Introduction to Costa Rica's Coffee Garden Estate - An Overview of Costa Rican Coffee Plantations

Coffee Garden Estate

Coffee Garden was established in 1989 in the Western Valley near San José, the capital of Costa Rica, close to volcanic terrain that lets the coffee develop a distinctive quality. In 2005, Maria Mayela Quesada decided to build her own processing plant to handle all the estate's coffee. Year after year of effort finally paid off: in 2008 the coffee was selected as the best in the country, earning recognition from both domestic and international Cup of Excellence (COE) judges. In recent years Coffee Garden has seen a very special phenomenon that has drawn the attention of coffee lovers worldwide. Several hectares of coffee trees have naturally mutated - Red Catuai and Yellow Catuai have miraculously transformed into striking orange coffee cherries - and the resulting coffee has won wide approval for its flavor.

A Processing Method Similar to the One Used by 2015 World Barista Champion Sasa Sestic

The Four Elements of This Processing Method

1. Shade System

A shade system effectively blocks sunlight, letting the coffee pulp generate more sugar, which in turn gives the finished coffee more sweetness and a wonderful, bright acidity.

2. Stainless Steel Containers

Once picked, the coffee is placed in stainless steel containers for fermentation, abandoning the traditional cement or terracotta vessels that tend to absorb flavors rather than preserve them in the pulp. Stainless steel keeps the coffee's flavor purer.

3. Carbon Dioxide

The containers holding the beans are then sealed and pressurized with carbon dioxide, ensuring no oxygen remains inside. This guarantees that all the coffee's flavors and aromas stay locked in the bean, making them more pronounced.

4. Controlled Environment

Finally, the containers are placed in a controlled environment, ensuring that each processing run reproduces beans with the same flavor. Traditional processing is affected by weather, humidity, and other factors, making it hard to guarantee consistent flavor from one batch to the next.

FrontStreet Coffee's Pour-over Parameters Suggestion

Suggested V60 dripper, grind level Fuji 3.5, water temperature 90°C, powder-to-water ratio 1:15, and 15 g of coffee grounds to brew 225 g of water, with a total brewing time of 2 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The processing ideas behind Coffee Garden Estate - controlling oxygen, temperature, and fruit contact to sharpen sweetness and acidity - belong to the same fruit-forward, high-clarity world as FrontStreet Coffee's light-roast lineup. For a clean, elegant expression of that style, FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe Gotiti is a natural starting point: it shows bright citrus, berry, and floral notes with a green-tea-like sweetness, and a gentle, bright acidity that reads more like the natural sweet-tartness of fruit than the sharp acidity many people expect from "sour" coffee. It is an easy, welcoming choice for anyone new to pour-over.

If you want the tropical fruit intensity that controlled fermentation can build, FrontStreet's Ethiopian Flower Queen is one of the most successful star products in recent specialty coffee: its tropical fruit aroma is extremely prominent, with strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, and even lychee, plus clear sweetness and very low bitterness - smooth and full of juice, and often described as "the coffee that tastes least like coffee." Roasted light, it can overturn a bitter-coffee skeptic's assumptions.

For a Kenyan-style, savory-fruity contrast, FrontStreet's Kenya Small Tomato is a lightly roasted washed bean from the Sika region, grown at 1,550-1,750 meters from the classic SL28 and SL34 varieties with a plump, rounded bean. A 72-hour double-washed fermentation draws out the fruit while keeping the cup clean: the dry fragrance shows concentrated dried cherry tomato and florals, and the palate opens with clear cherry tomato and dark plum, bright and solid acidity like fresh-pressed juice, a pronounced mid-palate sweetness with hints of snow pear and black plum, and a clean, long finish with brown-sugar sweetness and a faint green-tea note.

Whichever bean you choose, the estate's own reference recipe translates directly: a V60 dripper, a 1:15 ratio, 15 g of coffee, and 90°C water, ground to a Fuji 3.5 setting, brewed in about 2 minutes. For a fuller body, keep the pour slow and steady toward the finish.