PRIDE 2024, Costa Rica 10oz

Region: Tarrazu, Los Santos
Producer: Hacienda La Minita
Varietal: Caturra
Process: Fully Washed Anaerobic

This is a new relationship coffee from Finca El Lilo in Tarrazu, Costa Rica, and it's Lost Sock Roasters' first ANAEROBIC processed coffee. This particular coffee is a washed anaerobic, meaning the cherries are picked then they go through the same process as a "washed coffee". Cherries are put through de-pulpers, fruit is removed, and then the coffee is soaked and washed in channels of water. What happens next is what makes this process different. From the channels of water, the coffee is then placed in a sealable vat and then the oxygen is removed (an-aerobic= without oxygen). The coffee then is allowed to ferment, and in this anaerobic environment unique and different acids are produced which yield distinct flavors. Make sure to give this coffee a taste! It's a great representation of an anaerobic process that isn't in your face. The tropical and winey flavors are there and definitely unique, but they aren't over the top (many of them are! which is why we haven't had one until now!) 

$1 of each bag sold will be donated to the Whitman Walker Foundation - "For over fifty years, Whitman-Walker has been part of the fabric of the local DC and national community as first responder and care-provider for those living with HIV; a leader in LGBTQ care and advocacy; a research center working to discover breakthroughs in HIV treatment and prevention science; and one of the DC’s most trusted partners during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Whitman-Walker envisions a society where all people are seen for who they are, treated with dignity and respect, and afforded equal opportunity to health and wellbeing." 

As always, these special releases are led by our roaster JR, more on the story behind the release from them:

Sure, naming a coffee for Pride Month after a break-up song may not be the happiest choice, but that’s besides the point. This was about taking the title of a song from my absolute favourite band, Tegan and Sara, and making it work for a coffee. After all, Monday morning comes, we wake up to alarms, exhausted from the short weekend, go through our rituals to get in gear and to work, and one of those is probably reaching for a bag of your Lost Sock coffee of choice, brewing a cup, and skedaddling off with a traveler’s cup. 

Wake Up Exhausted made for a perfect title, and one I borrowed from a fellow coffee professional’s tattoo while we waited in the VIP line to see T+S at their Minneapolis show last September. They had a Chemex spilling coffee with a banner reading “WAKE UP EXHAUSTED” and I knew then, dang, that would make for a good title!

The reason I wanted to do a T+S song was twofold; one, to keep up the theme of music related special releases in 2024 (of course there’s a playlist, silly), and two, to honour those who identify as lesbian, sapphic, and women who love women. 

Many of my most favourite bands qualify as lesbian bands. As a fanatic for women’s athletics, many of my favourite athletes are lesbian. I’ve often kept a lesbian or three in my circle, ranging from good to best friend. As a self identifying nonbinary sapphic, I’ve felt close kinship with the lesbian community. It was the soft butch gal back in New Jersey during seventh and eighth grade that introduced me to Sleater-Kinney and the riot grrrl movement. There weren’t a whole lot of black XY kids back then who just loved Heavens to Betsy and Bratmobile like that, so it felt like I spoke a secret language with my good friend.

Between her and later on, lesbians I knew in college and adulthood, I eventually modeled my masculinity and style after these women who’ve touched my life. I always thought this one particular woman made crewneck sweatshirts and work pants look so hot, and that by my late 30s, I became nothing more than a crewneck sweatshirt and work pants person. Add in growing up attracted to femininity in all aspects, needing and craving the divine feminine, while also possessing and displaying my own femininity, I could look at lesbians I knew coming of age and in early adulthood and feel safe and seen and completely understood, long before we had words like nonbinary. The idea of being a male lesbian was just an inside joke between a few of us, but if you knew me, it made sense because the best jokes always have an element of truth.

I’ve always felt, maybe because my household was gay men, that the L in LGBTQ was mostly overlooked. Politically, people attacked gay men in my youth, and now trans people in my middle ages. Socially, people like to mock bisexual people as indecisive or greedy. At best, lesbians were either ignored or sexualized for the male gaze, and yet, I wanted to befriend them all because that space always felt safe for me.

So, here’s my offering to the lesbian community, to the sapphics, to the women who love women. May you accept this coffee with the spirit of a crown of violets placed upon thy head with my love and with dedication to Sappho.