MCL×Bean Bodega Sidequest Reveal - Scenery 2026

This special MCL Sidequest, brought to us by Brrrruuupp from Bean Bodega, features a coffee from Costa Rica’s Brunca region, produced by Senel Campos Valverde at his own Don Senel Micromill.

Grown on the El Cola Roja farm, this lot consists of the Gesha variety and was processed as Anoxic "Macerated" Natural: Ripe cherries harvested at the Supre Madre Gesha plot on El Cola Roja and taken to the Don Senel Micromill for processing. Cherries floated to remove underripes and ensure uniform density before a "natural maceration" fermentation carried out in sealed, oxygen-free tanks with no release valve, almost like a natural carbonic maceration promoting intracellular fermentation within the beans and selective microbial activity dominated by yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. Lots then moved to a greenhouse with shade netting for a slow, controlled drying process, before a reposado rest in grain-pro to ensure stability

Senel Campos planted his first coffee nursery at the age of twelve. Years later, when falling market prices in 2014 threatened the viability of his farm, he made a choice that would define the next decade of his life: instead of abandoning the crop, he bet on quality. That first year, without proper equipment, he processed three bags of coffee using a hand pulper fitted with a washing machine motor — an improvised but determined beginning. The lot scored 87 points, and from that moment, Senel knew the path forward.

Don Senel Specialty Coffee has grown steadily since then, through investments in drying infrastructure, equipment, and land at higher elevations suited to complex, exotic varieties. In 2022, Senel began planting Geisha on Finca El Cola Roja, selecting specific mother plants within the variety for their distinct characteristics — a selection he named Geisha Supre Madre. This year, that lot (but not our exact lot) qualified in both the Honey & Natural and Experimental categories of Cup of Excellence, placing 10th and 9th respectively.

From Moose (Scenery):

This coffee is from the Don Senel Micromill in Costa Rica, and is their Gesha "Supre Madre" - a cultivar they've developed from a particularly well performing Gesha tree they identified and separated on the farm 14 years ago and have been growing since then.

We had a couple of options in the pipeline for MCL - some which would have been absolutely devilishly hard/complete curve balls. However when it comes to roastery release schedules, the devil is less in the details but far moreso in logistics. We decided to go with the Don Senel Gesha, pulling it from the release slot at the eleventh hour to use it for this purpose.

The bean morphology - the classic big & pointy beans - for me would scream Gesha close to the original Panamanian line. Too big for Java, too pointy for Pacamara.

The clearly stained centre cut on the beans also is a big tell that it's a natural, and the cup profile indicates that it's likely a little bit more fermented still. In this case they call it a "macerated" natural - the cherries were sealed in a tank without an airlock, and so the fermentation occurs under pressure. Somewhat like a natural carbonic maceration would be the closest sort of description?

This is the same plot, trees and process - but not the exact lot - that took #9th place in the most recent Costa Rican COE competition "experimental" category.

If this was 2018 or perhaps earlier this style of natty cup profile would have been a massive giveaway for Costa Rica - the Micromill revolution really put them ahead when it came for this style of processing, but with today perhaps the natural guess might have been Colombia.

We found intense mixed tropical notes, some soft stonefruit and florals. Hard to pick only 3 notes for the reveal - mango yes, but also orange, guava, passionfruit as well as the apricot from the reveal. The soft florals we find are more towards elderflower, and perhaps the lack of bergamot and jasmine is the biggest misdirection when it comes to the variety.

Congratulations to Jan for winning this Sidequest with score of 20.8 points. Closely followed by Max and RVD with 20.6 and 18.8 points respectively.

TOP3 of this Sidequest:
1. Jan - 20.8 points
2. Max - 20.6 points
3. RVD Tsunami - 18.8 points

Max is winning the Coffee Guesser of this Sidequest with a pretty exact score of 2.967 km! 👀

Roaster's line-up for the next few months:
November - Ordinary, Germany
December - Banibeans, Slovenia

Special Thanks to Brrrruuupp for organizing everything and handling all the coffees! ❤️

Visit https://beanbodega.coffee/ to keep track of future coffee projects Brrrruuupp's doing!