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Costa Rica – Las Lajas Micromill – Finca El Guachipelin – Perla Negra – Green Unroasted
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About: Oscar and Francisca Chacón are third-generation coffee producers, but the coffee is more than just in their family heritage: It’s in their hearts and souls as well. The couple is committed to quality and innovation, and are among the very first farmers in Costa Rica to produce Honey and Natural process specialty coffee.
In 2005, after years of delivering their cherry to a cooperative for the going market price, they decided to join the brand-new “micromill revolution” and buy their own depulper to have more control over the quality and the price they received for their lots. “At first, we didn’t know what we were doing,” Oscar explains. “We were just experimenting.” That experimentation led to some of the most exciting new flavor profiles we have ever tasted: Now, the Chacons produce a wide range of Honey process coffees, modulating the drying time in order to create different effects in the cup.
Necessity bred more innovation for the family when an earthquake in 2008 wiped out electricity and water to their area during the harvest. Unable to run the depulpers or to wash the mucilage off to produce Washed lots, Francisca took inspiration from her knowledge of African coffee production and quickly built raised beds on the property. Their Natural lots caught the attention of Cafe Imports’ founder Andrew Miller, and the rest is both history and our-story.
Las Lajas owns and the following farms for cultivating their coffees: Calle Liles, Calle San Juan, Los Angeles, Los Pinitos, Sabana Redonda, Sabanilla, San Luis, Calle Lajas.
Here is a list of their most common processes and what steps are taken to achieve them:
| Process | Description | Drying Time | Resting time |
| White Honey | This is a semi-washed process, where the ripe beans brought from the farm are classified to obtain those with a high percentage of brix degrees, then depulped and the mucilage removed mechanically. The coffee is immediately transferred to the greenhouse patio for dehydration. During the first day of drying, movements are carried out around 3 times until the end of this process; This being a mechanical demucilagenation, the seed maintains a certain amount of honey during the drying process. | From 3 to 4 days | 60 days or until exportation |
| Yellow Honey | This is a honey process, where the ripe beans brought from the farm are classified to obtain those that are 100% ripe, then they are depulped and immediately transferred to raised beds. During the first day periodic movements are made (3 to 4 times a day), this with the aim of reducing the humidity of the coffee. This is an extremely fast drying process. | One week | 60 days or until exportation |
| Red Honey | This is a honey process where once the ripe beans have been classified, they are pulped, leaving 100% of the mucilage and then transferred to raised beds. On the first day of drying, the beans do not receive any movement until the second day, when they begin to move twice a day, to reduce the humidity of the coffee. | From 7 to 15 days | 60 days or until exportation |
| Black Honey | This is a honey process where the cherries must first be classified and then pulped and transferred to raised beds. During the first 2 days, the beans do not receive any movement until the third day, when they begin to make periodic movements (3 to 4 times a day) to reduce the humidity of the coffee. | From 15 to 20 days | 60 days or until exportation |
| Alma Negra | It is a natural process, where the coffee fruit are first classified to obtain those 100% ripe cherries with a high level of brix degrees. Later they are placed on a raised bed for their dehydration process for at least a week, where they will be removing several times a day. After a week has passed, the cherries are transferred to the greenhouse patio, where during the day they are kept in a thin layer to absorb the heat of the sun and during the night they are collected in the form of a mound. This same process is repeated the next day until drying is complete. | From 20 to 30 days | 60 days or until exportation |
| Perla Negra | This is a natural process, where the ripe coffee beans with a high percentage of brix degrees are taken to raised beds where they will be in a thin layer receiving the sun, after a week the beans will rest in the shade (cold ) to be later transferred to the greenhouse patio to continue its dehydration, in which the cherries are moved twice a day, which makes it an extremely slow drying process. | From 22 to 30 days | 60 days or until exportation |
| Yellow Diamond | This is an Anaerobic Honey process, in which, after selecting the cherries with high brix degrees, they are depulped, leaving them with 100% of the mucilage, immediately transferred to an anaerobic fermentation tank, where it rests for around 84 hours. Once the fermentation time is over, the coffee is taken to raised beds for dehydration, stirring it twice a day until the drying process is complete | From 15 to 20 days | 60 days or until exportation |
| Black Diamond | This is a natural aerobic process, where once the cherries are harvested, they are transferred to the mill for their classification, where only those with a high percentage of brix degrees are chosen. After this they are transferred to the greenhouse patio for their dehydration. During the first week the cherries are placed in a thick layer, in order to ferment aerobically. After this first week the coffee is spread in a thin layer until the drying process is finished | From 20 to 30 days | 60 days or until exportation |