Costa Rica Canet Estate Beethoven Fine Black Honey Process Yellow Catuai

An exclusive honey processing method creates wonderful special flavors.

Yellow Catuai comes from a cross between Mundo Novo and Caturra, first bred by Brazil's Instituto Agronomico de Campinas in 1949. Like Red Catuai, Yellow Catuai has extremely high disease resistance and suits cultivation at high altitudes and in windy areas. Both Catuai varieties also have very refined and clean acidity. Through machine adjustments they produce both red honey and yellow honey processed coffee, depending on the degree of honey processing. Canet sits in the highest altitude area of Costa Rica's Tarrazu coffee region, the most densely planted fruit-growing area in the country. The farm owner primarily grows passion fruit, and coffee is quite scarce, planted only in a specific area under special care, with only mature red cherries harvested.

Black Honey Processing

[100%] mucilage retention without water processing. The difficulty of black honey processing lies in requiring favorable weather. On the day of harvest the cherries are pulped, the mucilage is retained, and then the beans are dried. The climate factors during this stage are crucial to the success of black honey processing: there must be abundant sunlight to dry the bean surface to a slightly darker color than red honey processing. That is black honey processing. The estate's unique Yellow Catuai black honey processed variety is named FrontStreet Coffee Baha. Its overall rich flavor variations and full-bodied oily texture, combined with excellent cleanliness, deliver outstanding sweetness, with rich and varied layers from berries to citrus acidity.

Aroma Profile

Dry Aroma: Cherry, berries, plum, strawberry, peach, jasmine

Wet Aroma: Intensely bold floral and fruit notes, sweet and refined, with lemon, citrus and berries carrying mature wine acidity and pleasant floral aromas.

Sipping: Grape, vanilla, strawberry, cantaloupe and citrus aromas, with red pomegranate juice acidity, excellent cleanliness and a smooth mouthfeel, with a hint of green kiwi acidity.

Coffee Details

FrontStreet Coffee - Costa Rica Canet Estate Baha

• Origin Region: Tarrazu
• Estate Founded: 2005
• Estate Size: Approximately 1.5 hectares
• Cultivation Area: Approximately 0.5 hectares
• Annual Rainfall: Approximately 3000mm
• Average Temperature: Average 20°C
• Altitude: 1820 meters
• Coffee Variety: Yellow Catuai
• Grade Standard: SHB
• Soil Type: Volcanic soil
• Processing Method: Black honey processing
• Harvesting Method: Manual harvesting
• Harvest Period: 2015

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you enjoy the fruity sweetness and clean acidity of a honey-processed coffee like this Canet black honey, Brazil is a natural next stop. As the world's largest coffee producer, Brazil offers a wide range of coffees with moderate acidity and a fine balance of sweetness, bitterness and body, which makes them especially suited to a medium roast. The roasted beans give off a nutty aroma, taste rich and smooth with a light acidity, and work as a single origin or in a blend.

For a gentle introduction to Brazilian coffee, FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon is a very classic single origin. Cerrado is a well-known local growing region prized for high-quality beans, and this one is a Red Bourbon, common in South America. At a medium roast it shows creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel and hazelnut aroma with a rounded body, low acidity and a light bitter note, and it works not only as a pour-over but also in a moka pot, as an espresso SOE, in a siphon or in a French press. FrontStreet Queen Estate is the other single origin, from Mogiana near South Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil lets the cherries absorb plenty of nutrients and develop a full aroma. Its variety is the rare Yellow Bourbon, a mutation of Red Bourbon with a cleaner fruit character; through pour-over, moka pot or a home espresso machine it shows a sugarcane sweetness no other region offers, along with fruit and chocolate notes.

Brazilian beans are also the backbone of espresso. The low acidity, balanced body and friendly price make them a first choice in many Italian-style recipes, and they appear across FrontStreet's espresso lineup, including FrontStreet Classic Blend with its rich crema, FrontStreet Specialty Blend with its pronounced nut character, the well-balanced FrontStreet Black Cocoa Blend and the shop-oriented FrontStreet Commercial Blend. Brazil contributes chocolate and cream aroma alongside a soft sweet-sour-bitter balance, and its even character supports more stable extraction.