A heap of citrus notes up front with grapefruit and lemon, alongside ripe plum. This combines with a juicy, high citrus acidity and brown sugar flavours for a harmonious cup.
Costa Rica punches well above its weight in the specialty coffee world. For a country that produces less than 1% of global coffee output, the quality – and the innovation – is remarkable. And much of that innovation comes down to processing. Costa Rica is widely credited as the birthplace of honey processing, a method that emerged partly from necessity (water is a precious resource here) and partly from a relentless pursuit of better cups. It's now one of the most recognised and celebrated processing styles in specialty coffee.
Volcanic Treasures is a regional blend drawing from three of Costa Rica's most respected growing areas – Tarrazú, West Valley, and the Brunca cooperatives – all sourced through Exclusive Coffees, a highly regarded dry mill and exporter who works closely with smallholder producers across the country's main regions. The lots are custom prepared and blended at Exclusive Coffees' facility to create a coffee with a consistent, well-defined cup profile that showcases what Costa Rica does best.
Tarrazú is arguably the country's most famous growing region, nestled in the interior mountains and responsible for around a third of Costa Rica's total coffee production. It's known for complexity, bright acidity, and rich aromatics. West Valley brings its own character – medium body, a softer mouthfeel, and a distinctive orange-toned acidity shaped by the region's varied microclimates and rich volcanic soils. Brunca, in the country's south, rounds things out with a humid, tropical influence that adds a gentle citrus sweetness to the mix. Together, they complement each other well – which is precisely the point of a blend like this.
The varietals are Caturra and Catuaí – the two varieties that together account for around 90% of Costa Rica's coffee production. They're workhorses of the best kind: well-suited to high altitudes, reliable in quality, and capable of producing expressive, clean cups in the right hands.
The processing is white honey – the lightest end of the honey spectrum, with 80–100% of the fruit mucilage removed before the beans are laid out to dry. If you're picturing something very different to a washed coffee, it's worth adjusting that mental image: white honey sits closest to the washed end of the scale, producing a clean, balanced cup with just a gentle whisper of added sweetness and body compared to a fully washed lot. It's not the jammy, fruit-forward character you'd associate with red or black honey – it's more refined than that.
- Country: Costa Rica
- Regions: Tarrazú, West Valley, Brunca
- Producer: Regional smallholder producers via Exclusive Coffees dry mill
- Altitude: 1,745 m.a.s.l
- Varietals: Caturra, Catuaí
- Process: White Honey