Cerro Verde - Costa Rica - Black Washed Villa Sarchi

Coffee farming in the Fallas Mora family goes back three generations, beginning with grandfather Herminio Fallas Jiménez, a pioneer of coffee production in his community. Herminio cultivated and cared for his coffee plants for decades, passing his knowledge on to his son, Eliécer Fallas Mena, whose passion for coffee farming drove the production of exceptional high-altitude coffees.

Today, Eliécer’s son, Deyner Fallas Mora, the eldest of the family, continues this legacy. In 2012, he founded Cerro Verde with the goal of processing the family’s own coffee and maintaining complete control over quality, rather than selling cherries to third parties.

The name Cerro Verde (“Green Mountain”) comes from its location facing El Dragón Mountain, known for its striking beauty and vivid green slopes. Cerro Verde is located in the Los Santos area, in the Tarrazú coffee-growing region, specifically in San Francisco de León Cortés, at 1,930 metres above sea level. Its very steep terrain, combined with mineral-rich soils and a unique microclimate, is enhanced by eco-friendly farm practices: minimal spraying, on-site compost production, and permaculture principles that integrate coffee with shade trees and food crops like bananas, avocados, mulberries, peaches, and others, while free-grazing cattle help maintain the land’s natural balance. This meticulous care and artisanal processing yield exceptional specialty coffee.

Villa Sarchi (also called La Luisa or Villalobos Bourbon) is a natural mutation of the Bourbon varietal with a single-gene mutation that causes the plant to grow smaller (called “Dwarf/Compactism’). The variety was discovered in the town of Sarchi, Costa Rica in the 1950s or 1960s in the northwestern region of the province of Alajuela, and has subsequently undergone pedigree selection (selection of individual plants through successive generations) there.

SCA Cup Score: 88.75

Quantity Purchased: 138kg

Free On Board: 4.70 USD/lb

Free On Truck: 6.69 USD/lb

The Black Washed coffee is crafted using a meticulous, temperature-controlled process that begins with harvesting 100% ripe cherries. After a brief rest as whole fruit, the cherries are pulped and transferred to clean containers with the mucilage still intact. There they rest for a carefully determined number of days, with constant monitoring of temperature, as the temperature determines how long they should remain there.
Fermentation is intentionally avoided throughout the process. It is neither desired nor permitted. The coffee is also kept out of direct sunlight during this phase. Once the beans reach the optimal point, they are thoroughly washed and begin their initial drying phase over several days.
Following this, the coffee enters a second resting period while still not fully dried. When it reaches the ideal moisture level, it is moved to African drying beds and placed in the sun to complete the drying process to perfection. This precise, non-fermented approach highlights the coffee’s clean, bright, and naturally complex profile.