Don Sabino, Costa Rica — October 2023

OCTOBER SUBSCRIPTION

This month's coffee is a bit of a premium one!

Don Sabino, Costa Rica

The thing that makes this coffee so special is that the variety was brought over from Kenya, to experiment with it in the microclimate of Costa Rica. These more experimental leaps of faith are undertaken by producers who are trying to create farms with different products. I will try to elaborate on that point.

A farm can produce more than one type of varietal, i.e. Caturra, Gesha, Bourbon, Typica, SL28, etc. If it can grow and separate the different lots for potential buyers, the farm can appeal to a wider audience of quality-minded coffee buyers. It can also offer the service of being able to process the varietals in various ways, i.e. washed, honey, natural and controlled fermentations within all these styles.

For a coffee roaster, like us here at MoM, this brings curiosity out in us. We like the idea of being able to work with one producer, but being able to taste a variety of different profiles. Many producers are now on social media and are more in touch with where their coffee ends up. These producers, such as Steven from Don Sabino, may be more interested in doing small collaborations and custom-processed lots for dedicated coffee buyers. This is something we are seeing more often and that may open doors to a different future of how coffee could be bought and sold. For now, we appreciate the care and progressive farming model that Steven Vargas and his father have created at the Don Sabino Micromill.

This natural-processed SL28 varietal lot was selected out of a huge group of samples we received from the importer, Café Imports. We absolutely loved the intense fruit profile and the clarity of the flavours too. It was too good not to buy and to be able to share with our subscribers!

Thanks!

Ben