Esteban Zamora - Cinnamon Anaerobic

There are those of us who long for summer to go on and on forever, who actually dread fall as it threatens to take away our pool days and warm, sunny evenings. And then there is, well, the overwhelming majority of everyone else, who start buying up pumpkins and breaking out chunky sweaters the day after Labor Day. For these people - including yourself, I imagine - we are pleased to announce the arrival of our first Costa Rican cinnamon coffee of the season!

Esteban Zamora is no stranger to the Black and White menu. Esteban, a mechanical-engineer-turned-coffee-producer processes the coffee grown on his family's five-hectare plantation by hand! The process for fermenting a coffee anaerobically with cinnamon is tedious and long, but Esteban has sees it through beautifully: First, fresh coffee cherries are brought to the wet mill where the fruit is pulped, but mucilage is not washed from the seed. Everything but the cascara (coffee cherry skin) is added to GrainPro bags and combined with 1 kg of cinnamon powder for every 46 kg of coffee cherries. This mixture is left to ferment in an anaerobic environment for six days before finally being moved to concrete patios to begin drying. This drying process is finished in stationary mechanical dryers at the mill because reactions between the cinnamon powder and the mucilage form a seal around the coffee seed, making it more difficult to dry and requiring the use of mechanical dryers. 

The end result is a lovely, exceptional example of how cinnamon coffee can taste. The cinnamon note is - perhaps obviously - a pronounced one. But there's so much more going on in this cup! This coffee isn't merely warm and cozy; it's also vibrantly acidic, sweet, and complex. We experienced these characteristics as candied orange and apple cider. So, go ahead - you have our permission to break out the flannel, start a fire (even though it's probably 90 degrees in Raleigh today), and enjoy a cup of this fall-forward coffee from our friends in Costa Rica.