Final month, Cafe Imports introduced a brand new documentary movie sequence Ecos del Café: Narrativas de Productores Costarricenses. Within the three-part sequence, the inexperienced espresso importers interviews a few of their producer companions in Costa Rica to study extra in regards to the individuals behind the espresso. Of their first episode, Cafe Imports spoke with Alexander and Magali, siblings and third-generation espresso farmers on the Sierra San Luis Micromill in Grecia within the West Valley of Costa Rica.

Now, Cafe Imports is again with one other set up of Ecos del Café. This time they’re heading southeast to interview Diego Abarca Quiros of the Alto San Juan Micrmill within the Tarrazu area.

Within the eight-and-a-half-minute video, Abarca discusses how he obtained into rising espresso and the way he started producing specialty espresso. A fourth-generation espresso producer, Abarca inherited Finca San Calletano from his father on the younger age of 15. The three-hectare farm has two distinct microclimates, one within the cloud-covered larger altitudes peaking at 1,650MASL and one other within the decrease areas, round 1,400MASL.

 

As a younger farmer, Abarca started digging into the science behind espresso manufacturing, studying to research the crops through cuppings and metrics like brix exams for sugar content material. He found that Finca San Calletano had all of the qualities wanted to provide specialty espresso, particularly within the higher-altitude microclimate.

This led to Abarca creating the Alto San Juan micromill in 2015, the place he might incorporate a lot of the processing strategies from his analysis into particular person microlots. And in reality, from this analysis the coffees processed at Alto San Juan have over time switched from being washed to pure or honeyed, the 2 processes that Abarca states Finca San Calletano is greatest suited to provide.

It’s yet one more fascinating have a look at the individuals behind the espresso we drink on a regular basis. The ingenuity, the pleasure and pleasure, Ecos del Café as soon as once more exhibits that the artwork and fervour in espresso begins lengthy earlier than the jute. For extra data, go to Cafe Imports’ official web site.

Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Community and a workers author based mostly in Dallas. Learn extra Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.