El Angel: La Casa, Costa Rica

Origin

• 🇨🇷 Costa Rica

Tasting notes

When we first tasted the coffee from the Chacón family, we were struck by the completeness of the package. The coffee was terrifically sweet and balanced, but also had an interesting, if not complex, acidityAcidityThe bright, lively, fruit-like sensation in coffee — praise, not a flaw. Citric sparkle, malic apple-crispness, tartaric wine notes; light roasts preserve more of it.. Since that first taste in 2009, we’ve established quite a bond with the Chacón family, to the point that Ritual buys all of the coffee that they produce from their three farms. During the past five years, the Chacóns have built a small micro-mill for processing their coffees that they call El Angel. In addition to purchasing the aqua-pulper, the family has also built drying tables and a small bodega to safely store the coffee. Wanting to provide additional support, Ritual began a sponsorship program to help rehabilitate and revitalize the farm. Over the past several years, it has been very exciting to see the quantity and the quality of the Chacón family’s coffee improve in tandem – a measurable success for both producer and consumers like us. This selection is from the coffee trees nearest to their home, and has a clean bodyBodyThe weight and texture of coffee in the mouth, from tea-like and delicate to syrupy and heavy. Driven by process, roast, variety, and brew method., with bright sweetness. Through longstanding relationships with family-run farms in the mountains of Costa Rica, we’re able to source some truly unique gems. El Ángel is the first of the fresh wave of offerings from this verdant nation.