Sugar Heist

About the Coffee

Rio Jorco is a third-generation family farm in Tarrazú, Costa Rica, run by Carlos Castro Solano. The farm sits at 1,600 meters and grows Catuai variety coffee under native shade trees. What stands out about Rio Jorco is how the land is used: three-quarters of the property is kept in conservation, a practice Carlos has maintained to honor the legacy of founder Jorge Zeledon Castro.

Beyond the home farm, Rio Jorco works with partner producers across neighboring subregions including Aserri, Acosta, Leon Cortez, Frailes, Desamparados, and Corralillo. The Tarrazú region has seen a significant shift over the past decade, with more producers building their own micro-mills and selling single-farm lots rather than contributing to regional blends. That shift has brought more traceability and consistency to Costa Rican coffee as a whole.

The high elevation and slow maturation that Tarrazú's climate allows gives producers like Carlos a real advantage in developing sweetness and balance in the cup. Sugar Heist is built around those qualities, designed to sit comfortably between familiar roasted notes and a lighter touch of fruit.

About Phil & Sebastian

Phil Robertson and Sebastian Sztabzyb co-founded Phil & Sebastian in Calgary, Canada in 2007. Phil came in with an engineering background and channeled it into building their own roasting machine and writing the software that runs their operations. Sebastian focuses on sourcing, handling green coffee buying trips through Central and South America. They both travel to origin regularly to select and purchase coffee directly.

On the sourcing side, Phil & Sebastian pay above the industry average for green coffee and invest in projects at origin, with the goal of keeping producer relationships sustainable long-term rather than transactional.

"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