Honey Haze Espresso

About the Coffee

Rio Jorco is a third-generation family farm run by Carlos Castro Solano in Tarrazu, Costa Rica. The farm sits at 1,600 meters and grows Catuai variety coffee under native shade trees. What's unusual about Rio Jorco is how the land is managed: three-quarters of the property is kept for conservation, a practice that goes back to the farm's founder, Jorge Zeledon Castro. Carlos has extended the operation beyond the home farm, working with partner producers across neighboring subregions including Aserri, Acosta, Leon Cortez, Frailes, Desamparados, and Corralillo.

Tarrazu has become one of Costa Rica's most talked-about coffee regions over the past decade. The high elevation and cooler temperatures slow the maturation of the coffee cherry, which tends to concentrate sweetness in the bean. The region has also seen a wave of new producers and micro-mills, which has shifted Costa Rican coffee away from regional commodity blends and toward single-farm and single-producer lots with more traceable profiles.

Honey Haze is built around this coffee as a blended espresso designed to be sweet and balanced rather than aggressively fruity. It's meant for people who are curious about fruit-forward coffees but don't want something that drinks like juice. The honey process (where some fruit mucilage is left on the bean during drying) adds body and natural sweetness without pushing the cup into overtly funky or fermented territory.

About Phil & Sebastian

Phil Robertson and Sebastian Sztabzyb co-founded Phil & Sebastian in Calgary in 2007. Phil came from an engineering background and applied it directly to the roasting side of the business, designing their roasting machine and building the software they use across operations. Sebastian focuses on green coffee buying in Central and South America and managing the company's finances. Both travel to origin to source coffee directly from producers.

Their sourcing approach is built around paying above the industry average for green coffee and investing in projects at origin. The goal is to maintain long-term relationships with producers rather than buying opportunistically. It's a straightforward philosophy, but one that requires consistent follow-through to hold up over time.

"Phil & Sebastian is a favourite of mine from my time in Calgary. My wife swore by their "Hartmann Honey" beans, and we stocked it (or, maybe "hoarded" is a better word) for as long as they sold it. It feels like a 'full circle' moment to finally have them in our rotation."

- Dean, Director of Coffee