Costa Rica Carrizal Arriba Espresso

About the Coffee

The Gamboa family farms four properties in the León Cortés micro-region of Tarrazú, Costa Rica. Carrizal Arriba is the highest of these farms, sitting at 1,900 meters above sea level. Emilio Gamboa and his father Tuto run the operation together, and in 2006 they built their own micromill, Montes de Oro, to process and manage their lots in-house rather than sending cherry elsewhere. This lot is the Cataui variety grown at the top of the Carrizal Arriba farm.

The coffee is processed as a white honey, which sits at the lighter end of the honey process spectrum. After picking, a mechanical demucilager removes most of the fruit layer from the outside of the seed before drying begins. A small amount of mucilage remains on the parchment, and as the coffee dries, the sugars in that layer react with air and heat over time. White honey leaves the least mucilage intact, which means a cleaner, more controlled fermentation compared to yellow, red, or black honey styles. By owning their mill, the Gamboas control every step of this process themselves.

About Detour

Detour started in 2009 out of a back alleyway in Dundas, Ontario. The roastery was built on a straightforward idea: coffee should be fun to make, and the people behind it matter. Their sourcing philosophy centers on three things: relationships with producers, traceability through the supply chain, and quality in the cup.

Detour roasts in small batches on a Loring Coffee Roaster, which uses convection heat rather than direct flame. The approach focuses on pulling out what's already in the coffee, whether that's the origin character, the processing method, or the variety, without forcing a house style on top of it.