Nicaragua Mamamina Estate Natural Pacamara: Water-to-Coffee Ratio for Pour-Over

Costa Rican coffee is renowned for its excellent sweetness, mild mouthfeel, rich body, and acidity. This distinction is largely thanks to Costa Rica's unique honey processing method, which makes the country's coffee particularly distinctive. In this regard, FrontStreet Coffee must mention the Musician Series from Costa Rica's Canet Estate. Each coffee in this series has its own unique characteristics, fully embodying the flavor profile of Costa Rican coffee. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the flavor evolution of the Musician Series coffee is like leaping musical notes, which explains why Canet Estate exclusively produces the Musician Series. Without further ado, FrontStreet Coffee would like to discuss the Costa Rica Musician Series coffee beans in this article.

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Mozart Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú
Altitude: 1800m
Varieties: Caturra, Catuai
Processing: Raisin Honey
Flavor: Raisin acidity, berries, floral notes, fermented wine aroma

Mozart, known as the child prodigy who epitomized classical music, was famous for his magnificent classical compositions. Similarly, the "magnificent fragrance" of FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart coffee beans refers to the elegant floral notes that these Costa Rican Mozart beans emit, similar to white flower aromas like orange blossom, which FrontStreet Coffee can detect during brewing. The "magnificent mouthfeel" refers to the rich flavors of dark berries, raisins, and subtle red berries in FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart coffee, with hints of plum acidity and gummy bear-like sweetness in the middle to later stages. Even as it cools, it retains its floral notes and sweetness. The flavor is truly unique, and one can indeed experience a luxurious mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Bach Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú
Altitude: 1950m
Varieties: Caturra
Processing: Raisin Honey
Flavor: Fermented wine aroma, berries, fruit tea notes

Bach's music is exquisite, richly layered, yet clear and methodical. This FrontStreet Coffee Bach coffee bean's dry fragrance carries fruit-like aromas of strawberry, blackberry, and raisin, with wafts of fruit aroma during brewing. When FrontStreet Coffee first finishes brewing, distinct floral and fruit aromas emerge, and upon tasting, one experiences rich fruit aroma and sweet-tart notes, with subtle wine notes reminiscent of red wine in the middle to later stages. As it cools, it carries candied fruit sweetness, with the wine aroma becoming more pronounced, even revealing plum wine flavors. Such exquisite taste experiences truly resemble Bach's music, and FrontStreet Coffee believes that every sip of FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Bach coffee feels like being immersed in the magnificence and rigor of Baroque aesthetics.

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Beethoven Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú
Altitude: 1800-1950m
Varieties: Caturra, Catuai
Processing: Washed
Flavor: Citrus, berries, floral notes, subtle fermented wine aroma

Among romantic classical music, Beethoven is undoubtedly the most famous, and coffee beans that evoke associations with Beethoven's music naturally have exceptional flavors. The dry fragrance features distinct red berries, with strawberry being most prominent, complemented by floral aromas. During brewing, one can experience floral notes, nectar-like sweetness, and green grapes. When FrontStreet Coffee brews FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Beethoven coffee, the entry reveals the sweet-tart notes of green grapes and red berries, with an overall clean and smooth profile. As it cools, the red berry notes become more pronounced. Some coffee enthusiasts who have tasted it at FrontStreet Coffee's shop have even described this as a coffee with summer romantic sentiments.

FrontStreet Coffee would like to mention that unlike other musician series coffees processed with raisin honey method, FrontStreet Coffee's Beethoven uses washed processing to achieve a clean, refreshing summer-like mouthfeel. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee highly recommends that coffee enthusiasts enjoy this FrontStreet Coffee Beethoven coffee during summer for a different sensory experience.

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Chopin Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú
Altitude: 1800-1900m
Varieties: Catuai
Processing: Raisin Honey
Flavor: Rose, raisin, berries, fruit tea

Chopin is hailed as the "Romantic Piano Poet." This FrontStreet Coffee Chopin coffee bean from Canet Estate releases an overwhelming rose fragrance upon opening the package. Roses are indeed an expression of romance, and during FrontStreet Coffee's brewing process, this rose aroma becomes even more fragrant with the steam, as if surrounded by a sea of roses. Tasting reveals the sweet-tart notes of raisin and berries, with a finish reminiscent of fruit tea. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the overall flavor journey of this FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Chopin coffee bean progresses gradually like Chopin's romantic piano compositions - truly romantic and living up to its reputation.

The above covers the basic information about FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Musician coffee bean series. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the history behind the creation of these distinctive flavor profiles in FrontStreet Coffee's Musician Series coffee beans.

Costa Rica Coffee Growing Conditions

Costa Rica, located in Central America, was the first country in the Americas to introduce coffee cultivation, with a long history that has resulted in highly sophisticated coffee organization systems from production to sales.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Costa Rica's inherent conditions for coffee cultivation are also excellent. Since the country is located in the Central American isthmus, its volcanic soil is very fertile with good drainage, particularly in the central highlands. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in previous articles, quality coffee cultivation requires not only suitable climate and altitude but also fertile volcanic soil. This is because fertile volcanic soil contains abundant organic matter, making it ideal nutrients for coffee trees. Coffee grown under these conditions has pure flavor, pleasant aroma, and well-balanced sweet, sour, and bitter notes in its taste profile, ensuring excellent coffee quality.

Canet Estate Costa Rica

Canet Estate is located in Tarrazú, Costa Rica's most famous coffee-producing region. Tarrazú is also the highest altitude coffee-producing region in Costa Rica, approximately between 1200-1700m. Therefore, coffee beans grown in Tarrazú have hard, dense bodies and rich aromas, making it Costa Rica's most valued coffee cultivation area. Canet Estate is situated here, specializing in cultivating Caturra and Catuai variety coffee cherries.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, the Musician Series coffee beans originated because the estate owner of Canet Estate is passionate about classical music. He names different coffee beans based on which musician's style their flavor profiles resemble, according to different processing methods. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Tarrazú is the highest altitude region in Costa Rica, so Canet Estate produces only SHB grade high-altitude strictly hard beans. Such beans inherently have sweet flavors with fruit aromas, wine notes, and tea notes.

Since we've mentioned strictly hard beans, FrontStreet Coffee will explain what they are.

Costa Rica Coffee Bean Grades

FrontStreet Coffee's previous articles mentioned that each country has different definitions for coffee bean grading. For example, Kenya grades by bean size, while Ethiopia grades by defect count. Costa Rica, however, grades by altitude. The grading standards are as follows:

SHB: Strictly Hard Bean, grown at altitudes above 1500 meters.
GHB: Good Hard Bean, grown at altitudes between 1100-1200 meters.
HB: Hard Bean, grown at altitudes around 1000 meters.

Quality Costa Rican coffee is known as "Strictly Hard Bean," which can grow at altitudes above 1500 meters. For example, the Tarrazú staple coffee on FrontStreet Coffee's bean shelf is the highest grade SHB. Generally, higher altitude produces better coffee beans. This is not only because higher altitudes increase coffee bean acidity, thereby enhancing flavor, but also because lower nighttime temperatures at higher elevations slow tree growth, resulting in more concentrated coffee bean flavors.

Coffee Varieties

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Canet Estate mainly cultivates Caturra, Catuai, and H1 variety coffee trees. So what's special about these varieties?

Caturra

Caturra is a natural mutation of the Bourbon Arabica variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its plant is not as tall as Bourbon, being relatively shorter. Although it inherited Bourbon lineage, making it relatively weak in disease resistance, its yield is higher than Bourbon. Despite being discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not suitable for growth there, so it wasn't widely cultivated. Instead, it became popular in other Central and South American countries, with large-scale cultivation of Caturra coffee trees in countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

Catuai

Catuai is a hybrid coffee variety created by人工 crossing Caturra and Mundo Novo. Catuai has good resistance to natural disasters, particularly wind and rain. Catuai trees are relatively low-growing, and compared to other coffee trees, Catuai fruits grow more densely and are harder to pick. The fruits come in both red and yellow varieties. To date, no significant taste difference has been found between yellow and red fruits. In fact, some cupping tests have revealed that while some yellow-fruit processed coffees have good acidity, their flavor clarity is inferior to red fruit varieties. Catuai was developed in Brazil and is now widely grown throughout Central America.

H1 Coffee Variety

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, H1 comes from the Sebaco laboratory in Nicaragua. Its full name is Centroamericano, developed by crossing T5296 and Sudan Rume. In terms of coffee tree yield, H1 produces 22% to 47% more than traditional American varieties. The plant has green leaf tips, strong resistance to coffee leaf rust, moderate resistance to coffee berry disease, but is susceptible to nematode infestation.

Canet Estate Raisin Honey Processing

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in previous articles, a coffee bean's flavor depends not only on its variety and growing environment but also significantly on its processing method. What makes Canet Estate most noteworthy is its raisin honey processing method. Three of the coffees in FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Musician Series use honey processing, which makes the beans sweeter with fermented notes. FrontStreet Coffee will now explain what raisin honey processing is.

Raisin honey processing is a method that retains 100% fruit mucilage and uses zero water.

This also increases the difficulty compared to regular honey processing methods, as FrontStreet Coffee understands it requires strict timing control. On the day of coffee cherry harvest, the harvested coffee fruits are poured into large water tanks. Mature, full fruits sink to the bottom, while underdeveloped or overripe fruits float to the surface and must be removed. The selected coffee fruits are placed on raised beds to dry for at least three days, then the cherry skin is removed while preserving the mucilage before further drying. This completes the raisin honey processing flow.

FrontStreet Coffee considers this a particularly sweet processing method, with white wine-like mouthfeel and balanced acidity. In terms of flavor, the fermented notes are more intense, and it retains more mucilage than other honey processing methods.

Of course, one coffee in the Musician Series uses washed processing - FrontStreet Coffee's Canet Estate Beethoven coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's previous articles mentioned that washed processing is the method that best preserves a bean's original flavor. Washed-processed coffee beans retain the most original flavors, with a cleaner, more transparent mouthfeel. Therefore, this Beethoven coffee bean's flavor expression is also fresher, which is why customers who come to FrontStreet Coffee to taste Beethoven have described it as a coffee bean with summer romantic sentiments.

Washed Processing Flow

1. Harvest mature coffee fruits
2. Initial removal of impurities and defective beans
3. Floating bean selection: Pour coffee fruits into water tanks, where mature, full fruits sink to the bottom while immature or damaged fruits float to the surface
4. Removal of skin and pulp: Selected good coffee fruits are put into pulp removers to eliminate outer skin and pulp, leaving seeds (coffee beans)
5. Fermentation to remove mucilage: Coffee seeds coated with a layer of mucilage are placed in fermentation tanks, where biological processing uses fermentation bacteria to dissolve the mucilage
6. Water washing to remove impurities: Since fermentation bacteria remain on the coffee beans, they need to be sent to washing pools for cleaning and a second selection (defective beans float to the surface). This step requires large amounts of fresh water to ensure thorough cleaning
7. Coffee bean drying: Usually machines are used to dry the coffee fruits or they are sun-dried manually until moisture content reaches 10-14%
8. Removal of parchment and silver skin: Finally, hulling machines remove remaining parchment and silver skin, completing processing for green bean packaging and shipping

The above represents FrontStreet Coffee's compilation of basic information and flavor profiles of FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Musician Series. We hope this helps coffee enthusiasts choose the FrontStreet Coffee Musician Series coffee bean that best suits their flavor preferences.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473