A New, Fruity Coffee from Café Rivense Los Cipreses, Costa Rica

If you’ve followed Andytown for the past few years, you know our friends at Café Rivense del Chirripó need no introduction. We’ve worked with the Ureña Rojas family since 2019, highlighting the best of their full-honey and special-honey fermentation lots every year from their farm, Los Cipreses. If you’re new, I’m excited to reintroduce this family and share another of their exceptional coffees.

Some members of the Ureña Rojas family in their coffee lab, from left to right: Luis Felipe, Isabelle, Mario, Esteban, and Ricardo.

The Brunca area in the mountainous Chirripó microregion has cultivated coffee for over 50 years, but only in the last two decades has it become known for specialty coffee. Previously, cooperatives dominated the region's coffee industry. They operated centralized mills that made it easier for families to focus on growing cherries to sell. However, farmers had little opportunity or incentive to improve coffee quality because co-ops mixed all purchased cherries to produce conventional coffee. With low international coffee prices and limited coffee-processing information available to farmers, Regulo Ureña and Isabel Rojas took matters into their own hands, founded Café Rivense del Chirripó in 2005, and began processing coffee from their family farms.

Regulo Ureñas rotating honey-processed coffees on raised drying beds.

At first, many neighbors doubted that they would succeed on their own. But with hard work and perseverance in both farm management and processing, Café Rivense gained recognition in 2019 after placing 5th at the Costa Rica Cup of Excellence. Since then, their operations have continued to grow while keeping sustainability as a guiding principle. Café Rivense maintains healthy soil with rich organic material, focusing on shade management and applying fertilizer only when necessary. While they protect their water sources, many lots are honey-processed to minimize water use.

Large trees provide shade to coffee trees at Café Rivense farms.

To combat changing weather patterns, they installed a mechanical static dryer at their mill in the early 2020s. During long rainy seasons, when drying coffee on raised beds can be prolonged and compromise quality, they use the mechanical dryer to finish drying the coffee. To power the dryer, they use discarded coffee parchment to heat the oven, which significantly reduces their need for firewood. The dryer has delivered positive results: drying is more uniform, and production capacity has increased.

A view of the mechanical dryer from the top.

Our favorite coffees from Café Rivense come from their Los Cipreses farm. Costa Rica pioneered honey process coffee in the early 2000s, and we’ve loved Café Rivense’ full honey and special honey fermentation coffees over the last several years. This time, we wanted to highlight their post-harvest expertise by featuring a natural process coffee bursting with fruit flavors. They picked ripe, red cherries and slowly dried them to create a juicy profile that tastes like green apples, blueberries, and kiwis. As the coffee ages, the acidity stays vibrant as it develops a sweetness and flavor akin to fruity hard candies. It’s light, refreshing, and delicious either hot or iced! It also makes a punchy espresso and is a delightful pick-me-up when poured over iced sparkling water. This coffee has easily become a staff favorite, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!