Costa Rica Roble Negro Gesha

This is the first time we've featured a Gesha from Roble Negro, the inspiring conservationist producer in Costa Rica that we love supporting. Their chocolately Catuai lot that we usually offer is warm and comforting, but this new Gesha brings a fresh, bright acidity balanced with grounded sweetness. Notes of caramel, orange, and apricot swirl together to create a citrusy cup with mellow sugary undertones.

Roble Negro is owned by Jorge Vasquez and his niece and nephew Dani and Alex. To them, coffee trees help support their core focus of conserving the rainforest, not the other way around. You can read about this incredible project in our colleague Will's dispatch.

Roble Negro coffee is processed at Jorge Vasquéz’s micromill. The mill and his coffee farm, Finca Cedral Alto, are located in the town of Aserrí in Costa Rica’s Tarrazú region, about 45 minutes outside the capital of San José. The name Roble Negro means “black oak” and Cedral Alto means “high cedar grove”. These names indicate the importance of environmental preservation to Jorge and his coffee production team. The farm is filled with natural springs and freshwater sources, which the forested areas protect and keep clean, and which is situated at the transition between the Pacific side of the country and the Central Valley region, spanning 1750 to 2000 meters above sea level.

Jorge grew up playing football with his cousins on the farms around Aserrí where their parents worked picking coffee. He graduated from college with a degree in accounting and worked for Costa Rica’s Banco Nacional for 21 years, serving as branch manager for his last 11 years there. Jorge now owns a recycling company, Compañía de Reciclaje Ecológico, which he founded in response to the country’s pollution levels. The recycling company is an extension of his belief in taking care of the natural world around him. Compañía de Reciclaje Ecológico has 14 employees, creates another 20 indirect jobs, and annually processes 2,000 tonnes of materials like cardboard, paper, wood, plastics, metals, and more.

Jorge bought Finca El Cedral in 2007 from Don Fernando Monge. One of Jorge’s first concerns for El Cedral Alto was to protect the six water sources on the property. The waterways form the beginning of the Rio Jorco River and serve as drinking water aquifers for the nearby towns of Cedral Abajo, Vuelta de Jorco, and Acosta, as well as acting as irrigation sources for surrounding farms. The farm is dotted with stunning waterfalls thanks to these water sources — a reminder of the importance and power of fresh water to people, flora, fauna, and agriculture.

Cedral Alto also contains fruit trees planted between the coffee plants (including orange, peach, sweet lemon, plantain, soursop, and avocado) which provide for both people and animals. The farm cultivates Red and Yellow Catuai and has a nursery of Criollo seedlings collected from trees that survived from more than 50 years ago when that was the primary cultivated variety. New seedlings are planted at the beginning of the rainy season and require extensive care for about a year as their root systems form and they develop foliage for the transition from the nursery to the open field. 

In line with Jorge’s commitment to sustainability, Roble Negro removes all weeds by hand and is completely chemical-free. Instead, they use microorganisms harvested from the humus layer of the forest floor to create non-toxic applications to control insects and natural diseases like leaf rust and to facilitate nutrient absorption. 

Jorge’s Roble Negro micromill is known for its high-quality standards and thoughtful sustainability practices. Operations at the mill aim to reduce the use of non-renewable resources like water and electricity, repurpose waste products into natural fertilizers, and even ensure that the GrainPro used for packing and shipping coffee is reused or recycled by the mill’s global partners.

Elevation: 1874 MASL
Varietal: Gesha
Cup score: 87
Price paid per kg: £11.20
Process: Washed