Costa Rica — Esteban Zamora El Cedro Caturra & Catuaí (Cinnamon Anaerobic)

Tastes Like — 🥐 Cinnamon Roll • 🍎 Baked Apple • 🍊 Orange Zest

DETAILS

• Producer: Esteban Zamora
• Farm: El Cedro
• Region: San Marcos, Tarrazú, Costa Rica
• Varietal: Caturra & Catuaí
• Process: Cinnamon Anaerobic (Co-Ferment)
• Elevation: 1,600–2,000 masl

INTRO
Esteban's cinnamon anaerobic coffees have been on the menu for several seasons, and this season's lot may be his best iteration of the concept to date. Remarkably sweet, with the play between confectionary sweetness and unmistakable cinnamon evoking warm cinnamon rolls, and fruit notes touched by the "cooked" quality of fall. In the cup: cinnamon roll, baked apple, and orange zest.

THE PRODUCER
Before taking over the family business, Esteban studied and worked as a mechanical engineer in Tarrazú. Today he hand-processes all the coffee from his family's five-hectare farm, and he is best known for pioneering this special, very tedious cinnamon anaerobic technique, a fan favourite year after year.

THE PROCESS
After being handpicked at peak ripeness, the cherries are pulped at the wet mill with the mucilage left unwashed. Everything but the cascara goes into GrainPro bags and is combined with cinnamon powder, at 1 kg of cinnamon for every 46 kg of coffee cherries. The mixture sits in an anaerobic environment for six days before moving to concrete patios to begin drying. Drying is finished in stationary mechanical dryers at the mill, because reactions between the cinnamon powder and the mucilage form a seal around the seed, making it harder to dry.

The six-day anaerobic fermentation with cinnamon powder is the defining step. It's what builds the cinnamon-roll sweetness, with the seal it forms around the seed requiring mechanical drying.

THE CUP
Smooth, creamy, and remarkably sweet: confectionary sweetness meets unmistakable cinnamon, like warm cinnamon rolls, with baked-apple fruit sprinkled with orange zest. Enough to make even fall naysayers long for sweater weather.

Flavour Notes
🥐 Cinnamon Roll 🍎 Baked Apple 🍊 Orange Zest