Allan Oviedo SL28 Honey

I’ve been following Allan’s coffees for years. I visit Costa Rica every year and always taste some really cool coffees, but I have to make tough choices and I don’t get to buy all of the coffees I taste. Sometimes amazing coffees don’t make the cut. Allan’s coffee has been on my “next up” list for a while and two years ago, I was able to make it work to add it to our Costa Rican producer docket! Since then, Allan has been a shoe-in in our line-up.

I have always liked Allan’s white and red honey processed coffees. But this year, I was able to taste his SL-28 red honey and fell in love with its profile. When I first tasted it, I found it immediately juicy, like pink grapefruit, then I found notes of white chocolate macadamia nuts, plum, blackberry and raw brown sugar.

Allan Oviedo is a second generation coffee producer, inheriting his land from his father Joel Oviedo around 20 years ago. Joel’s land was split in two, with half going to Allan, and half to his brother, Allan’s uncle. Initially, he sold coffee cherries to the regional mill, receiving a market price for his cherry regardless of the quality he produced. Over the years, Allan made many improvements at the farm, all of it culminating in starting his own micromill, called Don Joel, in 2014. The name Don Joel is a homage to Allan’s dad, Joel.

Allan has been rewarded for his approach to quality by qualifying in the Costa Rica Cup of Excellence in 2018, 2021-2024. This success has allowed Allan to continue to invest, even purchasing the rest of his father’s land back from his uncle and planting more Villa Sarchi, Typica and SL28. Allan’s continuing success is a testament to his methodic and detail-focussed approach, allowing him to continue to increase the quality of the coffee he produces.

With the honey process a certain amount of mucilage and pulp are allowed to remain on the coffee bean during de-pulping. This extra mucilage remains with the bean during fermentation and drying and contributes to the sugars absorbed by the bean and affecting the flavour in the cup. The amount of mucilage remaining defines the type of honey process - white, yellow, red or black in ascending order of mucilage concentration. If they are processed properly, the coffees can take on quite a lot of sweetness and flavours while remaining clean. This is often easier said than done - doing clean honeys is hard.

Raised drying beds (sometimes referred to as African drying beds) are better when working with honey processed coffees, because of the additional airflow they allow. The airflow ensures that the beans dry evenly and reduces the incidence of fungi and bacteria formation.

This coffee is from the SL-28 coffee varietal, which has really thrived in Costa Rica. It’s a variety that produces well, but also tastes amazing and offers a refreshing alternative to the more common caturra or catuaí coffees from Costa Rica.

When I visited Costa Rica, I cupped all of Allan's SL-28 daylots and decided to separate this one from the rest since it was clearly a cut above on the cupping table. As it turns out, Allan submitted part of this lot to the Cup of Excellence and finshed in 3rd place!