What are the high-sweetness Costa Rican coffee beans? What extraction method is suitable for raisin honey processed coffee?

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With the emergence of more and more specialty coffee shops, global coffee consumption is enormous, consuming at least 500 million cups of coffee, with half of that consumption occurring during breakfast. It's clear that coffee plays an increasingly important role in people's daily lives. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce everyone to coffee beans from Costa Rica that are exceptionally sweet.

The Origin of Costa Rican Coffee

The story of coffee begins with green beans hidden inside the red berries of coffee trees. Costa Rica's coffee story began with introduction from Cuba, making Costa Rica the first commercialized country in Central America to grow coffee. Perhaps due to Costa Rica's unique microclimate, the processing methods for Costa Rican coffee beans are very diverse. Besides common washed and natural processing methods, Costa Rica frequently uses honey processing.

FrontStreet Coffee offers guests more than 3 types of Costa Rican single-origin coffees processed using honey methods, such as the Musician Series coffee beans Chopin, Bach, and Mozart processed with raisin honey. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee also provides a Costa Rican Geisha blend called "Frontsteet Strawberry Candy" for consumers to choose from. It not only has rich aromas of raisins, cream, and strawberry candy, but also offers a smooth texture, making it suitable for various extraction methods including moka pot, pour-over, espresso machine, and cold brew. If interested, you can purchase from FrontStreet Coffee's Taobao store or FrontStreet Coffee's Tmall flagship store.

Honey Processing and Flavor Characteristics

FrontStreet Coffee has found that coffee beans processed using honey methods have relatively higher sweetness compared to other coffee beans. Let's take FrontStreet Coffee's Bach coffee bean as an example. It uses raisin honey processing to handle coffee cherries. After flotation selection, the coffee cherries are quite mature, then the pulp and skin are removed, but instead of water tank fermentation to remove the mucilage layer, the mucilage is retained for sun-drying. Based on the amount of mucilage retained, it's divided into yellow honey, red honey, and black honey. Yellow honey contains 40% mucilage, red honey contains 25% mucilage, and black honey retains almost all mucilage.

Therefore, when you taste FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican Bach coffee, you'll experience many fruit flavors, such as apple, strawberry, grapes, and more. One of the reasons for the strong sweetness of FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican coffee comes from this honey processing method. The drying time for honey-processed green beans is shorter than typical washed processing, and fermentation is minimal during the drying period. This processing method requires less water and doesn't need to spend more money to build large water tanks and drying fields. This Costa Rican processing technique is very popular among processing mills, with many mills following suit.

FrontStreet Coffee's Bach coffee bean is also a representative coffee from Costa Rica's Tarrazú region. According to FrontStreet Coffee's knowledge, the Tarrazú region is considered one of Costa Rica's established regions, where most coffees produced are specialty grade. Like FrontStreet Coffee's washed Costa Rican Tarrazú coffee, which removes the pulp and skin from coffee cherries using large amounts of water, then removes the mucilage layer through water tank fermentation before sun-drying. Washed processing improves coffee quality and reduces defect rates. FrontStreet Coffee believes washed processing gives this Costa Rican coffee a brighter flavor profile, with sweetness like orange juice, along with notes of toffee and honey.

Costa Rican Coffee Characteristics and Varieties

Basically, people tend to associate Costa Rican coffee beans with "honey processing." Most customers who have tried Costa Rican coffee beans at FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) believe that Costa Rican coffee has relatively sweet flavors. Perhaps Costa Rica's favorable conditions of timing, geography, and people have contributed to the high yield and quality of Costa Rican coffee beans. Despite its small area, it's rich in species and natural resources.

It's precisely this terrain and climate that makes it very suitable for growing Caturra and Catuai varieties. Costa Rica's coffee varieties are primarily these two coffee varieties, just like FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series Tarrazú coffee, which uses Caturra and Catuai varieties. However, Costa Rica also has its own coffee variety - Villalobos. This coffee variety is relatively rare to see. Villalobos is suitable for growing in high-altitude areas and has strong wind resistance, though it requires shade trees for better growth.

The Costa Rican government places great importance on coffee bean quality. To develop the economy, the Costa Rican government promotes coffee cultivation by providing farmers with free coffee seedlings. Therefore, it's no coincidence that Costa Rica produces high-quality coffee. Based on the excellence of Costa Rican coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee has stocked many varieties from Costa Rica and launched a Costa Rican Canet Musician Series.

FrontStreet Coffee's Musician Series

These Musician Series coffees offered by FrontStreet Coffee are very popular among customers. Each coffee bean has its own unique flavor profile. For example, Beethoven coffee has subtle fermented wine and floral aromas, with hints of citrus and berry acidity. Mozart coffee features raisin acidity, and as the temperature drops, the flavor leans more toward fermented wine notes. As for FrontStreet Coffee's Chopin coffee, when you taste this coffee, you'll first notice a rich rose fragrance, followed by citrus acidity, and you'll discover its very prominent sweetness.

Costa Rican Coffee Selections

1. FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican Bach Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú
Altitude: 1950m
Processing Method: Raisin Honey Process
Grade: Strictly Hard Bean (SHB)
Variety: Caturra
Flavor Description: A delightful variety of sweet fruits, displaying diverse flavors of strawberry, apple, lemon, grape, and citrus, with unforgettable honey and toffee notes.

2. FrontStreet Coffee Musician Series Beethoven Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú
Altitude: 1,900m
Processing Method: Washed Process
Grade: SHB
Variety: Yellow Catuai
Flavor Description: Green grape, vanilla, strawberry, cantaloupe, and citrus aromas, with pomegranate juice acidity, excellent cleanliness, smooth texture, and hints of green kiwi acidity.

3. FrontStreet Coffee Musician Series Chopin Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú
Altitude: 1,800-1,900m
Processing Method: Raisin Honey Process
Grade: SHB
Variety: Catuai
Flavor Description: Apple, vanilla, honey, cream, maple, rose, lemon-citrus, dark chocolate, and coffee flower notes.

4. FrontStreet Coffee Musician Series Mozart Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú
Altitude: 1,800m
Processing Method: Raisin Honey Process
Grade: SHB
Variety: Catuai
Flavor Description: The sweetness and berry aroma are truly stunning! Excellent sweetness, body, and thickness, with mature fruit sweetness similar to dried bananas.

FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican Musician Series coffees all have distinct flavor differences, so everyone can choose the suitable Costa Rican coffee beans based on their preferred flavor profiles.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473