Costa Rica Musician Series Coffee Beans: Flavor Characteristics, Stories, and Brewing Parameters for Mozart

Costa Rica: The Sweetest Coffee Region in the Americas

Where is the sweetest coffee growing region in the Americas? Costa Rica! FrontStreet Coffee features a collection of Costa Rican Musician Series coffee beans on our menu, with most of these coffees being honey-processed varieties that our customers describe as having "floral and fruity aromas, with a sweetness like honey."

There's much to explain about this honey processing method, so FrontStreet Coffee will provide some insights: Due to water and climate limitations, honey processing has become increasingly popular throughout Costa Rica. This "sweet as honey" processing method is actually an improvement on Brazil's pulped natural method to enhance sweetness. The key to this method is to preserve as much of the mucilage layer on the coffee beans as possible. This is a precise processing method: the color of the coffee beans depends on the amount of mucilage left on them before drying. The mucilage content is the determining factor for coffee sweetness; traditionally, the more mucilage or "honey" left on the beans, the greater the sweetness and depth. Based on the mucilage proportion, honey-processed coffees are classified into black honey, gold honey, yellow honey, red honey, white honey, and so on.

The Musician Series from Canet Estate

As mentioned earlier, the Musician Series comes from Costa Rica. In fact, FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican Musician Series consists of four varieties: "FrontStreet Coffee Mozart," "FrontStreet Coffee Beethoven," "FrontStreet Coffee Bach," and "FrontStreet Coffee Chopin." However, since "FrontStreet Coffee Chopin" beans are temporarily unavailable for green bean sourcing, we won't elaborate on this one. Let's briefly mention that "FrontStreet Coffee Chopin" has excellent rose floral notes, tea-like qualities, and sweetness, reminiscent of drinking floral tea.

FrontStreet Coffee's "Costa Rican Musician Series" comes from Canet Estate, located in the highest altitude coffee growing area of Costa Rica's Tarrazu region. Canet is the name of a small farm in this area—a 5-hectare estate located in the San Marcos town of the Tarrazu region, owned by the Robles brothers—Leo, Elian, and Melvin—who have worked together in cultivation and production for over 10 years and share a small wet mill (Beneficio).

Through machine adjustments, they produce honey-processed coffee (depending on the degree of honey processing). This area is also the most intensive fruit growing region in Costa Rica. The estate owner primarily grows passion fruit, with coffee quantities being quite scarce. Coffee is only grown in a specific area and receives special care, with only ripe red cherry fruits being harvested. Therefore, the resulting coffee receives more meticulous care, harvesting, and processing, thus presenting superior quality and flavor.

Introducing Three Musician Series Varieties

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will focus on introducing three coffee beans: "FrontStreet Coffee Mozart," "FrontStreet Coffee Beethoven," and "FrontStreet Coffee Bach," and use these three varieties to briefly introduce Costa Rica's coffee growing regions.

FrontStreet Coffee Mozart

FrontStreet Coffee · Costa Rica Canet Estate Musician Series Mozart

• Region: Tarrazu
• Variety: Caturra, Catuai
• Altitude: 1950m
• Process: Raisin Honey
• Flavor Notes: Osmanthus, berries, fermented wine aroma, raisins

FrontStreet Coffee Bach

FrontStreet Coffee · Costa Rica Canet Estate Musician Series Bach

• Country: Costa Rica
• Region: Tarrazu
• Altitude: 1950m
• Process: Raisin Honey
• Grade: Strictly Hard Bean (SHB)
• Variety: Caturra
• Flavor Notes: Tropical fruits, nuts, cream, fermented aroma

These two FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican coffees—"FrontStreet Coffee Mozart" and "FrontStreet Coffee Bach"—both use a raisin honey processing method, which is slightly different from the honey processing introduced earlier. This raisin honey processing is actually a double fermentation method. On the day of harvesting coffee cherries, the harvested coffee fruits are poured into large water tanks to remove bad beans, and the selected coffee fruits are dried on raised beds for at least three days. Then the cherry skins are removed while preserving the coffee's mucilage, followed by drying. During the drying process, constant turning is required to ensure even drying, and the turning frequency must be carefully controlled to avoid over-fermentation. This method of preserving 100% mucilage and zero water processing not only increases the difficulty of honey processing but also requires strict time control.

FrontStreet Coffee Beethoven

Next is the Musician Series variety with a different processing method—FrontStreet Coffee Beethoven:

FrontStreet Coffee · Costa Rica Canet Estate Musician Series Beethoven

• Region: Tarrazu Region
• Estate: Canet Estate (Finca Canet)
• Variety: Yellow Catuai
• Altitude: 1900m
• Grade: Strictly Hard Bean (SHB)
• Process: Washed
• Flavor Notes: Citrus, black tea, caramel

This "FrontStreet Coffee Beethoven" uses a washed processing method. After harvesting, it undergoes a screening process to remove unripe or overripe beans again, then the pulp is removed, and the mucilage on the beans is removed using a centrifugal washer to avoid fermentation. It's then washed with clean water and finally placed on shaded raised beds to dry for 12-14 days, with constant turning to achieve even drying. Washed beans have a cleaner and brighter taste profile.

The Tarrazu Region

Although the processing methods differ, have you noticed that all three coffees come from the Tarrazu region? Through FrontStreet Coffee's research, we found that Costa Rica has a total of 8 coffee growing regions, including West Valley, Central Valley, Tarrazu, Tres Rios, Orosi, Brunca, Turrialba, and Guanacaste. Tarrazu is one of the world's most important coffee growing regions.

FrontStreet Coffee's Musician Series coffee beans come from this region. Tarrazu can be said to be one of Costa Rica's most valued coffee growing areas. The coffee from "La Minita Tarrazu" is a local specialty, but production is limited to approximately 72,600 kilograms annually. It's grown on land called "La Minita," owned by the British McAlpine family for the past three generations, who own the La Minita estate in the Tarrazu region with an annual output of only 160,000 pounds. In fact, this land can produce over 450 tons of coffee annually.

It should be noted that Tarrazu coffee cultivation does not use artificial fertilizers or pesticides. Its harvesting and selection are all done by hand to avoid the damage that air-jet sorting methods can cause to coffee beans to some extent. At the same time, the high altitude of over 1,500 meters means that nearly 95% of coffee beans grown in Tarrazu are Strictly Hard Beans (SHB).

Many customers who visit FrontStreet Coffee think that coffees from the same region and same estate should have similar flavors! This is actually not the case. Even within the same estate, identical coffee growing environments cannot be guaranteed, as altitude and bean variety are factors that affect coffee flavor. If you don't believe it, buy all the varieties from FrontStreet Coffee's Musician Series and do a comparison yourself! Of course, you can now follow FrontStreet Coffee to do a "cloud experiment."

Brewing Method and Tasting Notes

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Parameters:

• V60 dripper
• Water temperature: 91°C
• Water to coffee ratio: 1:15
• Coffee dose: 15g
• Grind size: (80% pass-through on China standard #20 sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Technique: Use 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds. With a small water flow, pour in circles to 125g, then pause. When the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time: 2'00".

"FrontStreet Coffee Mozart" - Dry aroma: berry and fermented aromas. Wet aroma: raisins, sweet orange on entry; fermented wine aroma and osmanthus fragrance become more apparent with temperature changes.

"FrontStreet Coffee Beethoven" - Dry aroma: berries, tea fragrance. Wet aroma: citrus, black tea on entry; caramel and tea-like qualities become more apparent with temperature changes.

"FrontStreet Coffee Bach" - Dry aroma: fermented aroma. Wet aroma: tropical fruits, fermented flavors on entry; cream, nuts, and caramel become more apparent with temperature changes.

In terms of mouthfeel, "FrontStreet Coffee Mozart" and "FrontStreet Coffee Bach" have more prominent fermented and fruity notes, with a fuller body and ample sweetness; "FrontStreet Coffee Beethoven" has more prominent citrus and black tea notes, with a cleaner, fresher mouthfeel.

In terms of aroma, "FrontStreet Coffee Mozart" has prominent and relatively rich complex aromas; "FrontStreet Coffee Beethoven" tends toward tea-like fragrances, relatively fresh; "FrontStreet Coffee Bach" has complex, rich fermented fruit aromas.

An Alternative: Blueberry Coffee

Of course, for some people, FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican Musician Series coffees may not be the best choice. At FrontStreet Coffee, we also offer FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican Blueberry coffee beans from the Brunca region, processed using anaerobic double honey. The dry aroma has subtle rose floral notes with slight fermented scents, presenting a blueberry gummy candy texture with hints of minty coolness in the aftertaste. This is a coffee that tastes excellent both hot and cold brewed.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473