Costa Rica Champion Producer - Java Lot

Name: Costa Rica Champion Producer - Java Lot
Brand: Difference Coffee
SKU: DCCCRJAVA10
Price: 72.0 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

Elegant & Balanced

STRENGTH 7

$72.00

Tax included. Shipping calculated at checkout.

1 BOX (10 CAPSULES)
NESPRESSO ORIGINAL COMPATIBLE

The Essence

The Cup of Excellence, often called the "Oscars of the Coffee World", identifies the finest coffees of each participating country through rigorous blind tasting by an international jury. At the 2026 Costa Rica Cup of Excellence, a washed Java from the Solís & Cordero family achieved 91.36 points, the highest score of the entire competition. At auction, bidding soared beyond $200 per pound, more than double the previous year, and despite our best efforts we were outbid. What happened next is what makes this coffee so special: having built a close relationship with the family, they chose to allocate a small quantity of this remarkable Java, from the same producer and the same harvest, exclusively to Difference Coffee. Just 35kg, enough for 450 boxes, making this one of the rarest coffees we have ever offered.

THE TASTE EXPERIENCE

THE TASTE EXPERIENCE

An elegant, beautifully balanced cup: sweet toffee and forest honey on the nose, dark plum and caramel through the palate, a rich, syrupy body lifted by gentle citrus brightness, and a long finish with a whisper of milk chocolate.

A vibrant Costa Rican coffee with a smooth, balanced profile, offering bright sweetness and a clean, refreshing finish.

Chris Prow

Head Chef, Rick Stein, Barnes

PURCHASE

MEET THE PRODUCER

Behind Café Solís & Cordero are Ivan Solís and Alejandra Cordero, who farm the high mountains of Costa Rica's famed Los Santos region together with their family. Determined to control quality from cherry to export, they built their own mill, Café Solís & Cordero, in 2018. It has carried them to the very top of Costa Rican coffee, with Cup of Excellence recognition year after year, culminating in the 2026 champion: a washed Java grown at around 1,950 metres that outscored every coffee in the country. We met Ivan and Alejandra at World of Coffee in Brussels and cupped this coffee together before the auction. One sip explained everything.

Competition Champion

Highest score of the 2026 Costa Rica Cup of Excellence

Producer Allocation

Reserved for us directly by the champion producers

Lot Exclusivity

Just 450 boxes produced worldwide

Behind Café Solís & Cordero are Ivan Solís and Alejandra Cordero, who farm the high mountains of Costa Rica's famed Los Santos region together with their family. Determined to control quality from cherry to export, they built their own mill, Café Solís & Cordero, in 2018. It has carried them to the very top of Costa Rican coffee, with Cup of Excellence recognition year after year, culminating in the 2026 champion: a washed Java grown at around 1,950 metres that outscored every coffee in the country. We met Ivan and Alejandra at World of Coffee in Brussels and cupped this coffee together before the auction. One sip explained everything.

THE TERROIR

The Los Santos zone, high in Costa Rica's central mountains, is the country's most celebrated coffee origin, and in 2026 it swept the top honours in every category of the Cup of Excellence. Here, at around 1,950 metres above sea level, the champion Java ripens slowly: cool mountain nights and intense tropical sun draw out the maturation of each cherry, concentrating its sugars and building the layered complexity this coffee is prized for. Mineral-rich volcanic soils and steep, hand-picked slopes complete a terroir that consistently produces some of the finest coffees in Central America, and this year, the finest in all of Costa Rica.

SUSTAINABILITY

When Ivan Solís and Alejandra Cordero built their own mill, Café Solís & Cordero, in 2018, their ambition reached beyond their own harvest: to process coffee for, and share expertise with, smallholder farmers across the region. It is specialty coffee at its best: quality commanding real premiums, paid directly to the families who grow it. The Cup of Excellence reinforces this model: its transparent auctions channel record prices straight to the winning producers, rewarding meticulous, quality-first farming and ensuring that the pursuit of excellence remains sustainable for the next generation of Costa Rican coffee growers.