Characteristics and Stories of Costa Rican Coffee Regions - Introduction to the Flavor and Taste Profile of Costa Rican Red Honey Coffee Beans

Introduction to Costa Rica Coffee

Costa Rica is a republic in Latin America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south - both famous coffee origins in their own right.

Compared with most African coffee-producing regions, Costa Rica holds no particularly strong advantage in altitude or climate. And although the country began growing coffee in 1729, its beans were long used as blending stock for espresso and sold at low prices.

The Rise of High-Quality Coffee

In recent years, seeking to raise the added value of its coffee exports, the Costa Rican government has thrown its weight behind specialty coffee. To encourage growers, the local government also established a "coffee trust fund" to help farmers in difficult situations weather challenges and produce high-quality coffee. As a result, the relatively demanding honey processing method has become the mainstream for Costa Rican coffee beans.

Understanding Coffee Processing Methods

Coffee beans are, in fact, the seeds of coffee cherries. Every cup you love is brewed from the seeds of these red or yellow fruits.

Before roasting, however, the outer layers - skin and pulp - must be removed, and the beans dried to a moisture content of about 11%. The two most common processing methods are washed and natural. The washed method soaks the cherries in water and uses water to wash away the skin and pulp. The natural method dries the whole cherries in the sun, after which machines remove the skin and pulp.

Honey Processing: A Hybrid Approach

Honey processing blends the two. First the skin is removed, leaving some of the sticky mucilage around the bean for drying. It sits between natural and washed processing and can be further divided into yellow honey, red honey, black honey, and more.

Floating cherries are removed, and as in washed processing, the pulp is scraped off while the mucilage is retained. The drying stage that follows is the most meticulous part of honey processing. By exploiting day-night temperature differences, humidity differences, and pressure differences, the honey-like sweetness and acidity of the mucilage work their way into the heart of the bean. Throughout the process the lots must be turned constantly to prevent over-fermentation. Afterwards, the layers outside the silver skin and parchment are removed as usual. Honey processing gives beans richer flavors than washing, with far fewer defects than natural processing - but it is labor-intensive and demands real skill.

Types of Honey Processing

Depending on how much mucilage remains, honey processing is divided into white, yellow, red, and black honey. The lighter the color, the less mucilage is kept. White honey retains 15% of the mucilage, yellow honey about 25%, red honey about 50%, and the black honey we're tasting today retains 80%. More mucilage means higher overall sweetness; less mucilage means a cleaner mouthfeel.

Important Note

Knowledge point: "Arabica" is not synonymous with good coffee. Even within the Arabica family, there are real differences in grade.

About FrontStreet Coffee

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research center dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. Our unreserved sharing exists for one purpose - to help more people fall in love with coffee. Every month we hold three coffee events with special discounts, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more friends to enjoy great coffee at the lowest possible price. That has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past six years!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If honey-process sweetness is what you're after, FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete Washed Geisha is an estate-level entry Geisha grown at 1,600 meters in Panama's Boquete region. Mist frequently drifts through the mountains, days are humid, nights are cool, and the fertile volcanic soil feeds beans with rich aromatics - jasmine florals, green tea, honey, citrus, and orange in the cup.

FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Washed "Flower Butterfly" offers half of Geisha's prized lineage in a blend of Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai from the Baru volcano zone. The local microclimate brings abundant rain and a wide day-night temperature swing, while volcanic-rock soil and meticulous harvesting and processing give the coffee excellent body, bright citrus acidity, and Geisha's jasmine fragrance - lovely both as pour-over and cold brew.

And at the very top of the range, FrontStreet Coffee's Emerald Estate Red-Label Geisha comes from a single plot above 1,700 meters and must cup at 91 points, showing refined orange blossom and honeyed depth.