Introduction to Costa Rica Tarrazu Coffee - Costa Rica Tarrazu Coffee Bean Flavor

Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Costa Rica Tarrazu Region

Costa Rica is located in the Central American isthmus at latitude 10°N and longitude 84°W. It borders the Caribbean Sea to the east and the North Pacific Ocean to the west. Costa Rica is situated on the low-latitude volcanic belt of Central America, with the Central Plateau and mountainous regions ranging from 800 to 2,000 meters above sea level, making it ideal for coffee cultivation. Costa Rican coffee has always been renowned for its extremely balanced, clean, and bright flavor profile, with fruity acidity reminiscent of berries. Exceptional Costa Rican coffee exhibits spice and cocoa notes in its finish. The country's most famous growing region is Tarrazu, located near the capital San José. The Tarrazu region has the highest average latitude and excellent climate and soil conditions, making it the most famous and widely recognized premier coffee-producing region in Costa Rica. Tres Rios is a renowned sub-region within Tarrazu.

Tarrazu is one of the most valued coffee-growing areas in Costa Rica and one of the world's major coffee-producing regions. Costa Rica's volcanic soil is extremely fertile and well-drained, making it the first country in Central America to cultivate coffee and bananas for commercial purposes.

High-quality Costa Rican coffee is known as "Strictly Hard Bean" (SHB), which can grow at altitudes above 1,500 meters. Altitude has always been a challenge for coffee growers. The higher the altitude, the better the coffee beans - not only because higher altitudes increase the acidity of coffee beans, thereby enhancing flavor, but also because the lower nighttime temperatures at higher elevations slow tree growth, resulting in more concentrated flavor in the coffee beans.

Additionally, the elevation differences create abundant rainfall, which is very beneficial for coffee tree growth. However, while growing coffee at higher altitudes offers many advantages, the additional transportation costs must be considered, as these can make coffee production unprofitable. Costa Rica's coffee industry has adopted new technologies to increase efficiency, including using bean sorters to identify irregularly sized coffee beans.

Honey processing, a method popular in Central America, is arguably the most common processing method in Costa Rica. This is a processing method that falls between dry (natural) and wet (washed) processing. It allows coffee to retain the cleanliness of washed processing while significantly increasing sweetness and caramel notes (as the fruit pulp mucilage has extremely high sugar content) by drying it together with the pulp mucilage.

The characteristics of honey-processed coffee depend largely on the settings of the pulping machine - the more pulp retained, the more pronounced the honey processing characteristics. However, producing honey-processed coffee requires farms to take certain risks, especially for black honey, because retaining more pulp increases the risk of over-fermentation. Based on the degree of retained mucilage, it is classified as: black honey, red honey, yellow honey, and white honey.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473