Francisco and his team took many soil readings to determine what was lacking, before finding sources of organic fertilisers to minimise the use of artificial inputs on the farm.
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Francisco says that what has been most interesting for him has been working together with the weather conditions in order to create the best possible raw material; remaining agile, knowing what his plants need and the precise moment to harvest in accordance with the slightly unpredictable weather conditions in the mountains of the West Valley.
The conditions on the farm are influenced by both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, creating an abundance of cool winds, especially during the cherry maturation phase from December to February. The plants have adapted to these difficult conditions, concentrating sugars into the cherries and adding to intensity of flavour in the final cup.
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The farm is planted mainly with Villa Sarchi and Caturra, but is also home to 12 different exotic varietal plots, which is part of what makes Francisco so excited for the future of Sumava. Francisco went on to win the 2016 Costa Rica Cup of Excellence, only 18 months after taking ownership of Sumava. The winning coffee was a Caturra lot, processed using an innovative ‘sweet sugar’ process. This lot was one of the highest scoring in the history of the competition, at 93.4.
This lot is from Francisco’s small plot of Typica. The sweetness and richness from the terroir and process combine with the intensely floral character of the Typica to give a truly excellent cup.
