New arrival: Costa Rica Tarrazu Honey, all the sweetness of La Pastora

Some coffees arrive quietly, and some smell of sugar before they even hit the drum. Meet the Costa Rica Tarrazu Honey, fresh off the truck: a lot from the Coope Tarrazú cooperative, up around La Pastora, honey processed not washed, not natural, somewhere in between. And that's exactly where it gets interesting.

Coope Tarrazú: 228 farmers in 1960, more than 5,000 today

On October 13, 1960, 228 coffee growers from San Marcos de Tarrazú joined forces for a very simple reason: on their own, smallholders had neither a voice nor any bargaining power against the big exporters. Sixty-five years later, Coope Tarrazú counts more than 5,000 members, roughly 80% of them farming four hectares or less. The co-op provides technical assistance, low-cost loans and affordable fertilizer, and controls the whole chain of cherry intake, depulping, drying, sorting, exporting. Since 2006 it has also run its own sustainability plan to track its environmental footprint and train its members.

So where does La Pastora fit in? It's the name of a small community perched above San Marcos, where some of Tarrazú's finest coffee grows. That name became the co-op's flagship regional lot: cherries from hundreds of small farms, processed at the same mill, with the same rigour, year after year.

Tarrazú, the Los Santos zone

Together with Dota and León Cortés, Tarrazú forms what Costa Ricans call the Zona de Los Santos is arguably the country's most celebrated coffee region. Volcanic soils, cool nights, a well-defined dry season: cherries ripen slowly and the bean grows dense. Coffee here grows between 1,200 and 1,900 metres, which earns it the SHB designation (Strictly Hard Bean), Costa Rica's grade for high-grown coffee — a hard, dense bean that takes drum heat well.

Honey: the process that made Costa Rica famous

The "honey" in honey processing has nothing to do with any added ingredient: it's the mucilage, the sweet, sticky layer that coats the bean under the cherry skin. Washed coffees have it scrubbed off completely; naturals dry inside the whole cherry. Honey coffees are depulped… and then dried with the mucilage still on the bean. The result: more body and sweetness than a washed, more clarity than a natural.

The process took off in Costa Rica in the early 2000s, carried by the micro-mill wave the country's first independent mill opened in Tarrazú in 2000 and by the need to cut water use. Producers then refined the shades (yellow, red and black honey, depending on how much mucilage is left on and how long the coffee dries), until it became a national signature.

In the cup

A high-grown honey, sweet and round, sitting in our Sweet & caramelly family:

• Notes: honey, cocoa, brown sugar, citrus
• Process: honey
• Varieties: Caturra, Catuai
• Farm: Coope Tarrazú (smallholders) · Region: Tarrazú, Los Santos
• Altitude: 1,200 to 1,900 m · Harvest: 2025-2026 (fresh crop)
• Moisture: 11.4% · Lot: 5/114/0109

Our roasting tips

A honey coffee hits the drum with more residual sugar than a washed one: it caramelizes fast, and it will scorch if you push the heat. Charge a little cooler than usual, let the Maillard phase stretch out, then hold back the power after first crack. A medium roast lands the cursor right where you want it: honey and brown sugar step forward, cocoa settles into the finish, and the citrus keeps the cup alive.

Discover the Costa Rica Tarrazu Honey available in 5 lb and 15 lb bags while the lot lasts. Ça va Torquer!