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Who Makes The
BEST COFFEE
Editorial sacred-geometry illustration for Volcan Azul - Costa Rica - Washed SL28, not a photograph of this coffee or its packaging

Editorial illustration · not a coffee photograph

Editorial sacred-geometry artwork for Volcan Azul - Costa Rica - Washed SL28; not a documentary photograph

Editorial illustration

Editorial sacred-geometry artwork for Volcan Azul - Costa Rica - Washed SL28; not a documentary photograph

Editorial illustration

Editorial sacred-geometry artwork for Volcan Azul - Costa Rica - Washed SL28; not a documentary photograph

Editorial illustration

🇨🇷Costa Rica

Volcan Azul - Costa Rica - Washed SL28

Roasted by April Coffee RoastersRoaster's website
TRADITIONAL PROCESS
TagsCosta RicaAlajuelaSL28WashedLight roastPlumArabicaSingle originVolcan AzulAlejo CastroApril Coffee Roasters
🇨🇷Costa RicaWashedSL28Light roast
Brand
—
Roaster website
Visit website
Country
🇨🇷Costa Rica
Region
Alajuela
Town
—
Farm / Station
Volcan Azul
Farmer / Producer
Alejo Castro
Species
Arabica
Type
Single origin
Grade
Not specified
Variety
SL28
Process
Roast
Light
Tasting notes
Florals, Plums, Stone Fruit
Fermentation
Washed process; the roaster does not publish a fermentation vessel or duration.
Drying
—
Product page
Roaster's site
Date reviewed
—
Why some details are blank
  • availabilityCached April shop results list variants, but the exact product and lot-information URLs returned 404s on November 5, 2026; current sale status cannot be demonstrated.
  • altitudeApril publishes a 1,600–1,650 m range; no single representative elevation was invented.
  • fermentationOnly washed processing is disclosed; vessel and duration are not published.
  • dryingDrying method and duration are not published for this release.
  • gradeNo formal green-coffee grade is published for this exact release.
  • roast dateNo bag-specific roast date is published for this 2024 release.
  • current crop sentimentThe verified public sentiment is historical; a newer 2026 Fellow Drops coffee is explicitly a different lot and was excluded.
Spotted an error? Report a correction →
The transparency chain

FROM THE BAG
BACK TO THE LAND.

Every link we could verify, traced in one place. Follow the chain as far as it goes — when the industry doesn't disclose a link, we say so instead of guessing.

  1. 01
    The name on the bag
    Volcan Azul - Costa Rica - Washed SL28
  2. 02
    The brand
    Not disclosed
  3. 03
    The roaster
    April Coffee Roasters
  4. 04
    The variety
    SL28
  5. 05
    The farm
    Volcan Azul
  6. 06
    The farmer
    Alejo Castro
  7. 07
    The region
    Alajuela
  8. 08
    The country
    🇨🇷Costa Rica
From the producer

Alejo Castro manages the Volcan Azul farm, which is known for its commitment to quality and experimentation with various coffee varieties in the Alajuela region.

From the roaster

April Coffee Roasters is a Copenhagen-based roaster that focuses on highlighting the specific characteristics of each coffee through precise roasting techniques to achieve balance and intensity.

Why this coffee is noteworthy

Volcán Azul is the Aguilar Borbón family's estate in Costa Rica's West Valley. SL28 is Kenya's classic quality selection, long valued for its blackcurrant-like acidity. Expected direction — an interpretation of the documented facts, not our tasting: clean, structured and origin-transparent. Watch the roaster's published notes for what to expect. Fans of clarity-driven, origin-transparent cups are the natural audience.

The honest process breakdown

WHAT DID THEY ACTUALLY
DO TO THIS COFFEE?

01
Selective estate harvest

SL28 cherries were produced at Volcan Azul during the January–March 2024 harvest.

02
Washed processing

April identifies the lot as washed but does not publish fermentation or drying details.

03
Light filter roasting

April presents the coffee as a light-roast filter release and publishes a two-pour recipe.

What was added?

No added fruit, culture, flavoring, or post-roast treatment is disclosed.

What wasn't added?

Fermentation vessel and duration, drying method and duration, and bag-specific roast date are not published.

Why it matters

Keeping the undocumented steps blank preserves the exact estate, producer, variety, process, and harvest identity without inventing a processing narrative.

What you might taste

Florals, plums, and stone fruit.

Sources for these process claims
  • · https://www.aprilcoffeeroasters.com/products/volcan-azul-costa-rica-washed-sl28-1
  • · https://www.aprilcoffeeroasters.com/pages/sl28-infos
Coffee profile

In the database. Not tasted. Not scored.

This coffee is in our database because we can reliably document it — but we haven't tasted and scored it yet, and we never publish a score we haven't earned.

Outside reviews and internet discussion — is kept clearly separate from our own review. When we taste it, our full review appears here.

The internet pulse

What the internet is saying about this coffee

What the internet is saying
WE FOUND 2 RELEVANT PUBLIC SOURCES

AI-synthesized from publicly available information retrieved 2026-11-05. This is research, not our original tasting review.

What the sources say

Mixed-to-positive historical exact-product-line reception: one independent 2024 tasting rates the coffee 4/6, while a separate first-hand discussion reports extraction difficulty but some very good, balanced cups.

What people love

Red-fruit, brown-spice, and cooked-apple notes; occasional very good cups with better balance at long ratios.

What people don't

One brewer found the coffee difficult to extract consistently, less fruity than expected, prone to fines and stalled drawdowns, and possibly underdeveloped.

Flavors people keep mentioning
red fruitbrown spicecooked applebalanceddenselight roast
Outside ratings & rankings

Scores remain on their original scales. An outside review, competition score or historical release is not our tasting and cannot safely be merged into one five-star rating.Our method

Public sentiment estimate

2 separate publishers · qualitative evidence

One independent 2024 tasting lists the exact April/Volcan Azul/washed-SL28 coffee at 4/6. A second matched product-line discussion is qualitative only and is not averaged numerically. This is a source-attributed editorial interpretation, not an independently measured coffee rating or our tasting. Historical observations cannot establish the quality of the current crop.

Method: Normalize the one published numeric score linearly: 4 ÷ 6 × 100 = 66.7. Two source URLs were reviewed; one supplies a comparable numeric score.

Internet sentiment

A qualitative summary of public sources, including context. Not a coffee score.

Mixed-to-positive — historical exact-product-line evidence
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These coffees come from the same producer or farm, offered by other roasters. We never automatically declare two offerings the exact same coffee — a match requires lot, harvest and traceability details. Even a true same-lot pair can taste different: roast approach, freshness, rest and brewing all reshape the cup.

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