Last regular MCL round before Mystery Coffee Advent is behind us. Time to learn the details about our first ever Mystery Coffee roasted in Belgium. This month we had a total number of zero correct guesses!
Here are all the details about November Mystery Coffee from MOK:
🇨🇷 Costa Rica Los Cipreses Max Salazar
Variety: Sudan Rume
Processing: Honey
Altitude: +1700 m.a.s.l.
Tasting notes: starfruit (mapped to grape), Artemisia abrotanum var. maritma (cola herb mapped to herb-like), nutmeg
Harvest: 2022
Score: 88
The Story of the Coffee from MOK
About the farm:
Anserma is located in the western area of the department of Caldas. It is an agricultural center where the cultivation of coffee stands out. The cooperative started operating in 1967. It has an extensive knowledge and experience in the commercialisation of coffee, and the support of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia and the Departmental Committee of Coffee Growers of Caldas. It operates in the municipalities of: Anserma, Risaralda, San José, Belalcázar and Viterbo. Its main purpose is the commercialization of coffee and other agricultural products seeking to promote and improve the economic, social, technical and cultural conditions of the associates, as long as as these are linked to the agricultural activity and especially to the production of coffee in all its areas. The cooperative has 2,083 associated coffee growers who cultivate excellent quality coffee with dedication and passion. Amongst coffee they also grow crops like sugarcane and bananas to sell for income.
About the coffee and processing methods on Max's farm:
Despite its size, Costa Rica has a diversity of climates that has led to a rich and varied coffee industry. Los Cipreses, which includes two farms and a mill, is located in the West Valley, which is influenced by Pacific weather patterns and is consequently drier than the Central Valley, producing a different coffee profile. Max Salazar runs the farms, San Cristobal (10ha) and La Isabella (13ha), named after his parents, alongside his two cousins and uncle Danilo. The business is named after the cypresses grown on a partnered farm that are sold as Christmas trees in December. Initially, the farms were mainly planted with Typica and Villa Sarchi varieties, but the family have bought more land and have planted Villalobos, Catuai, Caturra, Geisha, Ethiopian varieties, Sudan Rume, Millennium and SL28. New varieties – including L12-28, which is yielding good results – stay in the nursery for a year before being planted on the farms. The way the farms are structured has resulted in a of number of microclimates that require micro management, adapting processes for each slope and orientation. Winds are strong in the area (the region’s coffee was decimated by the 2015 hurricane Nate), so they have had to find solutions to decrease its impact on the coffee plants.
Before 2019, Max and his family used to deliver their cherries to a neighbouring mill, but in 2020 they decided to process part of their harvest themselves (most of it is processed as honeys), installing a small mill and a greenhouse. The processing plant, as well as the lowest part of the farm, is located at 1680 masl. During the harvest, 30 pickers extra are hired. Production since 2017 has been low, with the farms being hit by distinct climate challenges. Harvests used to be 600-700 fanegas (1 fanega = 250kg of cherries), but since 2017 they have been around 300 fanegas, with a very small middle-harvest volume (this volume is the most important for the producers as it is usually the best quality coffee). Despite the presence of crop disease and pests, Max doesn’t want to spray trees with chemicals, preferring to fight coffee rust with more natural methods, including a good fertilization plan and resistant varieties. He doesn’t use herbicides, and weeds are controlled with mulching.
The honeys and semi-washed lots rest in bags for a few hours before they are transferred to African (raised) beds. Yellow honeys are moved every hour, darker honeys less regularly. It takes 12 days to dry the honey lots. They also produce a few natural lots. Each year Max produces a ‘Special Black Honey’ coffee. To the freshly semi-pulped honey, Max adds ‘juice’ from a natural lot that was processed just before the honey. When that other natural lot is processed, the cherries are placed in a bag and the bag is hung so the juice coming out of the drying cherries will pour into a container. This juice is collected and added to the black honey to intensify the flavours. It’s a great way to use bi-products from other processes that would otherwise be discarded.
The family also has cattle in San Carlos (50 animals) and they share their time between the two production sites, but Max prefers the coffee and dedicates most of his time to it. He is involved in the specialty and barista scene in San José, and has developed many ideas to innovate processes and improve quality at the mill. He is looking for stable and durable relationships with a few clients rather than selling his coffee more widely.
This month we have received 68 guesses from our club members. Once again we have some newcomers. Welcome to the club and the Mystery Coffee League! Actually two of the newcomers are in TOP3 of this month! Congrats on a great start!
Winner of November 2022 round is iLikeCoffee with 20 points. Second place goes to sholt who scored 16 points and third to gmzhunter with 15 points.
TOP3 of November 2022 round
1. iLikeCoffee - 20 points
1. sholt - 16 points
3. gmzhunter - 15 points
Next month we are giving out another set of the prizes - Acaia Lunar, set of Kruve glasses and Sibarist papers. Here are the current Q4 leaders:
TOP3 of Q4 2022
1. bikepop - 28 points
2. lauuuuuuurah - 28 points
3. sholt - 27 points
Here's how our 2022 season TOP3 looks like after the November round:
TOP3 of 2022
1. Dawid - 162 points
2. KafCafQaf - 153 points
3. yerahi - 151 points
You can find full standings on our Standings subpage.
Mystery Coffee League is sponsored by Acaia, Kruve, Sibarist and Penny & Meriwether.
Time for last round of the year! Well four rounds combined into one - Mystery Coffee Advent Calendar month with AMOC from Rotterdam 🇳🇱. In December we will submit our guesses 4-times. Here's the schedule:
Week 1 Coffee
Submission deadline December 9. Reveal December 10.
Week 2 Coffee
Submission deadline December 16. Reveal December 17.
Week 3 Coffee
Submission deadline December 23. Reveal December 24.
Week 4 Coffee
Submission deadline December 30. Reveal December 31.
Orders for January Mystery Coffee will start at the beginning of the new year. It will be also a first round of 2023 Season. Fresh start for all of us! More details on upcoming season will follow in separate blog post in late December.
Hope you're going to have a lot of fun with our Advent Calendar!
