Flavor Profile and Characteristics of Costa Rican Coffee Beans - Introduction to Origin, Varieties, and Planting History

Costa Rican coffee is often characterized by its sweet fruity and floral aromas, rich and bold fragrance, and refreshing, pleasant acidity. FrontStreet Coffee's bean menu features several Costa Rican coffee beans, and with such captivating flavors, FrontStreet Coffee believes this is inseparable from Costa Rica's meticulous cultivation and its unique diverse honey processing methods.

Costa Rica

As can be seen from the map, Costa Rica is located in the Central American isthmus, bordered by Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the southeast.

The entire country of Costa Rica is connected by high mountains, with volcanic terrain in the Central Plateau. Fertile volcanic ash soil with low acidity, suitable year-round temperatures and climate, as well as stable and abundant rainfall, have all contributed to making coffee the main agricultural product here.

Coffee Cultivation History

As one of the first Central American countries to introduce coffee tree cultivation, Costa Rica has a long history of coffee cultivation with quite mature coffee production technology. Coffee was introduced to Costa Rica from Cuba in 1729, with nearly 300 years of cultivation history. Since gaining independence from Spanish colonial rule in 1821, the local government has encouraged cultivation through land concessions and free distribution of coffee seeds to farmers. According to data from the Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE), there are now 29,918 coffee-growing households, demonstrating the prevalence of coffee cultivation in Costa Rica.

Additionally, the Costa Rican government has strict regulatory systems and comprehensive laws for the coffee industry. In 1989, a law was enacted prohibiting the cultivation of the poorer quality Robusta coffee variety. In 2001, the Costa Rican Coffee Institute began regulating the coffee industry and launched the National Coffee Plan, requiring each coffee-producing region to sign quality improvement agreements, with processors committing to only accept and process ripe coffee beans, thereby ensuring coffee bean quality.

Coffee Growing Regions

Costa Rica has eight main coffee-growing regions: Brunca, Turrialba, Tres Ríos, Orosi, Tarrazú, Valle Central, Valle Occidental, and Guanacaste.

Each region has different altitude levels, climate, and soil characteristics, resulting in coffee flavors with unique characteristics. Among these, the Tarrazú region, with the highest altitude, is also the most famous region. FrontStreet Coffee believes that washed processed Tarrazú coffee best represents the characteristics of Costa Rican coffee, so FrontStreet Coffee chose washed Tarrazú as FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican daily bean.

FrontStreet Coffee: Costa Rica Tarrazú Coffee Beans
Region: Costa Rica Tarrazú
Altitude: 1500 meters
Varieties: Caturra, Catuai
Processing: Washed Process
Flavors: Sweet orange, honey, toffee, nuts

Tarrazú Region

The characteristic that distinguishes Tarrazú region coffee from other regions is its high altitude, approximately 1200-1700 meters, which increases the temperature difference between day and night. Coffee cherries require longer time to mature, absorb more nutrients, and the coffee harvest season is from December to March of the following year. Coffee beans grown at high altitudes have a hard and full texture, high acidity, and prominent fruity flavors.

As a well-known local origin, Tarrazú is located in the southern part of Costa Rica's capital, San José, where coffee cultivation and management receive very high attention. Tarrazú coffee is mainly grown in the La Minita area. Under the naturally superior terroir conditions here, there is no need to apply too much fertilizer, and manual harvesting and selection make the coffee cherries here of even better quality.

Honey Process

There are four common raw bean processing methods for Costa Rican coffee: natural, washed, honey process, and red wine fermentation. In addition to the classic natural drying process and the more common washed process in Central America, there is the locally innovative honey process.

Farmers remove the skin and pulp of harvested coffee cherries through machines, placing the coffee beans with the mucilage layer to dry in the sun. The mucilage layer is high in sugar content, and during the drying process, the sugar and aromatic substances from the berries ferment with the parchment beans, making the coffee beans have a richer juiciness and more complex aromas. Therefore, this semi-natural processing method is called "honey process."

According to the different degrees of mucilage retention, it can be divided into yellow honey, red honey, and black honey. Yellow honey refers to retaining 60% of the mucilage, red honey retains 75% of the mucilage, while black honey means drying in the sun with almost no removal of the mucilage layer. Different thicknesses of the mucilage layer require different drying times. High temperatures will accelerate the fermentation of coffee pulp and mucilage, easily leading to mold or over-fermentation situations, producing negative flavors. The advantage of honey processing is that it requires less water, does not need large water tanks and drying yards, making it very suitable for local micro-processing plants in Costa Rica.

With the popularity of specialty coffee, more and more micro-batch coffees have emerged, and honey processing has also gradually become more varied. Different from the above three honey processing methods, raisin honey processing coffee, represented by the Musician Series, has also become popular.

Before honey processing, coffee cherries are placed in water tanks, with defective floating beans removed, then dried in the sun for more than three days until the coffee cherries reach a "raisin" state, after which machines are used to remove the skin and pulp, continuing with the honey processing steps. This processing method requires higher control over drying time, and the sweetness in the flavor is more layered. FrontStreet Coffee's Musician Series such as Mozart and Bach use this processing method.

FrontStreet Coffee: Mozart Coffee Beans
Region: Costa Rica Tarrazú Region
Estate: Canet Estate
Altitude: 1900 meters
Varieties: Caturra, Catuai
Processing: Raisin Anaerobic Honey Process
Flavors: Raisin, osmanthus, sweet orange, berries, pineapple

Coffee Varieties and Green Bean Grades

The main coffee varieties in Costa Rica are Caturra and Catuai.

Caturra, a variant of Bourbon, was discovered by Brazilians in 1927. It has better yield and disease resistance than Bourbon, with a shorter tree shape that facilitates harvesting and can grow well without shade trees. The bean shape is also quite similar to Bourbon, with overall bright flavor and comfortable sweetness. Catuai is a hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo, therefore inheriting the short tree shape of Caturra. The fruit is more solid than Caturra and will not easily fall off in strong winds. The flavor highlights fresh fruit aromas.

Costa Rican coffee beans can be divided into three grades according to altitude: those grown above 1500 meters are Strictly Hard Bean (SHB), those grown at 1100-1500 meters altitude are Good Hard Bean (GHB), and those below 1000 meters are Hard Bean (HB). Strictly Hard Beans grown in higher altitude areas have significantly higher acidity and richer flavors. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Costa Rica Tarrazú daily beans are made from full-grained GHB Strictly Hard Bean grade.

Brewing Suggestions

To experience the flavors of different processing methods in Costa Rican coffee, FrontStreet Coffee has tried both washed Tarrazú and raisin anaerobic honey processed Mozart. For coffee beginners, FrontStreet Coffee has a small suggestion: to understand the representative flavor of a coffee-producing region, start with washed processing. It's not hard to notice that FrontStreet Coffee's daily beans mostly use washed processing because FrontStreet Coffee believes this is the way to taste the basic flavor of the region, and then choose your preferred flavor type as you advance.

To bring out the aroma of Costa Rican coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans. Beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee are all roasted within 5 days, so when you receive the coffee after ordering and shipping, it's just at the optimal tasting period, because FrontStreet Coffee knows that freshness is very important for coffee flavor.

For customers who don't have grinding equipment at home, FrontStreet Coffee can provide grinding services. Since the aroma of coffee accelerates after grinding, FrontStreet Coffee believes that you can also equip yourself with grinding equipment according to your own situation to drink fuller flavors.

In terms of roasting, FrontStreet Coffee chooses medium-light roasting to highlight the floral and fruity aromas of coffee. Since hard beans from high altitudes require higher water temperatures to release their aromas, the fineness of granulated sugar grinding can make the coffee's fruity flavors richer.

Filter: V60
Water Temperature: 91°C
Dose: 15 grams
Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: 80% pass-through through No. 20 standard sieve

After grinding, the washed Tarrazú daily beans emit nutty and chocolate aromas, with a clear and clean berry-like sweetness and acidity in the mouth. The Mozart, processed with raisin anaerobic honey, emits rich raisin and osmanthus aromas after grinding, and the coffee entry has a rich tropical fruit fermentation sensation similar to cantaloupe, with softer acidity as the temperature decreases, like flower tea.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)
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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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