The Romero family and Tributos del Ota

The Romero family have grown coffee in the mountains around Santa María de Dota since the 1980s. In 2017 they chose to process their own coffee instead of delivering cherry to a larger mill, and Enrique Romero Chacón built the family micromill together with his parents and brothers. The name honours Ota, the Indigenous chieftain the Dota valley is named after, and the generations of farmers who worked the area.

Finca Don Joaquín covers about 36 hectares in Canet de Tarrazú and sits at 1,875 to 2,050 metres. A lot from the same farm placed second at Costa Rica’s 2026 Cup of Excellence.

What honey processing does

In a honey process the cherry skin and pulp are removed, but some of the sticky mucilage stays on the bean while it dries. The sugars in that layer give more sweetness and a rounder body than a washed coffee, while the cup stays cleaner than a natural, where the whole cherry dries around the bean. It is the process Costa Rica’s micromills are best known for, and here it pushes the coffee toward chocolate and nuts, with citrus keeping it lively.

About AVE Kafferosteri

AVE is the roastery of Emelie and Andrée Victorin, and the name stands for Andrée Victorin Emelie. They opened a sourdough bakery on a farm outside Ullared in Halland in 2019 and added coffee roasting in 2023. Every coffee is roasted light, in the Nordic Roast style, with the profile adjusted to suit each green coffee. The green coffee comes through an importer that buys directly from farms, washing stations and exporters it has long relationships with, and the watercolours on the bags are painted by Emelie and Andrée themselves.

Brewing it

With its chocolate and almond side, this is a forgiving coffee that works in most brewers, from a pour over cone to an AeroPress. AVE suggests 30 g of coffee to 500 g of water at 92 to 96 °C; around 94 °C is a good middle ground here. On a ceramic cone such as the Loveramics Coffee Dripper, rinse the paper with hot water first so the ceramic is warm before you start, which keeps the brew temperature steady. Let the beans rest five to seven days after roasting before the first brew.

Coffee details