How to Brew and Enjoy Puerto Rico's Yauco Selecto AA Coffee? Is It Good?

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Cafe Style (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

Yauco Selecto AA: Puerto Rico's Premium Coffee

Yauco Selecto AA is a premium coffee from Puerto Rico island, known in Chinese as "Yauco Special Selection." It is a renowned island coffee bean, sharing fame with Hawaiian Kona coffee and other fine beans from the Caribbean region.

Historical Background

Puerto Rico means "Rich Port" in Spanish. Coffee was introduced to Puerto Rico over 250 years ago, with Spanish colonization and coffee cultivation beginning in 1736. By the 19th century, coffee had become the island's second-largest industry. In the early 19th century, immigrants from Corsica, France, were assigned to cultivate in the high-altitude southwestern regions, where they chose coffee as their main crop. These cultivated areas were primarily centered around a town called Yauco.

In 1860, two major events established the status of Yauco Selecto beans:

First: The Mariani family pioneered the use of cotton gin machines, originally designed for extracting cotton fibers, to remove coffee cherry husks. This brought revolutionary changes to coffee processing.

Second: The leader of the Corsican cultivators financially supported the local beans, shipping them back to major European coffee trading centers and recommending them to buyers. This quickly gained widespread response... their hard work finally paid off!

Golden Era and Challenges

During the 1860s, Puerto Rican coffee, particularly from the Yauco region, earned a reputation as premium coffee. Emperors and empresses across European nations considered it the finest coffee! It became widely consumed among high society, and coffee-producing countries competed to imitate Puerto Rico's cultivation methods. At that time, the island's production ranked sixth in the world! (In other words, European connoisseurs were already enjoying specialty coffee a century ago.)

In 1898, two devastating hurricanes struck Puerto Rico. The hurricanes damaged the coffee industry, and the great war between the United States and Spain also began in the same year. After the war, the island, along with the Philippines and Cuba, became U.S. territories. Once again, the American government was more interested in the sugar industry (like Spain before them)... The double blow was that European countries no longer considered Puerto Rican coffee as a colonial product. Fortunately, in the first half of the 20th century, Cuba, as an emerging market, purchased most of Puerto Rico's coffee, but Yauco Selecto continued to be exported to Europe to supply some connoisseurs.

Modern Era and Supporting Factors

In 1917, Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens, which meant people enjoyed minimum wage protection, and coffee cultivation costs became as expensive as Hawaii's Kona region! Puerto Rico's labor costs had to meet U.S. government standards, and coffee growing environments also had to comply with U.S. environmental protection policies, which actually increased many production costs in Puerto Rico!

Under this high-cost structure, factors supporting Puerto Rico's coffee industry include:

(1) Because the island produces high-quality coffee! In a free economic system, if quality was poor and uncompetitive, the island market could simply buy imported coffee; and exporting poor quality to other countries would be even more difficult.

(2) Government protection and support, because it is a traditional, high-quality agricultural product, government policies also encourage and assist in continued coffee cultivation.

(3) Support from island residents, due to increased national income and developed tourism, during the 25 years from 1965-1990, all coffee produced on the island was fully consumed domestically.

Why Yauco Selecto Excels

The reasons why Yauco Selecto beans excel compared to other producing areas on the island are:

1. Grown in the island's highest altitude mountain regions, resulting in slow growth and rich fruit flavors.

2. Only using Bourbon and the island's heirloom varieties. Although yields are lower, in the Yauco mountain region, heirloom varieties do not suffer from the flavor deficiencies that new commercial varieties have.

3. Abundant rainfall, fertile soil, plus location in the island's best high-altitude microclimate zone.

4. Two estates that work diligently from coffee seedling cultivation to post-harvest processing, maintaining complete in-house control and extremely strict quality management.

About FrontStreet Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee is a roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse coffee bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online shop services: https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473