Honey Process Coffee Bean Flavor Profile: How to Brew Costa Rican Coffee Beans for the Best Taste

Costa Rican coffee has always left coffee enthusiasts with unforgettable memories due to its honey-sweet flavor profile. Many customers visit FrontStreet Coffee and ask baristas if they have sweet pour-over coffees. At these times, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas will take out coffee beans from Costa Rica one by one to introduce them. Why do we say Costa Rican coffee is sweet as honey? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican coffee beans.

Costa Rican Growing Regions

Costa Rica is located in Central America and was the first country in the region to cultivate coffee, with a long history. The volcanic soil is extremely fertile and has good drainage, especially in the Central Plateau at elevations of 1200-1600 meters, with harvest season from November to March. There are three sub-regions: San José, Heredia, and Alajuela. The region has three high-altitude volcanoes—Irazu, Barva, and Poas—that provide abundant nutrients for the surrounding coffee. The excellent microclimate combined with two volcanic soils gives beans from this region superior characteristics, such as chocolate cocoa flavors, bright fruit acidity, and elegant aromas.

Costa Rica has eight major coffee growing regions: Western Valley (Valley Central Occidental), Central Valley (Valley Central), Tarrazu, Tres Rios, Orosi, Brunca, and Turrialba. Most Costa Rican specialty coffees come from the Tarrazu region.

Tarrazu is located south of the country's capital San José and is one of the most valued coffee growing areas in the country. "La Minita Tarrazu" coffee is a famous local product, but production is limited to approximately 72,600 kilograms annually. It is grown on land called "La Minita," owned by the British McAlpine family for the past three generations, with an annual yield of only 160,000 pounds from the La Minita estate in the Tarrazu region. In fact, this land can produce over 450 tons of coffee annually. However, the cultivation of La Minita Tarrazu coffee does not use artificial fertilizers or pesticides, and its harvesting and selection are all done by hand. This is done to avoid damage to coffee beans that can occur to some extent with air-jet selection methods.

Costa Rican coffee has always been famous for its balanced flavor, rich chocolate, and smooth texture. Tarrazu is located south of the capital San Jose and is one of Costa Rica's most valued coffee growing areas. FrontStreet Coffee believes that Tarrazu coffee beans have full-bodied beans, rich body, smooth texture, rich chocolate and nutty aromas, moderate acidity, and an enticing fragrance.

Costa Rican Coffee Representative—FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican Mirasu Estate Geisha Blend Coffee Beans

• Country: Costa Rica
• Estate: Mirasu Estate
• Altitude: 1700m
• Processing: Raisin Honey Process
• Varieties: Geisha, ET47, SL28, MAICO

Mirasu Estate Costa Rica

Mirasu Estate is a very small estate, managed entirely by Esteban and his family. Esteban Sanches was originally a family member of the neighboring Vela Blanca estate. Due to his dedication to coffee beans, he established his own estate, Mirasu. The small wet processing machines in the processing plant were designed and assembled by Sanches himself.

In the coffee garden, Sanches says that the quality of coffee starts with the trees themselves. Although machines can separate good from bad, if the quality grown is all good, there's no need for machines to distinguish between superior and inferior beans. He also said that God gave us a beautiful environment, and we care for the coffee beans with love—this is giving back and sharing. He thanks everyone for their help in allowing him to fulfill his dream, and he is willing to share his experience and results with other farmers so that everyone's coffee dreams can come true.

Coffee Bean Varieties

FrontStreet Coffee's current purchase of FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend consists of 50% Geisha coffee beans and 50% ET47, SL28, and MAICO mixed varieties. These all come from the same estate and are then blended into single-origin coffee beans.

It's worth mentioning that the ET47 and SL28 variety coffee beans—ET47 is a native Ethiopian variety. In the 1990s, the Costa Rican Coffee Research Institute introduced many varieties as research trees for rust resistance and gave them to farmers in the Tarrazu region for cultivation. The original goal in selecting SL28 was to produce large quantities of high-quality coffee beans that could also resist diseases and pests, while in some regions, the main selection goal was high yield without considering disease resistance. Thanks to Bourbon genetics, although SL28's yield was not as expected later, its copper-colored leaves and broad bean shape have wonderful sweetness, balance, and complex flavors, as well as prominent citrus and dark plum characteristics.

Is this FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend still considered single-origin coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee believes it definitely is. All coffee varieties in this FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican Strawberry Candy coffee come from Mirasu Estate and belong to the same single origin, so it is single-origin coffee. Why does FrontStreet Coffee say this? Let FrontStreet Coffee give an example: Ethiopian coffee varieties are complex, and local coffee trees are basically mixed and then harvested together, which is why Ethiopian coffee beans often have inconsistent sizes. As long as coffee beans are grown in the same producing area, whether single variety or mixed varieties, they are all considered single-origin coffee. Coffee like Ethiopian is equivalent to natural blending, while this FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend is equivalent to post-blending.

Coffee Bean Processing Method

The Raisin Honey Process retains 100% mucilage and uses zero water processing methods. This increases the difficulty of honey processing, requiring strict time control. On the day of harvesting coffee cherries, the harvested coffee fruits are poured into large water tanks—ripe, full fruits will sink to the bottom, while underdeveloped or overripe fruits will float to the surface. These floating beans must be removed. The selected coffee cherries are placed on raised beds to dry for at least three days, then the cherry skin is removed, preserving the mucilage before further drying.

At this stage, climate factors are key to successful honey processing. During the drying process, these coffee cherries must be constantly turned to ensure even drying, but the turning frequency must be controlled to dry slowly to ensure fermentation processing, but not so slow as to cause over-fermentation. FrontStreet Coffee believes this extremely sweet raisin honey processing method gives coffee a white wine texture and balanced acidity, with rich fermentation aromas.

FrontStreet Coffee Green Bean Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee's current purchase of this batch of FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican Mirasu Strawberry Candy Geisha coffee consists of 50% Geisha coffee beans and ET47, SL28, MAICO mixed varieties. Geisha variety coffee beans provide jasmine floral aroma for this coffee, while other varieties contribute richer strawberry and berry flavors to this coffee. Through the raisin honey processing method, this coffee's sweetness is enhanced. FrontStreet Coffee's roasters adopted a medium-light roast for this FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican Geisha blend coffee beans to highlight the floral aroma and fermented sweetness of this FrontStreet Coffee Strawberry Candy coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Recommendations

Yangjia 800N semi-direct flame roaster, 300g roasting batch.

Preheat roaster to 200°C, lower to 175°C for loading, adjust heat to 120, damper open to 3, return temperature at 1'32", maintain heat; at 114°C keep heat unchanged, open damper to 4. 6'15" turn yellow, grassy aroma disappears, enter dehydration stage, at 140°C reduce heat to 100, keep damper at 4. 9'00" dehydration complete, bean surface shows wrinkles and black markings, toast aroma turns to coffee aroma, prelude to first crack, at this point pay attention to listen for first crack sound. At 10'25" first crack begins, open damper fully to 5, keep heat unchanged. Post-first crack development time 1'30", unload at 193.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours after roasting sample coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas typically use 200ml ceramic cupping bowls marked with 150ml and 200ml measurement lines. Following SCAA standards, water TDS is around 150ppm—too low TDS can easily cause over-extraction, while too high affects texture and can cause under-extraction. Cupping water temperature is 94°C. Cupping grind size follows SCAA cupping standards, controlled to 70%-75% pass-through through a #20 standard sieve (0.85mm). Ratio: 11g coffee powder to 200ml hot water, i.e., 1:18.18, so the extracted concentration falls within the 1.15%-1.35% Golden Cup range. Steeping time: 4 minutes.

• Dry Aroma: Dried fruit, berries
• Wet Aroma: Floral, berries
• Flavor: Raisins, berries, nuts, creamy texture

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Tips and Experience

• Water Temperature: 90-91°C
• Grind Size: EK43s setting 10 (fine sugar size)
• Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
• Coffee Amount: 15g

*Regarding grind size, FrontStreet Coffee determines this through screening methods. Based on grinding recommendations for pour-over coffee provided by the American Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), FrontStreet Coffee combines practical operation verification, using different grind sizes for brewing, and the finished products show significant differences. Moreover, each coffee bean's grind size will vary—this is the significance of screening. If you don't have a screen at home, FrontStreet Coffee suggests observing flow rate to judge—if water flows too fast, the grind is too coarse; if water flows too slowly, the grind is too fine.

FrontStreet Coffee brewing method: First pour 30g water for 30-second bloom, then pour 95g (scale shows around 125g), completing in about 1 minute. When water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour remaining 100g (scale shows around 225g), completing in about 1 minute 40 seconds. Complete drip filtration between 1'55''-2'00'', remove filter cone, complete extraction.

Brewing flavor: Jasmine floral aroma, strawberry and raisin flavors on entry, finish is strawberry candy and nutty flavors, creamy texture.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473