Costa Rica Don Mayo Tarrazu Villa Sarchi

About Costa Rica Don Mayo Tarrazu Villa Sarchi

Arrived by airfreight August 2026, new crop coffee, Direct Trade and imported for us by Brumas. We have been buying coffee from Don Mayo for years and it is one of our customer's all time favorites. In most years, the coffee has come from Don Mayo's San Francisco lot, located at 1900 meters, in the clouds. This season, we offer Don Mayo's coffee from another property up the road at the same elevation, El Pedregal. At 1800 meters it, like the San Francisco property, is one of the higher altitude coffee farms in Costa Rica. This is a fully washed coffee that the family for which the family is often lauded.

We visited Hector Bonilla a couple of times over the years, having a great time with him and his family at the Don Mayo micro mill that they own and operate. In addition to being one of the pre-eminent boutique mills in Costa Rica, Hector also owns several parcels of choice coffee producing land in surrounding Tarrazu, including this wonderful La Loma parcel, high up in the clouds. During our days in the area we cupped many, many coffees, all blindly, and the San Francisco spoke to us as it had when we offered it for the first time. It's so nice when you discover something of quality produced by people with the best intentions and the skill to realize their vision.

The Bonilla Solis family are owners of multiple top farm properties in Tarrazu (Bella Vista, La Loma, San Francisco, et al) as well as the Don Mayo micromill.  Their coffee is frequently in the top slots of the Costa Rica Cup of Excellence. The competition seeks to find and reward the best coffee in Costa Rica each year, a country with thousands of coffee farms. They won 1st place some years ago for a Geisha coffee from the La Loma plot; the unroasted coffee sold at auction for about $70 a pound (this El Pedregal is a Villa Sarchi varietal). They won first in the 2009 Cup of Excellence competition too. The winning coffee was from their Bella Vista 1900 farm owned by Josue Bonilla Solis. In between, they have been in top positions most years, attesting to the commitment they make to growing excellence. This is a direct trade coffee and we have purchased the majority of their production of this lot.

Villa Sarchi  (also called La Luisa or Villalobos Bourbon) is naturally occurring dwarf mutation of Bourbon, thus it is a sweet like other Bourbons, yet lower to the ground and easier to harvest. The varietal likes challenging conditions to reach its full potential (slowgrowth helps develop sugars). It is ideally suited to the high elevation of El Pedregal as well as to strong winds.

The Tarrazu region has extremely mountainous terrain, high elevations and some of the best growing conditions for coffee in Central America. The nearby Don Mayo boutique coffee mill which processed this coffee, as well as the farm itself, is a family owned company of the Bonilla Solis family. So, there is total control and continuity between the farm's production and the micro mill's processing. The family has been active in quality coffee growing and production in Tarrazu for more than 50 years.  The Don Mayo micromill handles depulping, fermentation, washing, patio drying in the sun, and, after a couple of months of repose, the coffee is milled before shipping. The coffee goes through a demucilage micromill which removes the coffees outer skin and water jets remove most of the fruit pulp. 

Of note, we purchased this coffee in Grainpro bags so they have and will continue to be protected from moisture, taste and external odors. This will optimize the coffee's flavors and keep the coffee at its peak longer.

• Producer: Hector Bonilla & Family
• Region: Tarrazu
• Micro region: San Marcos of Tarrazu
• Farm plot: El Pedregal
• Altitude: 1800 meters 
• Varietal: Villa Sarchi (Bourbon)
• Processing: Fully washed
• Drying: Patio and raised beds
  

Hector Bonilla enjoying something other than his terrific coffee.

 

Approaching the Don Mayo micro mill in Tarrazu

 

The wetmill is surrounded by drying patio and storage.

 

Cup Characteristics: This wonderful coffee has a nice, clean, bright and sophisticated style from its traditional fully washed processing. Pear, stone fruit, nectarine, peach. Sweet notes of brown sugar and sugar cane, dark chocolate. Medium bodied and creamy. This is classic Costa Rica Tarrazu with citric high notes from orange and lemon. Structured, lively acidity. Long aftertaste. A refined, elegant, classy coffee.The elevation at which this coffee is grown makes for concentrated flavors.

Roasting Notes: This high grown coffee is hard and durable, thus it can withstand higher heat and longer roasting times, doing very well to second crack. But do yourself a favor and pull the coffee before the roast dominates; the more delicate flavors will be revealed.