MICRO PLANE – LAS LAJAS ALMA NEGRA, COSTA RICA

TASTING NOTES

DRIED CRANBERRY, BLACKBERRY, HIBISCUS, LAVENDER

ORIGIN

COSTA RICA

REGION

CENTRAL VALLEY

PRODUCER

OSCAR & FRANCISCA CHACÓN – LAS LAJAS MICROMILL

FARM / LOT

FINCA MIRELLA – F5

VARIETY

COMMON COSTA RICAN VARIETIES

Likely a mix of Caturra, Catuai, Bourbon, Villa Sarchi, Villalobos, Sarchimor, Venecia, and Costa Rica 95. las-lajas-micromill--finca-mire…

ALTITUDE

1400–1600 METERS

PROCESS METHOD

ALMA NEGRA NATURAL

ABOUT

Las Lajas is one of those names that carries some real weight in Costa Rican specialty coffee. Oscar and Francisca Chacón are third-generation coffee producers, but they’ve never been particularly interested in doing things simply because that’s how they’ve always been done. In 2005, after years of delivering their coffee to a cooperative, they bought their own depulper and became part of Costa Rica’s growing micromill movement, giving them far more control over how their coffees were processed and ultimately how they tasted.

A few years later, circumstance pushed that experimentation even further. An earthquake in 2008 knocked out electricity and water during harvest, making their usual processing impossible. Francisca drew on her knowledge of African coffee production, built raised beds on the property, and began drying coffee with the fruit intact. Those early natural lots caught the attention of specialty buyers and became part of what Las Lajas is now known for. 

This particular lot from Finca Mirella uses their Alma Negra process, a natural method developed by Oscar and Francisca. Fully ripe cherries are carefully selected and dried slowly, moving between greenhouse conditions and raised beds in the sun. During the day the coffee is spread out to dry; at night it is gathered back together, slowing the process and extending the time the fruit remains around the seed. las-lajas-micromill--finca-mire… The importer’s specific Alma Negra description notes that the coffee begins with several days in the greenhouse before alternating between raised beds during the day and the greenhouse at night. 

The result is exactly the kind of coffee we created Micro Plane for. It’s big, fruit-forward, and a little wild without losing its structure. We get dried cranberry and cooked blackberry, with florals that lean toward hibiscus and lavender. There’s a wine-like, almost boozy acidity running through it, followed by a candy-like sweetness that keeps pulling you back in. 

What makes this coffee especially fun isn’t just that it tastes different. It’s that the flavor is directly connected to a processing method the Chacón family developed through years of experimentation. Las Lajas helped show what Costa Rican coffee could become when producers had control over their own milling, drying, and ideas. This is a coffee with a lot of personality, from a family that has spent years figuring out how to put more of their own personality into the cup.