Coffea Diversa Liberica Natural

About This Coffee

Flavor wise expect something totally different than Arabica or Robusta. Like the Coffea Eugenioides coffee from Ecuador we featured in December 2019, Liberica has a high level of sweetness that is reminiscent of artificial sweeteners or Stevia. Herbal and spicy tastes uncommon in arabica mix with  lots of stewed fruit flavors. Think mulled-wine, cooked pineapple and plum, blueberry, sage, cardamom. Sure to be a unique tasting experience!     Background Info Gonzalo Hernandez likes to brag that he’s amassed the world’s largest private collection of coffees trees: more than two hundred species, botanical varieties, mutations and cultivars that grow on his exotic Costa Rican “coffee garden”, Coffea Diversa. His collection includes some of the rarest in the world -- coffees many have neither heard of nor tasted. Of each variety Gonzalo has only a few trees, and his coffees are sold in small 10 kilogram bags to knowledgeable roasters and friends around the world, first come, first serve. We first visited Coffea diversa and met Gonzalo 10 years ago, and we’ve been looking forward to sharing these ever since. Liberica is a giant species of Coffea native to warm areas of central Africa. It can grow to 50ft tall and usually requires ladders to harvest. Before the discovery of the Robusta (Coffea canephora) species it was widely planted in south east Asia as a rust resistant alternative to Arabica. It is still commercially grown in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines for domestic consumption and is used in some Arabica producing regions as rootstock for its resistance to root knot nematodes in the soil. While global production of this species is tiny, and it is an expensive species to grow do to the challenges of harvesting these large trees, Liberica is recently seeing a resurgence in the Specialty coffee industry. Some examples even placing in the top 3 in international barista competitions. We have been offering Liberica coffees when we can find them for the past 15 years, and for the adventurous coffee drinker who likes fruity naturals they are something special. Our Liberica batch is a mix of different Liberica tree selections. A trifecta of Yellow, Pink, and Red fruited varieties. All processed as naturals (dried in the fruit)