costa rica
la esmeralda
La Esmeralda is a very sweet, full bodied coffee from the Tarrazú region in Costa Rica. This specific lot of the caturra & catuai variety has been honey processed, resulting in a very balanced, sweet and rich cup with notes of honey, dried stone fruit and dark chocolate.
Café La Cumbre is a family-owned coffee company with roots going back over 90 years. In 2014, third-generation farmer Minor Jiménez Abarca and his wife Nancy Gaitán Cruz named it Café La Cumbre. Minor, an agricultural engineer, focuses on sustainability and innovation—growing high-quality, balanced crops and using advanced drying methods.
Since 2022, they increased production capacity and gained control over the entire process. They expanded the drying space with patios and beds, constructed a building for the installation of a dryer and a roaster. They also built a dry mill to perform quality control, finally ensuring control over the entire production process, guaranteeing traceability, origin, and quality.
Costa Rica
San Marcos, tarrazú
café la cumbre
minor Jiménez abarca
red honey
caturra & actuai
1650 m.a.s.l.
honey, dried fruit, dark chocolate
espresso
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about
café la cumbre
curious about the story behind this coffee? scroll down to learn more about the farm & processing.
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Café La Cumbre is a family-owned company with roots dating back over 90 years, when the Jiménez Valverde family began producing coffee in small quantities on the same lands that are currently cultivated.
Generation after generation, production grew, and in 2014, Minor Jiménez Abarca (third generation) and his wife Nancy Gaitán Cruz gave it the name Café La Cumbre.
Minor is an agricultural ingeneer with a huge interest in innovation and sustainability. He focuses on cultivating varieties that develop their maximum genetic expression, with very healthy and nutritionally balanced crops. Combined with innovative drying processes, they consistently obtain coffee with cupping scores exceeding SCA 85 every year.
In 2022, they made an investment to increase production capacity and gain control over the entire process. They expanded the drying space with patios and beds, constructed a building for the installation of a dryer and a roaster, both of which feature high-tech environmentally friendly and efficient technology. They also built a dry mill to perform quality control, finally ensuring control over the entire production process, guaranteeing traceability, origin, and quality. By partnering with Grounds they can now enjoy direct connection with roasters in Europe.
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la esmeralda is a coffee lot processed as a red honey. They remove around 25 % of the sticky inner pulp (mucilage), leaving behind approximately 60–75 % adhesion — stained red — hence the name. The parchment coffee then dries in the sun on raised beds, giving it a rich red hue.
Costa Rica has become world-renowned for its honey-processed coffees, particularly red honey, due to a powerful mix of ideal growing conditions, innovative farming practices, environmental awareness, and a strong focus on quality.
Located at high elevations with nutrient-rich volcanic soil and a stable, dry climate, Costa Rica offers perfect conditions for specialty coffee production and sun-drying—an essential part of the honey process. In the early 2000s, the country experienced a "micromill revolution" where smallholder farmers began processing their own coffee instead of selling cherries to large cooperatives. This gave them full control over processing methods like honey and natural, allowing them to highlight the unique character of their coffee and appeal to the specialty market.
Honey processing—which involves removing the coffee cherry skin but leaving varying amounts of sticky mucilage on the beans to dry—has become especially popular in Costa Rica. The red honey process, in particular, retains 60–75% of the mucilage and is dried more slowly, resulting in beans with a reddish hue and a rich, complex flavor profile. These coffees often feature a balance of fruitiness and clarity, with notes like citrus, stone fruits, honey, and chocolate.
Environmental concerns have also played a key role in Costa Rica’s adoption of honey processing. Washed coffees require large amounts of water, while honey processing uses significantly less. This fits well with Costa Rica’s strict environmental regulations and national sustainability goals. Many farms use eco-pulpers and water recycling systems to minimize their ecological footprint.