Costa Rica: Arbar, El Oasis

Bright but silky smooth and creamy, it's a mug full of lemon curd! A little shoulder of raspberry on the finish and delicate black tea on the aftertaste adds complexity to this elegant cup.

El Oasis is aptly named. Slightly smaller than the family's flagship farm El Manantial, it's a compact but productive plot yielding around 6,000kg of fresh cherries each year. It sits at 1,600 metres above sea level in Costa Rica's Western Valley, near the town of Lourdes de Naranjo – a neighbourhood so good at producing coffee that it counts multiple Cup of Excellence-winning mills as neighbours. The farm is one of five run by the Arrieta Barboza family through their ARBAR micromill, a name lovingly spliced from Carlos ARrieta and Maria BARboza. Drying beds, depulpers, and nurseries are arranged around the family home, with son Nacho helping on the farm and taking a keen interest in cupping and quality control, while Esteban now works for our Costa Rican exporting partner Exclusive Coffees – coffee runs deep in this family.

This lot combines two varieties that, together, form the backbone of Costa Rican coffee. Caturra is a natural dwarf mutation of Bourbon, first discovered in Brazil in the early twentieth century and prized for its crisp sweetness and bright citrus acidity. Catuai takes things further – a hybrid developed in the 1940s by crossing Caturra with the vigorous Mundo Novo, bred specifically to combine compact stature with impressive yields. When grown at altitude and processed with care, both deliver a clean, balanced cup with notes of chocolate, caramel, and gentle fruit. The two are a natural pairing here, accounting for the bulk of what ARBAR produces.

The honey process has become something of a Costa Rican signature. Born out of necessity following the 2008 earthquake that left many producers without access to water, it involves pulping the coffee cherry but leaving varying amounts of the sticky mucilage intact during drying. The result sits somewhere between fully washed and natural in character – cleaner and more nuanced than a natural, but with a gentle sweetness and soft fruitiness that washed coffees don't quite capture. It's a method that suits the Western Valley's climate perfectly and, when handled well, lets the terroir and varietal character shine through. Carlos definitely has the skills to pay the bills on this front.

The relationship with ARBAR stretches back to 2013, when Steve Leighton of Hasbean first cupped a sample labelled simply "Carlos Arrieta" at the offices of Exclusive Coffees. It didn't even have a name, but it stood out immediately. Back then, Carlos had owned the farm for years but had never met a buyer directly – he'd simply been sending his cherries to a cooperative. That chance encounter changed everything. When Hasbean joined Ozone in 2018, we proudly continued the partnership, and Roland, our Green Buyer, has visited countless times since. The family have sheep, chickens, and goats roaming the land in a bid to be as self-sufficient as possible. Last time we visited, local firemen dropped by the house to pick up some of Maria's roasted coffee for themselves – she learned to roast as a child, over a fire with her father. It's a lovely snapshot of rural life and community, and exactly the kind of thing that reminds us why we put the work into maintaining these connections.

• Country: Costa Rica
• Region: Western Valley
• Area: Lourdes de Naranjo
  
• Producer: Carlos Arrieta
• Farm: El Oasis
• Micromill: Arbar
  
• Elevation: 1,600 m.a.s.l.
• Varieties: Caturra & Catuai
• Process: Honey

Medium

Through first and let it develop in the gap a bit, but keep it before second to keep the lively citrus acidity. The honey process has already done some of the heavy lifting in terms of sweetness and body, so we don't need to push it too far. Letting it coast through the gap allows those caramel and chocolate notes to develop without losing the brightness that makes this coffee sing.

Tasting Notes: Lemon curd, raspberry, black tea.

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores

• Clean cup: 6/8
• Sweetness: 6.5/8
• Acidity: 6.5/8
• Mouthfeel: 6.5/8
• Flavour: 6.5/8
• Aftertaste: 6/8
• Balance: 6/8
• Overall: 67/8
• Correction: +36
• Total: 87/100

If you would like to find out more about how we score coffees, make sure to read our blog post "What Do Coffee Cuppings Scores Actually Mean?" by clicking here.

Our coffee is roasted fresh and ships quickly – which means it might arrive a little lively. Here's the thing: freshly roasted beans are still busy releasing carbon dioxide (a natural byproduct of roasting), and all that activity can make your brew taste a bit sharp or unsettled.

Give it a few days to calm down and something lovely happens. Those brighter, edgier notes mellow out, sweetness develops, and the flavours you're actually after can really come into focus.

We recommend resting your coffee for at least 5-7 days from the roast date on the bag before brewing. A little patience goes a long way.

That said, this is just what we've found works best – not a rule. If you can't wait, we completely understand. Tuck in whenever you like.