Each year we look for a new coffee for this season’s Dr Strangelove Espresso. We seek out interesting single-origin coffees for coffee lovers to enjoy in cafes or at home, with milk, alt milk or black.
Our quest for this year’s Dr Strangelove has taken us to the small town of Santa Maria de Dota in the heart of Costa Rica’s coffee-growing region, Terrazu. Here you’ll find the coffee processing mill of Coope Dota. We absolutely love this juicy espresso with flavours of Bakewell Tart with milk.
Meet the grower
The coffee is grown by smallholders from three different groups; Six K Coffee Limited in Simbu Province, Yomborsa Coffee Henganofi in Eastern Highlands Province and Palden Coffee in Morobe Province. The high altitudes are ideal growing conditions for speciality arabica coffee and limestone-rich soil gives coffee from this region a unique flavour in the cup.
This particular coffee is a washed coffee. It’s grown by 300 small growers who harvest ripe, red cherries, which are sorted, pulped to remove the skins and washed to remove the fruit of the cherry.
Once washed the coffee is dried to under 12% moisture, either by the farmers themselves, or at the dry mill. Next, the beans are transported to the Lahamenegu Mill where the coffee is sorted, graded and the parchment or husks of the beans are removed.
All of this takes place in the high altitudes of the Eastern Highland Province, some 1600 - 1850 metres above sea level where humidity is lower, to preserve the quality of the coffee at every stage of processing.
Why we love this season's Dr Strangelove Espresso
Coope Dota proudly holds the title of being the world’s pioneer carbon-neutral coffee processor, championing sustainability in every aspect of its operations. Representing around 900 devoted small holders focused on growing three coffee varietals, mainly Caturra and Catuai.
The cooperative ensures that every step, from the transportation of coffee to the ports, to waste management, is environmentally conscientious. They even convert their waste into nutrient-rich compost, further adding to their eco-friendly practices.
In the rare event of exceeding their carbon-neutral goal, they purchase carbon credits to maintain their environmental balance.
Coope Dota’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond its immediate operations. As well as running its own roastery and shop, it also reinvests additional funds back into the community.
How to brew Dr Strangelove Espresso
As an espresso try 18g coffee in for 34g out and a shot time of 30-34 seconds.
Dr Strangelove is also great as a cafetiere using 35g coffee for 500ml water, brew for 4 minutes then plunge.
Meet the Roasters
Dr Strangelove is always roasted on Bertha, a 30 year old 120kg Probat coffee roaster which we rescued from Bosnia in 2012.
When we found Bertha she was completely decommissioned, a pile of parts destined for scrap. Over four years we rebuilt this machine, retro-fitting an afterburner to eliminate VOCs from it’s emissions and drastically improving fuel efficiency. Today, Bertha runs on just 40% of her original fuel consumption - a beautiful and efficient machine.
