Costa Rica Brunca Chirripo Rivense El Renacer Black Honey Hybrid Casiopea

Tasting Note:  Raisin | Citrus | Stonefruit | Plum | Sweet

 Size:  200g/1kg

Brewing Recommendation: Filter Brews / Modern Espresso 

This coffee speaks coffee advancement just by all the details - a Black Honey F1 Hybrid Casiopea grown at 1700masl in the remote Brunca highlands of Costa Rica. Finca El Renacer's deliberate care for the long, mucilage-on drying is why the cup runs so sweet and fruit-forward, with raisin, plum and stonefruit over a bright citrus lift.

The farm and its frontier

Finca El Renacer is run by the Ureña Rojas family, the people behind the Café Rivense del Chirripó micromill — the "Rivense" you see in the name. They farm in Chirripó, a high, biodiverse micro-region tucked inside Brunca, the southernmost and most remote of Costa Rica's eight ICAFE coffee regions. Locals call Brunca the "last frontier," and it earns it: the coffee grows between the country's two highest peaks, Cerro de la Muerte and Cerro Chirripó, on rich highland soil.

The varietal

Casiopea is a first-generation (F1) hybrid — a cross between Caturra and an Ethiopian landrace (CATIE accession ET41), developed by the French research institute CIRAD with the regional network PROMECAFE and CATIE. Because it's an F1, it has to be cloned from certified nursery stock; seeds don't run true. The payoff is high yield and exceptional cup potential above 1,300m — and at 1,700m, this lot sits comfortably in that band.

How it's processed

Honey processing means the cherry's skin is stripped off mechanically and the bean is dried with its sticky mucilage still clinging on. Black Honey is the boldest version: the Ureña Rojas family leave nearly all of that mucilage on the bean and dry it slowly and carefully, using little to no water. That patience is what pushes the sweetest, fullest-bodied, most fruit-forward cup of the honey styles.

In the cup

Our cupping table reads raisin, citrus, stonefruit and plum, all wrapped in plain sweetness — picture the dark, molasses-like sweetness of gula melaka sitting beneath the fruit. It's a coffee with character, and a genuinely fun one to brew.

Order a bag, dial in your pour-over, and let that Black Honey sweetness do the talking — this one rewards a careful brew.