Costa Rica Red Honey Process Coffee Beans Flavor Profile | Characteristics of La Hacas Coffee

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Costa Rica's honey process is an unforgettable experience for FrontStreet Coffee. While FrontStreet Coffee offers black honey, today we want to discuss a Costa Rican red honey coffee. This red honey comes from the Central Valley, one of Costa Rica's famous specialty coffee regions. FrontStreet Coffee has selected the red honey processed coffee from Costa Rica's Las Lajas Estate. This estate is a world-renowned coffee plantation, with numerous green bean suppliers importing their coffee each year. Its excellent natural conditions and exquisite processing methods result in this red honey coffee having balanced sweetness and acidity, prominent fruit aromas, and a chocolate-like viscous mouthfeel, which led FrontStreet Coffee to choose these beans!

Costa Rica was the first country in Central America to cultivate coffee. Located on the Central American Isthmus, its volcanic soil is exceptionally fertile with good drainage and suitable climate, producing high-quality coffee beans. All cultivated coffee beans are Arabica varieties, with green-colored beans that are generally large in size, resulting in coffee quality that is basically superior. It is one of the country's valued coffee growing regions. Costa Rican coffee generally offers balanced, gentle flavors with good fruit acidity and aromatic, rich mouthfeel.

Central Valley Region

The Central Valley region is one of Costa Rica's more famous coffee-producing areas. Costa Rica has seven major coffee regions: Turrialba Valley, Central Valley, Western Valley, Tres Ríos, Brunca, Orosi, and Tarrazú. The Central Valley region has an altitude range of 1,200-1,600 meters and a harvest season from November to March. This region has three sub-regions: San José, Heredia, and Alajuela. The Central Valley is also Costa Rica's earliest coffee cultivation area, rich in volcanic soil. Coffee from this region often exhibits bright, smooth fruit acidity, rich aromas, and sometimes carries chocolate notes.

Las Lajas Estate

Las Lajas Estate is located in the Central Valley region, not far from the capital, and quite close to Poas Volcano. It sits at an altitude between 1,250-1,500 meters, with an annual production of approximately 55,200 kilograms.

The estate is currently managed by third-generation owner Francisca Cubillo and her husband Oscar. It is one of the first estates to begin systematic research and processing, and has been a favorite among global buyers for many years.

In Las Lajas Estate's processing, the owners divide honey-processed and natural-processed coffees into various quality levels based on flavor profiles. For honey processing, Las Lajas Estate adopts a unique approach: retaining 100% of the highest proportion of fruit pulp, while controlling the drying time and turning frequency on African drying beds to achieve different flavor expressions. The estate categorizes honey-processed coffees into yellow honey, red honey, and black honey.

Honey Processing Methods

Honey processing is a method where the fruit skin and pulp are removed, leaving the mucilage intact during sun-drying.

Yellow Honey: Removes 40% of mucilage, dried with maximum sun exposure for about 8 days.

Red Honey: Removes 25% of mucilage (specific methods vary by estate), sun-dried for about 12 days, with possible use of shading during the process.

Black Honey: Almost no mucilage removed, requiring the longest drying time of over 14 days. During the process, coverings are used to block intense sunlight to avoid too-rapid drying, allowing more complete sugar conversion.

This red honey coffee bean features Caturra and Catuai varieties, common among American coffee beans.

Caturra is a natural variant of Bourbon, while Catuai is a hybrid variety created by crossing Caturra with Mundo Novo. These two varieties often exhibit bright, gentle fruit acidity and good sweetness expression.

Roasting Profile

For this FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican red honey processed coffee bean, we chose a relatively low starting temperature and used a fast-roasting approach for the profile, setting the roast level to medium to express the solid, viscous mouthfeel characteristic of honey-processed coffee. Heat to 155°C, set power to 120, damper to 3. Return temperature at 1'28". When temperature reaches 140°C, open damper to 4. At 8'30", the beans show ugly wrinkles and black spots, with toast aroma clearly transforming into coffee aroma - this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. Listen carefully for the first crack sound, which begins at 9'08". Open damper to 5, develop for 1'45" after first crack, and drop at 196°C.

The Agrton bean color value is 67.7 (above image), the Agrton pink value is 70.4 (below image), and the Roast Delta value is 2.7.

Cupping Notes

When hot, slurping reveals chocolate and caramel. As temperature changes, slurping reveals nectarine and green grape acidity.

FrontStreet Coffee · Costa Rica Central Valley Las Lajas Estate Red Honey Process

• Region: Central Valley
• Altitude: 1300-1500m
• Processing: Red Honey Process
• Grade: SHB
• Variety: Caturra, Catuai

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Las Lajas Estate Red Honey Brewing Parameters

Recommended Brewing Method: Pour-over

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: BG 6S (Chinese standard #20 sieve 80% pass rate)

Brewing Technique: Segmented extraction

First segment: Pour 30g of water and bloom for 40 seconds. Second segment: Continue pouring to 126g. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue with the third segment to 225g. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from the beginning of bloom pour). Extraction time is 2'06".

Flavor: Entry shows acidity of yellow peach and grape, with dark chocolate aroma. As temperature changes, the sweet and sour fruit flavors gradually emerge, with a finish carrying a light brown sugar aroma.

Important Notice :

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