Costa Rica Tarrazú La Esmeralda Minor Jimenez Micro Lot

South of San Jose, where the Talamanca mountains rise into thin, cool air, sits Tarrazu, the most celebrated of Costa Rica's eight coffee regions. On a steep volcanic slope here, the Abarca family has tended La Esmeralda for three generations. This is their micro lot.

OriginCosta Rica RegionTarrazu Elevation1,650m ProcessRed Honey VarietyCaturra, Catuai The Source

Three Generations on a Tarrazu Slope

Tarrazu earns its reputation honestly. Mineral-rich volcanic soil, a sharp split between wet and dry seasons, and some of the highest growing ground in Costa Rica combine to slow the cherries as they ripen. That slow maturation concentrates sugars and builds the bright, layered acidity that specialty buyers prize. La Esmeralda sits at roughly 1,650 meters in the heart of it, planted to Caturra and Catuai, two varieties suited to these windy, high altitude hillsides.

The farm runs under Minor Jimenez Abarca, an agronomist engineer, alongside his wife Nancy Gaitan Cruz. Minor reads his land closely, adjusting for shifts in climate, soil, and elevation across the seasons. That attention is what separates a regional lot from a named one. In 2018 he set aside a dedicated micro lot for the international specialty market, and this selection carries that same precision.

The Craft

Red Honey, Dried at Home

Minor does not run his own washing station. Instead he carries his cherries to a friend's mill, RYS, where the coffee is taken through the red honey method. The fruit skin is removed and only part of the sticky mucilage is washed away mechanically, leaving the beans to dry with their sugars still clinging. As they cure, the parchment turns a deep red-orange, the signature that gives the style its name. To understand where honey sits between the washed and natural ends of the processing spectrum is to understand this cup.

Drying happens back at Minor's house, spread out and turned by hand over about fifteen days, with care taken to shield the beans from sudden swings in temperature and moisture. We roast it to City+, a level that keeps the honey sweetness and Tarrazu acidity intact rather than scorching them into smoke.

Cherry Peach Caramel Brown Sugar BodyMedium AcidityBright The Cup

Stone Fruit and a Caramel Finish

The honey process shows up first as sweetness. Ripe cherry and soft peach lead, the kind of stone fruit that reads as juicy rather than tart. Underneath, the body fills out with caramel and a touch of brown sugar, a roundness that comes from those preserved mucilage sugars.

The high-grown Tarrazu acidity keeps everything bright and clean, lifting the fruit without turning sharp. The finish settles into sweet caramel and lingers. It drinks well black and holds its character with a splash of milk.

Find Your Fix

A pour-over rewards this lot. Chemex or V60 will pull the cherry and peach forward and keep the cup clean, while a Beehouse or Drip rounds out the caramel sweetness. Aeropress makes a quick, syrupy cup, and it pulls a balanced shot on Espresso. Browse our full coffee beans selection and find your fix.

Roasted in small batches at our Virginia Beach roastery.

Packaged in reusable glass mason jars, returned locally for reuse. Solar-roasted.

Virginia Beach, VA