Finca Sumava Black Moon

Francisco Mena is synonymous with specialty coffee in Costa Rica. He created Exclusive Coffee in 2009, with the goal of promoting Costa Rican coffee as world class - he has successfully achieved that, making Exclusive the top quality Costa Rica coffee exporter. I have known him since then and he’s not a guy who can sit still for more than five minutes. So in 2014 he had a chance to partner up with Czech investor Jiri Zapletal to start Finca Sumava, in the highlands of Lourdes de Naranjo in the West Valley of Costa Rica.

Since that time, Francisco has become a force to be reckoned with. He has planted over 60 hectares of several varieties including Villa Sarchi, Caturra, SL-28, Pacamara, Millenium and Gesha. He has won the Costa Rica Cup of Excellence and has placed near the top in many other competitions.

A couple of years ago, they started doing this process, which they called Black Moon and I tasted their first trial runs then and they had a ton of promise. So when I visited Costa Rica this year, I spent time with Francisco at the farm, and saw the evolution and refinement of the Black Moon Project. It involves waiting until the coffee cherry is nearly dark grape colour, then picking and doing a 48 hour anaerobic fermentation in cherry form - they ferment the cherries under the shade of large inga trees . Then the coffee is de-pulped and fermented once again for another 48 hours. The colour of the parchment was canary yellow from the sugars absorbed during the extended, low temperature fermentation.

The variety is called Milenio which is a new hybrid variety - a cross between an Ethiopian Heirloom and Sudan Rume varieties. It’s been planted in Central America over the past few years and the results are very encouraging. It has shown resistance to leaf rust, good yields and very good cup quality.

Sumava is a beautiful property next to the regional protected forest on the slopes of the Poas Volcano. The farm is located at 1700m, which is about as high as coffee can grow in that region due to the cold weather that runs through it. This cold weather results in slow maturation which adds to the magic of the coffee that comes out of Sumava.