Costa Rica Tarrazú Coffee: Don Mario Farm Coffee Bean Quality, Flavor Profile, Taste Characteristics & Brewing Guide

Costa Rica Tarrazú Region | What are the Flavors of Don Mario Farm's Yellow Honey Processed Caturra?

Costa Rica produces the most stable and highest quality coffee in Central America, and it is also the most conservative, something you can see in how often its World Cup soccer team fields a defensive formation. Coffee production here has a very long history, with exports to Britain dating back to the 1800s.

In Costa Rica, growing Robusta is legally prohibited and only Arabica varieties are permitted. Honey processing has recently become a focus for Taiwanese coffee professionals. It emerged in response to Costa Rica's mountainous terrain and poor roads. Coffee has to be processed quickly after harvest, and if processing is delayed the beans can over-ferment and be damaged. Mountain farmers therefore remove the fruit skin and pulp after picking, leaving the beans with their mucilage layer to dry on raised beds. That was the prototype of honey processing.

High-quality Costa Rican coffee is known as "Strictly Hard Bean," or SHB, which can grow above 1,500 meters. Altitude has always been a challenge for growers. The higher the altitude, the better the beans, not only because altitude raises a bean's acidity and so enhances flavor, but also because the lower nighttime temperatures slow the tree's growth, concentrating the coffee's flavor. The topographical variation at altitude also brings sufficient rainfall, which benefits the trees. Planting higher does carry extra transport costs, though, which can make coffee unprofitable. Costa Rica's coffee industry has adopted new technology to raise efficiency, including "electric eyes" to select beans and identify irregularly sized ones.

Tarrazú lies south of the capital, San José, and is one of the country's most prized coffee regions. "La Minita Tarrazú" coffee is a local specialty with a limited production of approximately 72,600 kilograms a year. It is grown on land named "La Minita," owned by the British McAlpine family for the last three generations. In fact the land could produce over 450 tons of coffee a year, but La Minita Tarrazú is grown without artificial fertilizer or pesticide, and its harvesting and selection are done entirely by hand, to avoid the damage that air-jet sorting can cause to the beans.

Other noteworthy coffees include Juan Vinas (PR), H. Tournon, Windmill (SHB), Monte bello and Santa Rosa. Premium coffee generally grows in Heredia and the Central Valley. Another remarkable coffee is Sarchí (one of five towns on Costa Rica's "Coffee Route"), which grows on the slopes of the Poás Volcano, 53 kilometers from San José. The Sarchí company was founded in 1949, with a land area of 30,770 hectares growing sugarcane and coffee. The region is also famous for handicrafts, drawing tourists from around the world.

The country's coffee industry was originally controlled by the Instituto del Café de Costa Rica (ICAFE) and is now overseen by the Oficina del Café. Among exported coffees, those deemed unqualified are dyed with a blue plant-based coloring and returned for domestic sale. Coffee consumed domestically, dyed blue or not, accounts for approximately 10% of total production, and local per capita coffee consumption is twice that of Italy or the United States.

Yellow honey processing is the most recently defined method, referring to beans dried on raised beds and turned every hour, which is what makes it yellow honey processing. The concept originates from Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda.

Honey processed beans: after harvest, the fruit skin and pulp are removed, leaving the beans with their mucilage layer, which are then sent to drying fields until moisture content reaches 16%, after which they go to dryers to reach a uniform moisture content. Before shipping, the parchment is rubbed to remove the membrane from the surface.

Costa Rica Tarrazú Property Characteristics: Farm Characteristics

Farm Name: Don Mario

Region: Tarrazú

Country: Costa Rica

Altitude: 1,350-1,500 meters

Annual Precipitation: 2,500-2,700 mm

Soil: Volcanic clay

Type of Shade Trees: 36 species of shade trees

Coffee Characteristics

Variety: Caturra

Processing System: Yellow Honey

Appearance: 17-18 screen

Overall Cupping Notes for Costa Rica Tarrazú

Light Roast: Vanilla dry aroma, sweet ice cream-like wet aroma, orange acidity, with a relatively short aftertaste.

Medium Roast: Excellent honey and brown sugar sweetness, very suitable for those new to black coffee, smooth and sweet.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5

Costa Rica Tarrazú Brewing Method:

Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15 g of coffee grounds. First pour 25 g of water for a 25-second pre-infusion. Second pour to 120 g of water, then pause. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225 g total. Extraction time approximately 2:00.

Analysis: A three-stage brewing method clearly defines the front, middle and back-end flavors. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains quickly, pausing during the pour helps extend the extraction time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the honey sweetness of this Don Mario yellow honey lot is what you enjoy, FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Blackberry is a natural companion. It uses a black honey process that removes almost no pectin, with a longer drying period of at least two weeks under cover so the sugars convert fully, and the medium-light roast brings out grape, berry and ripe blackberry flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy also leans on Costa Rican honey processing, blending Costa Rican honey coffee with Panama Geisha. It carries the floral, tea-like character of Geisha plus grape and raisin aromas, soft fruit acidity and a clear sweetness.

Brew either one like the Don Mario above: a V60 at 90C, 15 g of coffee to 225 g of water for a 1:15 ratio, with a 25 g, 25-second bloom and a pause before the final pour to 225 g.