DULCE TICOSBREW GUIDE
Experimental Natural · AeroPress

Dulce
Ticos

Obatá · Hacienda Sonora, Central Valley

Costa Rica · Grecia, Alajuela · 1,600 masl · Diego Guardia

Experimental natural at Hacienda Sonora, at the foot of the Poás volcano. Obatá cherries dried whole, the estate's controlled ferment building the caramel sweetness and silky texture.

Caramel Ripe strawberry White chocolate Silky

Starting recipe

AeroPress · upright
Dose15.0 g
Chamber200 g
Bypass25 g
Temperature91°C
Grind550-650 µm
Press1:30
Total2:10
PapersTwo, rinsed

Same sweet coffee, gentler machine. The AeroPress brews Obatá as a concentrated immersion that deepens the caramel and white-chocolate body, then a splash of bypass keeps the ripe strawberry clean and lifted on top.

We brew it upright, not inverted. This is a soft, sweet coffee with nothing to churn out of it, so flipping an inverted chamber only risks muddying that silky clarity. Upright keeps the agitation gentle and loses less heat. Sort your water and grind, then brew.

Days off roast

set your bag date
Roasted on
A sweet natural with a stable shelf life. Past its peak the caramel flattens and the strawberry fades, so ease the heat down and chase the sweetness, not the brightness.

Water

Dubai, bottled
Best match Masafi Pure

Magnesium 18, bicarbonate 8 (the lowest we tested), chloride 62. The magnesium lifts the strawberry, the low bicarbonate keeps it sweet rather than flat, and the chloride rounds in the silky caramel and white-chocolate body this coffee is built on.

60-90
Hardness ppm
< 40
Alkalinity ppm
~7.0
pH
Other UAE bottles, ranked for this coffee
Masafi Pure the pick: sweet and round, holds the silky caramel while the strawberry stays bright
Mg 18 · HCO₃ 8
Arwa brighter and crisper, but sulfate 77 dries the silky finish and strips the creaminess. Only to chase the strawberry sharper.
Mg 20.7 · SO₄ 77
Al Ain balanced, a touch more buffered. A safe middle ground.
HCO₃ 30
Mai Dubai Zero+ bicarbonate 125 buffers the acids and flattens the strawberry and the sweetness. Avoid for this one.
avoid here
Your water mattersRead our UAE bottled-water study ↗

Grind

target ~600µm
Your grinder
-
550-650 µm
medium-fine, for AeroPress

The cup you're chasing

A clean, sweet immersion with a fuller body than the filter. Caramel and creamy white chocolate up top, a deeper, syrupier body from the steep, finishing on ripe strawberry. The bypass keeps the fruit clean and lifted. If it reads thin or sharp, drop the temperature before you touch the grind.

Brew it

AeroPress · upright
Dose
15g
You'll need 225ml of water
0:00
total 2:10
Ready
Two rinsed papers in the cap, brewer upright on a sturdy server. Zero your scale. Press start when the first drop of water goes in.
Upright and gentle is the whole idea. A concentrated immersion deepens the caramel and silky body, and the bypass opens it back out so the strawberry stays clean. Press slowly and stop before the hiss, pushing the last of the air through only drags fines and dries the finish.

Fix the cup

tap what you taste
How did it come out?
Change one thing, then brew it again. Chasing two variables at once tells you nothing.