Costa Rican Specialty Coffee Tarrazu Region Washed Processing Method Tarrazu Region Coffee Flavor Characteristics

When customers visit FrontStreet Coffee, many beginners often ask our baristas, "What coffee beans are suitable for beginners, and how can I choose beans that suit me?" If customers don't have specific preferences for regional coffee flavors, FrontStreet Coffee typically recommends our "Frontsteet Daily Beans" without hesitation. Only when customers express a need for "more distinct coffee flavors" does FrontStreet Coffee suggest specific corresponding beans. For enthusiasts who are unsure about their taste preferences, FrontStreet Coffee's Daily Beans allow everyone to experience the main flavors of different regions at an affordable price, helping them better determine which regional coffee suits them best, while also providing a foundational understanding of a region's flavor profile.

Additionally, most of FrontStreet Coffee's Daily Beans use the washed processing method, as washed coffee represents the fundamental flavor profile of a region and serves as the starting point for understanding regional characteristics. FrontStreet Coffee believes that washed coffee offers more pronounced acidity, excellent cleanliness, medium mouthfeel, and the most consistent raw bean quality.

FrontStreet Coffee offers Daily Beans from seven major regions: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Costa Rica Tarrazú, Colombia Huila, Indonesia Lintong Mandheling, China Yunnan Baoshan, Guatemala Huehuetenango, and Brazil South Minas.

Next, let's take a closer look at the representative of flavor balance among FrontStreet Coffee's Daily Beans - Costa Rica Tarrazú, and explore the unique characteristics of this region.

Costa Rica Tarrazú Coffee Profile

Country: Costa Rica

Region: Tarrazú

Altitude: 1,500 meters

Varieties: Caturra, Catuai

Processing: Washed

Flavor Notes: Sweet orange, honey, toffee, nuts

The Coffee Region - Tarrazú

Tarrazú is located south of the country's capital, San José, and is one of the most valued coffee-growing areas in Costa Rica. "La Minita Tarrazú" coffee is a renowned local product with limited production of approximately 72,600 kilograms annually. It's grown on land called "La Minita," owned by the British McAlpine family for the last three generations. The La Minita estate in the Tarrazú region produces only 160,000 pounds annually. In fact, this land could produce over 450 tons of coffee each year. However, La Minita Tarrazú coffee is cultivated without artificial fertilizers or pesticides, and its harvesting and selection are completed entirely by hand to avoid the damage that air-jet sorting can cause to coffee beans.

In the 2014 Cup of Excellence competition, 17 out of 23 award-winning coffees came from the Tarrazú region. Tarrazú is located in the fertile volcanic region of Central America, with a humid climate and rich volcanic soil. Abundant annual rainfall, high altitude, and dense natural forest shade provide ideal growing conditions for coffee. No pesticides or artificial fertilizers are used during cultivation. Nearly 95% of coffee beans grown in the high altitudes of Tarrazú are classified as Strictly Hard Beans (SHB), typically grown at altitudes above 1,500 meters.

Currently, the Tarrazú cooperative has 26 member farms. Among them, La Minita estate is one of the most prestigious coffee farms in Tarrazú. La Minita produces approximately 1 million pounds of coffee beans annually. After meticulous selection to remove defects, only 15% of the beans can bear the La Minita estate imprint, while the rest enter the general coffee market. However, these market-available coffees still command higher prices than other Central American coffees. La Minita's strict management of all aspects of coffee production has established its world-class reputation, making it truly a globally renowned coffee estate.

Costa Rican coffee has always been known for its balanced flavor, rich chocolate notes, and smooth texture. Located south of the capital San José, Tarrazú is one of Costa Rica's most valued coffee-growing regions. Tarrazú coffee beans are full-bodied with rich body, smooth texture, intense chocolate and nutty aromas, moderate acidity, and an enticing fragrance.

Coffee Varieties

Caturra is a natural variant of the Bourbon Arabica variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its plant is shorter and more compact than Bourbon. Although it inherits Bourbon's lineage, making it relatively less disease-resistant, it yields higher production than Bourbon. Despite being discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not well-suited for growing conditions there, so it wasn't widely cultivated in Brazil. Instead, it became popular in Central and South America, with large-scale cultivation in countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

Catuai is a hybrid of Mundo Novo and Caturra, essentially a second-generation cross. It inherits Caturra's advantage of shorter plant height while also compensating for Caturra's weakness of delicate fruit that easily falls in strong winds. Its fruit is more solid and less likely to drop when exposed to strong winds. The biggest drawback is that its overall flavor is slightly more monotonous than Caturra. Catuai also comes in red and yellow fruit varieties, with the red fruit offering better flavor than the yellow. Catuai, Caturra, Mundo Novo, and Bourbon are known as the four main coffee varieties of Brazil.

Washed Processing Method

The washed processing method involves placing selected coffee cherries into a depulper to initially remove their skin and pulp. The coffee beans with remaining mucilage are placed in water to ferment for approximately 24 hours. After fermentation, the parchment coffee beans are placed in flowing water channels to wash away the remaining pulp and mucilage. After washing, the coffee beans are dried either by sun-drying or using mechanical dryers until the moisture content reaches approximately 12%. Finally, the parchment is removed from the coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Water Temperature: 90-91°C

Grind Size: BG#6m (fine sugar size/80% passing through #20 sieve)

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Coffee Amount: 15 grams

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Technique:

First, pour 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom. Then pour 95 grams more (scale shows approximately 125 grams total), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100 grams (scale shows approximately 225 grams total), completing this pour in about 1 minute and 40 seconds. The drip finishes at 2'03", at which point the filter cone is removed to complete extraction.

Brewing Flavor: The initial taste offers sweet and sour notes of orange, followed by distinct nutty and chocolate flavors in the middle section. The caramel aftertaste is long-lasting, accompanied by hints of cedar aroma, creating an overall balanced profile.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473