Costa Rica - Roble Negro Espresso

Description

Surprisingly nice. We keep hitting that description - this coffee is just a really, really nice washed Catuaí from Costa Rica. Fresh, singing, incredibly sweet and moreish, we were so surprisingly delighted at this coffee we decided to run it as the next single origin espresso. Having first featured coffee from Roble Negro ("Black Oak") out of season as Interval V1, which even nearly a year off the trees were holding up super well - we were dead set on getting some fresh crop lots. We also had the pleasure of hanging out with Alexander Vasquez (of the Familia Vasquez who run Finca El Cedral and the Roble Negro micromill) at the last World of Coffee in Brussels, an all-round lovely chap. Trad washed Catuai from Costa Rica: If you judge this book purely on its cover, you will be sorely missing just how nice this coffee is. Roble Negro is an incredibly ecologically minded farm, growing the majority of their coffee under shade (so they are often late to harvest with longer ripening) and with native forest reserves. This year was a down year for volumes from Costa Rica, with less cherries on the trees competing for nutrients and energy and the extended ripening that Roble Negro finds this is really a best in class for the type. We were down to the wire on releasing this as a filter, but circumstances/logistics made us pick espresso in the end - and leaning on the roasting a little bit to emphasise body and sugar browning sweetness really seems to bring out the best possible version of this coffee. Brew Guide: Best Brewed with: Espresso & Chunky Filter Medium-Light Roaster Influence: We've been really enjoying stretching out the total time of our smaller batch espresso roasts recently - which to be honest, for us means bringing them closer to more "normal" roast times, closer to 8 minutes+ total. If we think of the sort of specs we might give a Central American house filter, when we take a similar coffee like this that bit further for espresso we're adding another 20-25s at the end of the roast and a degree or two more to the end temperature. Especially for a more traditional washed coffee like this, we're looking for ooey-gooey still syrupy body as an espresso and all the sugar browning character, without hitting more heavy generic "roast" flavours of the sort we might find in something like Interval Best Rested: 3+ weeks Filter: 65g/L, 92°C when fresh; 90°C when rested Espresso: 18g/40g/30-34s We're tasting: Super sweet and syrupy bodied - we get morello cherry compote and buttery stewed apple as the dominant notes, alongside a caramel and milk chocolate sweetness. There's a hint of that classic Catuaí nuttiness, but it integrates into the sugar browning notes to be a bit snickers bar-esq. Really moreish In Milk: Apple Pie Traceability Country of Origin: Costa Rica Region: Tarbaca, Aserrí, San José Producer: Familia Vásquez Farm: Roble Negro Micromill, Finca Cedral Alto Variety: Catuaí Elevation: 1750 - 2000 MASL Process: Traditional Washed: Ripe cherries picked, floated and sorted before depulping. Parchment fermented in tanks for 36-40 hours, before washing. Dried on raised beds. Import Partner: Ally Coffee Harvest: Crop 25/26 - Arrived UK August 7th 2026, Second harvest working with Roble Negro The Story We first met one of the team from Roble Negro in 2024, when our friends at Ally hosted co-founder & director of planning Daniela Vásquez for a visit to London. Having met and enjoyed our conversation, our sourcing efforts in Costa Rica focused on big, bombastic nanolots - extended fermentations, rare varieties, and that sort of thing, and we were fools to miss out on what a GEM Roble Negro turns out to be. We brought their coffee into the range as part of the launch of Interval Espresso, where we look to focus on farms with ecological programs, as well as providing a channel to buy the bulk production from those in our network that is more appropriate for the heavier roast style (as opposed to skimming off the cream of the crop tiny nanos, as our early CR buying was a classic example). Significantly out of season, the Catuaí from Roble Negro held up SO well - far better than we were expecting - and was a truly delicious start to Interval. By pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone to roast that developed (by no means second crack, we should say) we also learned a lot that we were able to apply back to our existing single origin espresso and Facility range, making them better for espresso without necessarily making them any "darker" tasting in the cup. When the opportunity came around to contract fresh crop from Roble Negro, we jumped at the chance. We booked a larger allocation thinking of perhaps a house filter or entry level filter on the range, and our original biases and our thoughts towards the ceiling of quality of Catuaí kept being thrown in our faces. On blind cupping tables - offer, pre-shipment, landed, roastery arrival - their coffee was coming out amongst our favourites, with great acidity, structure and sweetness. We truly would have been very happy - proud even - to release this amongst our light & lightest range of filters, and it's purely because we booked a larger allocation that we've instead diverted it to run as an espresso - knowing that is a diverse coffee able to shine at a range of roast degrees. We had the pleasure of showcasing a very small amount of this coffee at the latest World of Coffee in Brussels, hanging out on the Ally stand with Alexander Vásquez (co-founder & director quality). Roble Negro was founded in 2018 by Daniella and Alexander's uncle, Jorge Vásquez Ureña. Jorge bought the farm where the micromill is located - Finca Cedral Alto - in 2007. His childhood was connected to coffee - growing up around the coffee farms of Aserrí where his family worked as pickers, but after gaining an accounting degree he spent 2 decades working at the National Bank of Costa Rica before founding a recycling company (Compañía de Reciclaje Ecológico). It's the merging of the thoughts of ecology and sustainability with coffee production that really sets Roble Negro apart - this is a farm where the circular economy is built into every decision, their coffee exists to fund the conservation of rainforest and freshwater sources, not the other way around Of the 22.5 ha total area of the farm, 12 ha are kept aside for primary and secondary forest with a further 3 ha undergoing reforestation, 5 ha are dedicated to coffee production, with the remaining split with animal paddocks (sheep & cattle), a vegetable garden and the wet mill itself. There are six water sources on the farm, which allows for efficient drip irrigation systems, and they have a commitment to zero pollution of the waterways - thesugar/acid/microbes laden "agua miel" from the fermentation tank are used to irrigate paddocks and corn fields. They use zero artificial agrichemical inputs - fertiliser comes from vermicompost of coffee pulp, and fungicides come from cultivated microbes from forest leaves as well as calcium sulfate. Rather than use herbicides for weed control, they use grazing sheep to clear the ground around the trees (which has additional fertilisation benefits). This dedication to forward looking regenerative and sustainable agriculture, as well as forest preservation is truly laudable. And it shows in the cup - this is among one of the best traditionally washed Catuaí's we've had, and shows what can happen when healthy trees grow in shade with healthy soil microbiomes. In addition to Gesha, the farm has recently begun planting new varieties as well as some new plots reaching production - Venecia, Villa Sarchi, and most recently the F1 hybrid Esperanza. We're stoked to see what they come up with from these plots, and we're certain that Roble Negro is going to become a staple part of our Costa Rican offer for many seasons to come yet.