COSTA RICA EL KINKAJOU (COE #3) #2286

Tastes Like: Honey Butter, Brown Sugar, Pineapple, Plum, Apricot, Dr. Pepper Soda

Curator’s Notes: If you’ve never had a Cup of Excellence (COE) coffee before, you’re in for a real treat – and if you have, well… you know exactly how amazing this coffee is going to taste. COE is the “Oscars of coffee”, an annual competition run by the nonprofit Alliance for Coffee Excellence, with the goal of discovering, supporting, and celebrating the most exceptional coffee farmers in the world. I’ve had the honor of participating in COE as a juror and, let me tell you, the competition is fierce and rigorous. The coffees that emerge at the top (this one won #3 in the experimental category) are truly one-of-a-kind, representing the very pinnacle of the specialty coffee world.

In a country like Costa Rica, with a famous reputation for microlot coffee, it takes a lot to stand out. El Kinkajou (cute name!!) represents the best of the best of this year’s Costa Rican microlots, earning a whopping 90.42 points by a jury of professional tasters. Flavor-wise, the first thing you’ll notice about this coffee is the richness, the sheer density of sweetness. As I was drinking it yesterday, I kept thinking of straight up honey-butter, dark caramel, toasted sugars – the roaster’s notes say cola but I think it's more like Dr. Pepper, with a hint of spice and dark chocolate. When you first grind it, you’ll get an intense nose of tropical fruit sweetness, and that fruity flavor evolves in the cup to a peachy apricot and then into a plummy, dried fruit. Notes are super clean, with a soft pineapple acidity that sparkles, but flies under the radar, with a big, rich, buttery, toasted-sugar profile that takes center stage. You won’t BELIEVE it's not butter! (Sorry, I had to...) but no, really, it literally tastes like someone added caramel sauce to your cup when you weren’t looking. Astounding.

El Kinkajou comes from the Sumava farm in Costa Rica’s West Valley, in a region synonymous with world-class specialty coffee. The farm is owned and operated by Francisco Alejandro Mena, a pioneer in the industry – before he was a grower, he co-founded an export company that brought some of the first specialty Costa Rican microlots to the international market, as well as providing education, support, and quality control for small growers. Today, his farm is known for its innovations in processing method, and this specific lot is a very special example of what extended fermentation can do for sweetness, body, and flavor. It also helps that Kinkajou is SL28, a varietal of coffee originally cultivated in Kenya, and known for its natural complexity and big-bodied sweetness.

Now, as a coffee roaster, you can only buy COE coffees through the official auction, and they aren’t cheap – I’ve tasted coffees on par with this one for over $100/lb! At only $50 for a 12oz bag, Costa Rica El Kinkajou isn’t only a world-class cup, it’s a total steal! We are so lucky that Eric Wolf, our friend from Little City Roasters, won a small amount of this stunning coffee at this year's auction, and set aside some for us. This super-limited lot is definitely going to sell out fast – if this coffee is tempting you, don’t miss your chance to try a truly exceptional, best-in-the-world COE-winning 90+ coffee. With notes of rich, luscious honey butter, pineapple, plum, cola syrup and apricot, El Kinkajou truly has to be tasted to be believed.

Bottom Line: You’ll love this coffee if… you’re alive and breathing. Seriously. I cannot imagine anyone not loving this one.

This particular lot was meticulously harvested at peak ripeness, fermented in cherry under shade for three days, then depulped and rested for another three days in fermentation tanks before drying. It earned third place in this year’s Costa Rica Cup of Excellence Experimental Category and received a Presidential Award with an impressive cup score of 90.42 points.