By Eleonora Pozzi
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High in the mountains of Costa Rica, nearly 6,000 feet above sea level, Mayra Solís is continuing a family tradition that began with her father, while helping redefine what the future of specialty coffee can look like.
Mayra’s father spent his life farming coffee in the Santa María de Dota region. When he eventually retired, he divided the family farm among his children, giving each of them a parcel of land to carry forward.
Mayra received the piece at the top of the ridge, a high-elevation property regularly surrounded by mist and mountain clouds. It became known as Alto el Vapor meaning “Above the Clouds.” Over time, Mayra and her children began transforming the property from a traditional coffee farm into a small, family-run specialty coffee operation focused on quality, experimentation and sustainability.
Around 2020, as the next generation became increasingly involved in the farm, the family built its own micromill. That decision allowed them to take greater control over what happened to their coffee after harvest; from processing and drying to quality control and, eventually, exporting.
For Astoria-based Mighty Oak Roasters, the Solís family’s evolution has been something worth supporting.
“We’ve really come to admire the care that the Solís family puts into every step of the process,” said Mighty Oak co-owner Sean Donnelly. “That continuity matters to us. Specialty coffee isn’t just about discovering something exceptional once; it’s about building lasting relationships with producers who are improving quality, investing in their families and taking care of the land they depend on.”
That relationship continues with Mighty Oak’s newest release, Alto el Vapor – Patio Natural, a light-roasted Costa Rican coffee featuring tasting notes of strawberry, caramel and Honeycrisp apple.
The coffee is grown around 1,900 meters above sea level and reflects both the Solís family’s careful farming practices and their willingness to experiment with how coffee is processed after harvesting.
The farm itself is also notable for its approach to conservation. Roughly 90 percent of the surrounding property remains preserved as natural area, helping protect native vegetation, wildlife and water sources while coffee is cultivated on the remaining land.
“It’s a great example of what we see as the way forward in coffee,” Donnelly said. “You have a family controlling more of their own production, improving the quality year after year and doing it while preserving most of the surrounding environment. When we talk about sustainability, it has to include environmental sustainability, but also whether coffee farming can provide a future for the families producing it.”
That philosophy extends into one of the most distinctive parts of the new coffee: its Patio Natural processing method.
A coffee “bean” is actually the seed found inside a coffee cherry. Once the cherry is picked, the way producers remove, ferment and dry the fruit surrounding that seed can dramatically change how the finished coffee tastes.
In a traditional washed process, the skin and most of the fruit are removed from the coffee seed before drying. The coffee is then washed, helping clear away the remaining fruit and mucilage. Washed coffees are often known for cleaner, brighter and more defined flavors because less fruit remains around the seed during drying.
At the other end of the spectrum is the natural process, where the entire coffee cherry is dried with the seed still inside. As the fruit dries around the seed, it can impart deeper sweetness, heavier fruit character and more intense flavors to the finished coffee.
Between the two is the honey process, also sometimes called a pulped natural process. Often thought of as a hybrid between washed and natural processing, the outer skin of the coffee cherry is removed, but some of the sticky fruit, or mucilage, is intentionally left on the seed as it dries. The method can retain some of the sweetness and body associated with natural coffees while preserving more of the clean, balanced character commonly found in washed coffees.
The Solís family’s Patio Natural process takes that experimentation another step.
Coffee cherries are hand-picked at peak ripeness and placed roughly a foot deep across a covered patio, where they sit in the shade and begin fermenting. After about a day, the cherries are transferred to raised drying beds and turned regularly over the following days to encourage even drying.
The fermentation helps intensify the coffee’s fruit character, while the careful drying process maintains clarity and balance. The result is a coffee that captures some of the rich sweetness associated with natural processing without losing the clean qualities Mighty Oak looks for in a specialty lot.
“It gives you this incredible strawberry-like fruit and candy sweetness, but it still tastes remarkably clean,” Donnelly said. “You get that silky texture, caramel sweetness and this bright Honeycrisp apple quality. It’s an intensely flavorful coffee without becoming overwhelming.”
Back in Queens, Mighty Oak completes the final stage by roasting the coffee in small batches over mixed hardwoods at its Astoria roastery.
For Donnelly, the finished cup is ultimately the product of decisions made thousands of miles away, long before the coffee ever reaches New York.
“When people drink this coffee, they’re tasting the decisions of one family; where they grow it, when they pick it, how they ferment it and how carefully they dry it,” said Donnelly. Our job is to roast it in a way that respects all of that work.”
Alto el Vapor – Patio Natural is now available at Mighty Oak Roasters, 28-01 24th Avenue in Astoria, and through Mighty Oak’s online store.
