Imperio Rojo is a mill we've been working with for the last four years. It's owned and operated by a husband and wife combo named Jose and Annie Alvarado. They're located in a beautiful area of Costa Rica called Chirripo and have land on their farm that spans up to 2100 metres. They are growing Catuai and Caturra, making up this particular offering.

Chirripo is a relatively new player when it comes to Costa Rican coffee producing areas. With production stretching back over the past few years, we are thrilled to be offering a fantastic coffee in such an up and coming region. The views are amazing from the 2000m hills, covered in coffee!

Jose owns and operates his Imperio Rojo. It's here that he does all of his processing with a meticulous degree of detail. He and his wife live at the mill, in an absolutely beautiful landscape.

We toured the farm and the mill and were very impressed by the overall operation. We started at the mill and viewed all of Jose's processing - he's experimenting with Naturals this season, which could make for an intriguing offering in years to come. The mill was very clean and organized and the excitement to tour us around was very apparent. We then drove up to the farm's peak and overlooked the Chirripo mountains. Incredible. We walked through the rows of Caturra and Catuai and finally wrapped up our day long tour with a picnic at 2050m. A pretty special afternoon to compliment a pretty special coffee.

The versatility of this White Honey has us excited for our visit this coming season to see further improvements in quality of processing, picking and overall cup quality. There are some new young trees to look forward to tasting this coming season. Thanks Jose for such an incredible coffee.

ASOTBILBAO is a cooperative association of 44 members. Annually they receive workshops and training to help them improve the management of resources, and how important it is to keep track of data so they can better plan for the future.

The members farms are medium sized, with 4.5 hectares being the average. All of them within the municipality Planadas. With high elevations of 1600 meters and above, these areas are ideal for coffee production, especially high-quality Colombia and Castillo.

On its own, this washed processed coffee is sweet, like a warmed honey or a brown sugar simple syrup. It's nicely balanced, with a medium acidity backing up that sweetness and giving structure. There's some soft citrus tones that compliment the flavours of Two Wheel and make for a nice blend.