Costa Rica Finca Bernina Red Honey Gesha, Finca Bernina

Producer: Homberger Family
Farm: Finca Bernina
Region: Pérez Zeledón
Varietal: Gesha
Process: Red Honey
Altitude: 1300-1700 MASL

The entire coffee crop at Finca Bernina, located in the foothills of the towering Mount Chirripó, comprises just 80 hectares of the 460-hectare farm; the remainder of the land is dedicated to forestry, cattle, and sugarcane agriculture. Of that, an even smaller portion is set aside for growing the low-yield (but high-reward) Gesha varietal.

Many coffee fanatics are familiar with honey processed coffees, wherein the cherry of the coffee is removed, leaving the mucilage, or the sticky coating outside the coffee bean, intact. Some coffee fanatics don’t know that there are categories to the honey process: white honey process; yellow honey process; red honey process and black honey process. The level of honey is determined by the color of the bean after processing, which is in turn determined by the amount of mucilage left on the bean.

Honey processing is similar to the pulped natural process used commonly in Brazil, or the wet-hulled method characteristic of Indonesian coffees.