Costa Rica Coffee Brand Recommendations: Don't Miss the Musician Series Mozart

FrontStreet Coffee — Costa Rica Musician Series Mozart

Costa Rica Tarrazu Finca Canet Raisin Honey Process Mozart

Floral notes, strawberry Swiss candy, toffee, rum

Region | Tarrazu

Altitude | 1950 meters

Variety | Yellow Catuai

Processing | Raisin Honey Process

In the film "Amadeus," the closing line is "Mediocrities, I forgive you!" Mozart was arguably God's favorite, one of the greatest figures in the history of music. This bean, named after the composer, has some claim to that same line. Plenty of specialty coffees simply pale beside Mozart.

This Mozart is a custom product from Finca Canet in Costa Rica's Tarrazu region, made for Taiwan Black Gold Coffee Company. The most popular green bean in the Musician Series, it has drawn wide acclaim in the three years since launch. It uses a distinctive raisin honey process: fully ripe cherries are sun-dried until the skin shrivels to a raisin-like state, then peeled and slowly fermented during honey processing. That treatment gives the beans an intense aroma and a wide range of mouthfeel.

Finca Canet harvests several varieties, and Yellow Catuai is the one used for the Musician Series Mozart.

Words struggle to capture how Mozart feels on the palate. There are abundant floral notes, rich strawberry jam, a lingering toffee aroma, rum, berry, and a cocoa aftertaste. None of those words quite does it justice. It is a singular experience, one of those remarkable pages in specialty coffee you simply have to taste for yourself.

In brief: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall that enjoys sharing coffee knowledge. We share without reservation, just to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month there are three low-discount coffee events, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more friends to drink the best coffee at the lowest price. That has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Costa Rica's honey-processed coffees are the natural next step if Mozart's rum-and-toffee richness appeals to you. FrontStreet Costa Rica Mozart is itself made with an innovative raisin honey process — the cherries are pre-dried on raised beds for at least three days before the skin and pulp come off, with the full 100% mucilage left on for a slow, closely monitored ferment. The result carries osmanthus, pineapple, and raisin aromatics, and it holds up in a pour-over, a cold brew, or a moka pot. FrontStreet Costa Rica Blackberry takes a different route with a black honey process, where nearly all the mucilage is kept and drying runs at least two weeks under shade. Roasted medium-light, it grinds into a heady floral fragrance and drinks with grape, berry, and ripe blackberry. Neither needs much coaxing — both reward whichever brewer you already own.