Jhon Alvarado Abarca - Corazón de Jesús
about the producer.
Jhon Alvarado Abarca is one of the first producers the nemesis team connected with on our travels when we started roasting. The Alvarado Fonseca family established their micromill Corazón de Jesús in 2015 with a big dream - to produce the best coffee in Costa Rica.
At the time, the young southern region of Brunca was lesser known for specialty coffee than their northern neighbours. The esteemed Cup of Excellence competition - a blind tasting of submissions from all over the country, scored by an international jury - was dominated by farms from the more established regions of Tarrazú, Valle Occidental, West and Central Valley.
Corazón de Jesús was a labour of love and determination, all the family’s resources had to be pulled together to get everything ready in time for that first harvest. At the mill Jhonny and his family have relentlessly refined their processing, from their traditional washed process to the more experimental honey and anaerobics every detail has been monitored and experimented with to maximise their coffee’s quality. At the same time, Jhon focused on planting new varieties at different locations and collected data every year to discover which varieties performed the best at each farm.
Jhon reached a major milestone in 2021 when his Anaerobic Gesha from Finca La Torre placed 5th in Costa Rica’s Cup of Excellence competition. This was the first time a coffee from Brunca placed and the score of 89.93 was a testament to the family’s dedication and commitment to excellence. This achievement added fuel to the family’s aspirations and each year saw more improvements, placing 3rd in 2022 and 2nd in 2024.
This year the team took the final step towards achieving their goal…..
2025 COSTA RICA CUP OF EXCELLENCE
JHON ALVARADO ABARCA | CORAZÓN DE JESÚS
WINS DOUBLE GOLD AND BRONZE
1st Place Vista Paraiso Washed Geisha 90.63 Traditional Washed
3rd Place La Torre Washed Geisha 89.59 Traditional Washed
1st Place La Cusuka Natural Geisha 91.22 Traditional Honey & Natural
This unprecedented and incredibly well deserved result is the culmination of a decade of innovation, commitment, excellence. We are in awe of Jhon, his family, and his entire team. This is one for the history books and we are so grateful to have the opportunity to share his coffees with our community.
about the coffee.
Brunca is in the south of the country in lush forest and beautiful mountainous terroir. While the mill is located at 1250 masl, the farms range from 1450m all the way up to 2000masl at the highest point - making this some of the country’s highest grown coffee and ideal for both Central American varieties like Villa Sarchi and Milenio and African varieties like the Ethiopian Gesha and ET-47, and Kenyan SL28 and SL34.
This year we are proud to feature 3 lots from 3 of Jhon Alvarado Abarca’s farms, all processed at Corazón de Jesús micromill.
VISTA PARAISO MILENIO NATURAL | FILTER
This year’s first lot from Jhon is a naturally processed Milenio variety from Vista Paraiso - the farm that placed first in the washed geisha category.
Milenio is a relatively new variety that we have come to enjoy and featured many times over the years for its bright acidity and complex profile. Milenio is a hybrid resulting from cross-breeding the parent Sarchimor T5296 and the South-Sudan landrace variety Sudan Rume, which is known for its incredible rarity, high cup quality, and relative leaf rust resistance. Milenio’s cup quality paired with significant rust resistance makes this an increasingly popular selection for many specialty coffee producers in Central America.
Jhon’s award winning processing at Corazón de Jesús brings the coffee’s acidity into perfect balance. The ripe cherries are carefully sorted before slow drying to avoid any overfermentation and maintain a clean cup profile.
cup profile.
black cherry | dried apricot | dark chocolate
The intensity and clarity of aromas in this cup really shows the quality of the team’s work at Vista Paraiso and Corazón de Jesús micromill. Sticky and sweet stone fruit notes dominate this round and satisfying cup with a pleasant high quality dark chocolate finish that lingers.
