How Should You Drink Costa Rica Carmen Estate Baha Coffee? How to Brew Baha Coffee?

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FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Musician Series coffee beans are well-known among coffee enthusiasts. The Costa Rica Canet Estate's Frontsteet Musician Series includes Frontsteet Beethoven coffee beans, Frontsteet Mozart coffee beans, Frontsteet Bach coffee beans, and Frontsteet Chopin coffee beans, each with their own unique flavor characteristics. Despite coming from the same estate, why do their flavors differ? FrontStreet Coffee believes that specialty coffee has three basic conditions: variety, altitude, and processing method.

During the processing of raw beans, there's a process called anaerobic fermentation. Some people have been researching what effects yeast has on the fermentation of raw coffee beans and the final flavor during anaerobic fermentation, and what different flavors emerge from fermenting different yeasts and sugars. Meanwhile, naturally processed coffee beans also develop multiple flavors such as floral, fruity, and fermented aromas. This processing method is originally one of the ways specialty coffee showcases regional flavors. Now, returning to the article's title, FrontStreet Coffee wants to discuss the Frontsteet Bach coffee beans from the Costa Rica Musician Series, from the estate, processing method, raw bean analysis, how FrontStreet Coffee roasts these Frontsteet Bach coffee beans, then conducts cupping and brewing to see how the Frontsteet Bach coffee beans perform.

Coffee Bean Information

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú
Altitude: 1,980m
Processing: Raisin Honey Processing
Grade: SHB
Variety: Caturra, Catuai

Canet Estate (Finca Canet)

Canet Estate is a small 5-hectare estate located in the town of San Marcos in the Tarrazú region. Tarrazú is the main coffee-producing area in Costa Rica and one of the world's major coffee-producing regions. The coffee-growing soil is very fertile with good drainage. This region has the highest average latitude, excellent climate, and soil conditions, making Tarrazú famous for Costa Rican coffee beans. Most coffee beans from this region use honey processing. The sweetness and berry aroma will absolutely surprise you, with good sweetness, consistency, and thickness, similar to the taste of dried banana.

Canet Estate is located in the highest altitude area of Tarrazú coffee cultivation in Costa Rica. It is owned by the Robles brothers—Leo, Elian, and Melvin—who have worked together in cultivation and production for over 10 years and share a small wet mill (Beneficio). The estate owner primarily grows passion fruit, with coffee production being quite scarce. Only a specific area is dedicated to coffee cultivation, receiving special care and only harvesting mature red cherry fruits. It is precisely because of this careful selection that the estate's coffee beans have high sweetness and persistent sweet flavor.

Raisin Honey Processing

Raisin honey processing is a method that preserves 100% mucilage and uses zero water treatment. This increases the difficulty of the honey processing method, requiring strict time control. On the day of harvesting coffee cherries, the harvested coffee fruits are poured into large water tanks, where mature and full fruits sink to the bottom; underdeveloped or overripe fruits float to the surface and these floating beans must be removed. The selected coffee fruits are placed on raised beds to dry for at least three days, then the cherry skin is removed, preserving the mucilage before further drying. During 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 allow for slow drying to ensure the coffee develops fermentation characteristics, but not too slow to avoid over-fermentation. This sweet raisin honey processing method gives the coffee a white wine-like mouthfeel and balanced acidity, with more intense fermented aromas. FrontStreet Coffee believes that raisin honey-processed coffee beans have rich fermentation characteristics and the sweetness of dried fruit.

Coffee Varieties

Caturra: A natural variant of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its plant is not as tall as Bourbon, being more compact. Due to inheriting Bourbon's lineage, it has relatively weak disease resistance but higher yields than Bourbon. Although discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not suitable for growing in Brazil, so it wasn't cultivated on a large scale there. Instead, it became widely popular in Central and South America, with large-scale cultivation in countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

Catauai: A coffee variety artificially hybridized from Caturra and Mundo Novo. Catauai inherited Caturra's compact plant structure, requiring no shade, making it easy to cultivate and convenient for harvesting. It also has better resistance to natural disasters than Mundo Novo. It has good acidity in flavor. Catauai generally comes in both red and yellow fruit types.

Raw Bean Analysis

This Frontsteet Costa Rica Bach coffee bean consists of the two most common varieties in Central and South America: Caturra and Catauai. The raw beans have a fermented fruit aroma. Observing the raw beans, they appear dark green, with an altitude of around 1,950m. The bean density is quite hard, and being from the 2019 harvest season, the beans have relatively higher moisture content. In terms of roasting approach, a gradual heat reduction and extended dehydration time is used to follow this curve. Considering that this "Frontsteet Costa Rica Musician Bach" uses raisin honey processing, the designed roast level is medium, mainly to highlight the fermentation aroma and fruit characteristics of these Frontsteet Bach beans while also preserving the balanced and full mouthfeel of honey-processed beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Recommendations

Yangjia 800N, 300g batch size: Preheat roaster to 180°C, damper setting 3, heat at 120. Adjust heat at 109°C, damper setting 4, heat rises to 140. Adjust heat again at 137°C, heat reduced to 100, roast to 6'15", temperature 151.5°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, dehydration complete. At 8 minutes, bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma, can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'40", damper fully open, first crack development time 1'45", drop at 196°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

This Frontsteet Costa Rica Bach smells like rice wine fermentation aroma. When tasted, it has the sweet and sour characteristics of ripe tropical fruits and berries, with nut and cream flavors. The aftertaste has caramel notes, and the finish has a subtle floral aroma.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Parameters

Dripper: V60 #01
Water Temperature: 90-91°C
Dose: 15g
Ratio: 1:15
Grind: BG6M/Fine sugar size (sieve through #20 sieve to 80%)

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Method:

First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95g more (scale shows around 125g), completing in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale shows around 225g), completing in about 1'45". Drip finishes at 1'56", remove the dripper to complete extraction.

Brewing Flavor: Subtle wine aroma, full and solid acidity with a sweetness similar to raisins. As the temperature slightly drops, tea-like characteristics emerge, with a sucrose sweetness in the finish that is persistent and delicate.

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