COMING JUNE 2026: Costa Rica - Journey Collection Coffee

A coffee we chose from a trip as a family, not a catalog. Arriving in June of 2026. 

The trip

My wife and I flew down to Costa Rica with our infant and toddler to do three things: experience Costa Rica as a family, race a 160K gravel race on the Nicoya Peninsula, and find a coffee worthy of bringing back to share with The Echelon Coffee Club.

We visited multiple farms in the Central Valley. Cupped dozens of coffees. 

Of everything we tasted on that trip, this is the one that came home with us after a visit of the Chacón family at Las Lajas Micromill. 

Tasting notes

Red wine. Dark chocolate. Winey acidity. Roast: Medium/Light - developed enough to drink in any brew method, with or without milk. We like it with any filtered coffee or as espresso based drink. This will be unlike anything you have ever had before.

The coffee

This lot comes from Finca Los Ángeles, processed by Las Lajas — the micromill run by Oscar and Francisca Chacón.

The Chacóns are third-generation producers and among the first people in Costa Rica to push honey and natural processing into specialty coffee. Their story starts in 2005, when they broke from the cooperative model and opened their own mill. It accelerated in 2008, when an earthquake cut off their water supply and forced them to experiment with naturals. What began as a workaround became a signature — a mill built on the idea that how you dry a coffee matters as much as how you roast it.

The Chacóns didn't waste a perfectly good crisis to abandon their goals. They built something better than what the old conditions would have allowed. They chose Forward. 

They turned a catastrophe into a new, sustainable standard for coffee worldwide. 

The process — Alma Negra

Alma Negra is one of the Chacóns' original naturals. The cherries start drying on the patio, get piled overnight to slow the curing, and are spread back into the sun through the day — repeated over weeks before resting and export.

It's slow, labor-intensive, and limited by design. It's also what gives this cup its wine-like sweetness and the winey acidity in the finish.

The Journey Coffee Collection

Every release in the Journey Coffee Collection comes from an origin we've traveled to, cupped at the source, and chosen ourselves. Costa Rica is the first. More to come.

Limited inventory. We ordered just one burlap bag. When it's gone, it's gone. We are on to the next origin.