Coffee from El Perezoso in the West Valley Costa Rica

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Chocolate, praline, amaretto

Coffee from El Perezoso in the West Valley Costa Rica

El Perezoso is the name of one of the lomas (small hills) from which this coffee comes.

The ‘lomas’ are small hills where the members of the ‘Coopro Naranjo’ cooperative grow coffee.

This cooperative has more than 2,000 members who grow micro-lots of coffee in the surroundings of the cooperative, where the washing plant is located.

The cooperative is located in West Valley, a region in western Costa Rica.

West Valley: a quintessential coffee region

The West Valley region of Costa Rica has excellent conditions for growing coffee.

It has abundant sun and rain and is situated on a volcanic terrain, which creates a very rich terroir.

It is about 1,500 meters above sea level and at this height it has little forest. All these conditions create an ideal microclimate for growing coffee.

Twenty-five percent of Costa Rica’s total coffee production is grown in this region, and many of the coffees grown here have won the Cup of Excellence.

The Coopro Naranjo cooperative and the micro-lot program

In many of the coffee-exporting countries, coffee growers auction their cherries, which are often paid at very low prices, to large corporations or exporters.

This causes their crops to mix and devalue in quality and, therefore, in price.

Cooperatives, which are increasingly common and, in some countries, make up almost the entire coffee-selling ecosystem, help to change this paradigm.

The Coopro Naranjo, which has been in operation for more than forty years and has about two thousand members, also offers a micro-lot program to producers since 2006.

This allows coffee growers who choose to grow better coffee and in a more careful way to do so.

These micro lots will be processed separately or by joining several of them after passing a strict control process to ensure quality.

This allows coffee growers to differentiate their coffees and obtain higher profits.

In addition, the cooperative provides the coffee growers with resources and knowledge so that they can develop these activities.

Coffee processing El Perezoso

El Perezoso is the name of one of these micro lots that come from a hill (or ‘loma’) near the cooperative.

When we talk about coffee processing, we are speaking about the process by which the coffee beans have been pulped and the various layers that cover them have been removed, from the skin and pulp to the mucilage and silver skin.

Depending on how this process is done, it results in a “washed”, “natural” or “honey” coffee, which are the most common processes.

El Perezoso is a washed coffee. This means that both the cherry pulp and the mucilage have been removed before drying.

The cherries are received at the cooperative’s washing plant and are carefully selected before going to a pulper and being washed with water.

This removes the pulp and mucilage.

They are then put to dry on African beds (raised platforms where the seeds are spread evenly) and are regularly moved to achieve uniform drying until they reach the appropriate humidity point.

The drying process usually takes about 18 days.

How is a washed coffee?

One term that many people use to describe a washed coffee is “clean”.

This is so because they tend to have less fruity notes than natural or honey processed coffees, since these come largely from the mucilage with which they are allowed to dry and in a washed process it is removed beforehand.

With a washing process the tasting notes reflect the origin, the terrain and the variety, and the impact of the process is less noticeable.

This does not mean that coffees processed in one way or another are better or worse, they are simply different methods that achieve different results and, in both cases, can be excellent.

The idea is that, depending on the coffee, one method or another will get more out of it.