Candy Cloud Espresso

Santa Lucia is a farm that's near and dear to me. It belongs to Ricardo Perez, who named it after his eldest daughter, Lucia. Ricardo believes in clean, eco-friendly, regenerative farming, and you can see it the second you walk onto the farm. It's lush, with banana and plantain trees scattered all through the coffee and wild berry trees growing around the edges.

It's crazy to think we've been working with Ricardo and his famous mill, Helsar, for more than 16 years now. Helsar is a quality-focused wet mill that has always produced two kinds of coffee. The first is a blend from small producers in the region, which they simply call "Helsar." The second is tiny lots from Ricardo's own farm, Santa Lucia, separated by variety and processing method. This lot is one of those.

It's a red honey. The coffee is depulped straight away, but the mucilage stays on the bean, and in Costa Rica they call that mucilage “miel”, which is Spanish for honey. As it dries, the honey turns red (hence the name), and the bean and everything around it gets super sweet. The result is a supercharged, sweet coffee that still manages to be round and balanced.

This year the quality was really high. Ricardo thinks it's because last year's harvest was very small, so the trees got a chance to rest and came back healthy and looking happy. The picking was especially good too, which means even more sweetness and complexity in the cup. When I cupped it in Costa Rica in March, it reminded me why I fell for Helsar coffees in the first place: brown sugar, apricot, milk chocolate, plum jam and honey. Who doesn't want to drink that, right?

Ricardo is a legend in Costa Rican coffee. He used to be 100% certified organic. These days he farms sustainably and has dropped the certification, because for a small producer it costs a lot and it wasn't helping him sell his coffee. He's a gem of a human, just as driven to help his neighbours and his community as he is to make great coffee. If only the world had more folks like Ricardo.