We Source All of Our Coffees; We Are True Coffee HUNTERS !
La Amistad (the "Friendship")
Costa Rica is regarded as one of the world's premiere coffee growing regions, thanks to its volcanic soil and ideal drainage. This Coffee also benefits from fertile soils, which are rich in volcanic ash. Its altitude goes from 4,200 to over 6,300 feet, with an average of 5,100 feet. This coffee type originates from a small farm called La Amistad.
This high altitude means that this coffee takes longer to mature, and therefore produce denser and richer beans this type of coffee bean is graded as a SHG bean. The warmth of the valley protects their coffee from the cold San Marcos nights, permitting them to grow coffee at higher altitudes.
The La Amistad farm is located above 1800 meters near the border between Costa Rica and Panama, in the Talamanca Mountain Range on the border of La Amistad International Park. The farm has been family-run for generations and the family has kept much of the 20,000+ acres as natural forest/conservation area. The estate is also one of the largest private nature reserves in Central America. La Amistad is home to hundreds of wildlife species that inhabit the surrounding rainforest.
The farm is mainly self-sufficient. The fresh and clean streams from the rain forest supply the water for washing the coffee as well as generating power to run the milling machinery on site. The plants and earthworms break down the waste from the animals, cherry pulp, ashes, and leaves to create a rich and organic fertilizer. The word Amistad translates to friendship; La Amistad farm is appropriately named as it is truly a friend to biodiversity.
Cupping Notes: Mild body, mild acidity, clean finish, lively cup, soft fruit notes, sweet, malt, complex, smooth.
ROASTED IN SMALL BATCHES TO GUARANTEE AN EVEN, MEDIUM ROAST - Small batch roasting is more expensive because of labor costs, but this roasting technique ensures that each batch of coffee is of superior quality and roasted evenly to the desired roast profile, not mass produced. This process draws out the best possible flavor in each batch. Small batch roasting permits a higher quality of standards in coffee throughout the complete process: from picking out the correct coffee beans, to choosing the correct charge & drop temperature & then to slowly roasting each small batch to perfection.
Enjoy,
Darling & Family
Taste Our Passion In Every Sip !
This coffee is roasted to medium, to protect its natural flavor.
Blue Macaw Coffee Roasters A Small Family Owned & Operated Business:
My name is Darling, We are a family owned and operated business; we take great pride in our coffees. I grew up in the coffee producing region of Nicaragua. As a small child I remember helping my father pick coffee for the local co-operative. I started learning about coffee when I was 4 years old when my dad took me to work with him. I learned how to spot the attributes of a high quality coffee bean as a young child. I now go to most of the countries we source our coffees from as our companies coffee buyer.
Our roast master (my husband) learned the art of roasting coffee in Costa Rica for six years where he studied to master coffee roasting. Blue Macaw Coffee Roasters combines old world coffee roasting techniques that he learned while studying the art of coffee roasting for 6 long years. After returning to America we opened Blue Macaw Coffee using the experience he gained while roasting in Costa Rica & my knowledge of what to look for in a high quality coffee bean from childhood. We use all this knowledge along with the high tech digital roasting technologies of today’s small batch roasters. Together we bring you the finest roasted coffees available. I’m sure you will find each of our coffees are the finest quality money can buy.
Our Roasting Process
Roasting coffee is considered an art & is a process of understanding the physical & chemical property changes known as “Pyrolisis” this is the chemical reaction & change of composition that accrues during the roasting process. Green coffee beans react to certain temperatures & durations of exposure to heat. This roasting process changes the chemical composition causing a caramelization of the coffee beans to occur. Developing these chemical compounds will greatly impact the coffees taste, aroma, sweetness, acidity & body of a coffee.
Small Batch Roasting
To better understand the benefits of roasting in small batches is very simple. We use 3 Probat 12 kilo roasters; these roasters are custom built for us in Germany. By greatly reducing the batch size in each roaster we can control the coffees inner core temperature & therefor have more control over the chemical changes our coffee beans will go through while being roasted.
Roasted Each Morning & Shipped Each Afternoon
Each morning we figure out how much of which coffees we need & then go to work roasting that coffee in our small batch roasters to give it an amazing quality & taste. We only roast what we need for that business day. By doing this you’re receiving a coffee that is always roasted to its peak of freshness. Unlike our competitors we don’t have storage shelves that our coffees sit on for days or even weeks waiting to be sold. Considering the short life spam of truly excellent coffee we fell this is a better approach then simply giving you a discount on let’s say 5 pound which could take months to drink.
Advantage Over Our Competitors
Most roasting companies use 50 to 100 kilo roasters.
Roasting at these weights the outer temperatures of the drum & the center temperature of the drum are always going to be off by about 30 degrees. This might not sound so terrible unless you understand that just a temperature difference of 5 or 10 degrees can change the “Pyrolisis” which in turn would change the chemical reaction & change of composition inside the coffee bean. This drastic change will greatly impact the coffees taste, aroma, sweetness, acidity & body of a coffee.
So you ask yourself then why do they use these bigger roasters, good question. It is purely a business decision to go with volume instead of quality. These big roasters can produce 400 to 800 pounds of coffee in less than 1 hour. That’s great if you just want to move some weight & don’t really care about its quality.
I can assure that you will never find a company so dedicated to bringing you the finest & freshest coffees from all over the world.
Enjoy,
Darling & Family
