Sugar Heist

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 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 Cherry 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 Cherry Project. It involves waiting until the coffee cherry is nearly dark grape colour, then picking and doing a 24 hour anaerobic fermentation in cherry form. Then the coffee is de-pulped and processed as a yellow honey. The colour of the parchment was golden and it tasted like candy on the drying beds. The sweetness of the coffee was noticeable long before I tasted it on the cupping table.

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.