Costa Rica Mario Mora Catuai Red Honey

A Catuai Red Honey lot produced by Mario Mora at Los Cuarteles Micromill in Tarrazu, Costa Rica. It offers soft fruit character, layered sweetness, and a refined floral quality that gradually unfolds as the cup cools.

Mario Mora is a coffee producer who runs Los Cuarteles Micromill in the Tarrazu region of central southern Costa Rica. In pursuit of greater consistency and quality in coffee production, he established his own micromill in 2014.

Today, he manages several farms and works with a wide range of varieties including Catuai, Caturra, Geisha, and Villa Sarchi. While valuing traditional methods, he places particular emphasis on Honey Process coffees, one of Costa Rica’s most iconic processing styles, and carefully manages mucilage removal by hand rather than relying entirely on mechanical washing.

Los Cuarteles Micromill is located at around 1,800 meters above sea level in the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica. With its cool climate, pronounced day-to-night temperature shifts, and clearly defined dry and rainy seasons, the area provides ideal conditions for slow cherry maturation and the development of layered, expressive cup profiles.

This lot comes from El Higueron Farm, where coffee is cultivated and harvested with great care to reflect the character of the land. That environment, combined with meticulous farm management, supports the coffee’s soft fruit expression and transparent sweetness.

This lot is made from Catuai and processed using Costa Rica’s signature Red Honey method. In Honey Process coffees, part of the fruit mucilage is left on the parchment during drying, helping to create a cup with vibrant fruit character, layered sweetness, and a smooth texture.

Mario Mora carefully controls the removal of mucilage by hand rather than leaving the process entirely to machinery. This thoughtful approach allows the coffee’s apple- and black cherry-like fruit notes, along with its fuller chocolate-like sweetness, to come through with clarity and balance.