Beginner Coffee Bean Recommendations: What Coffee Beans Are Suitable for Novices and Costa Rican Coffee Flavor Profiles

FrontStreet Coffee — Costa Rica Dota Tarrazu Introduction

Many beginners are unsure how to choose coffee, and the answer really comes down to taste. Do you like acidity, bitterness, or high sweetness? All of them can be had. Today we would like to introduce a washed Costa Rican bean that suits anyone who enjoys fruity acidity and fruit flavors.

Costa Rica's Tarrazu region is one of the world's major coffee-producing areas, known for a mild, pure flavor and a pleasant aroma. Costa Rica's volcanic soil is very fertile and drains well, which made it the first country in Central America to grow coffee and bananas commercially.

High-quality Costa Rican coffee is graded "Strictly Hard Bean" (SHB), which can be grown at altitudes above 1,500 meters. Altitude has always been a challenge for coffee growers: the higher, the better. Not only does higher altitude increase the beans' acidity and thereby sharpen flavor, the lower nighttime temperatures up high also slow the trees' growth and concentrate the flavor in the beans. On top of that, the variations in elevation bring abundant rainfall, which also benefits coffee trees.

Costa Rica Dota Tarrazu

Grade: SHB

Varieties: Catuai, Caturra

Growing Altitude: 1500-1900 meters

Processing Method: Washed

Flavor Profile: Green Lemon, Green Apple, Passion Fruit, Apricot, Pineapple, Dark Chocolate, Clean, Long Aftertaste

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the clean, fruity acidity of this washed Costa Rica Dota Tarrazu is what you want, FrontStreet Coffee's washed coffees are a natural place to explore next — and the clean profile that washed processing produces is exactly why. In washed processing the cherries are floated, pulped, fermented to break down the mucilage, washed or soaked again, and dried before hulling. Time in the water drives chemical changes inside the bean and consumes much of its simple sugar, so the finished coffee carries less sugar but more organic acids. The result keeps more of the bean's own aroma while adding a bright, clean, refreshing acidity.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Yuzu Ding Ding is a good first stop: a washed Ethiopian from the Yuzu Ding Ding village cooperative that shows off jasmine florals and a bright citrus acidity to the fullest, and, lightly roasted, opens into green tea and honey — it works for pour-over, cold brew, and espresso alike. For a bolder, juice-forward take, FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Cherry Tomato relies on Kenya's signature double washing, running the beans through a second wash so the fruitiness comes through at full strength: cherry tomato, smoked plum, snow pear, black plum, and yellow sugar, with a sweet-tart, juicy body.