What is Beethoven Coffee? Costa Rica Beethoven Coffee Bean Flavor and Taste Evaluation.

Beethoven Coffee is a coffee bean from Costa Rica's Canet Estate. As the estate owner is passionate about classical music, all coffee beans produced here are named after musicians, thus collectively known as the "Musician Series." In addition to Beethoven, there are three other varieties: Mozart, Bach, and Chopin, all exhibiting gorgeous fruit flavors and elegant aromatic notes, making this coffee series quickly memorable.

FrontStreet Coffee - Costa Rica Musician Series: Beethoven

Region: Costa Rica, Tarrazú
Estate: Finca Canet
Processing: Washed
Variety: Yellow Catuai
Altitude: 1900m

Canet Estate (Finca Canet)

Situated in the highest altitude range within Costa Rica's Tarrazú region, this area is also the most intensive region for growing various fruits in Costa Rica. Tarrazú is one of Costa Rica's primary coffee-producing areas, with the highest average latitude, excellent climatic conditions, fertile soil, and good drainage. These superior conditions make Tarrazú recognized as Costa Rica's most excellent major coffee-producing region, having received considerable favor and recognition.

Canet Estate is jointly operated by three brothers' families, with coffee beans mostly produced using honey processing methods. They now have over ten years of coffee production experience. The estate primarily grows passion fruits and other fruits, with coffee trees concentrated in specific areas for management. During the coffee cherry ripening season each December, the estate owner arranges for coffee cherry picking and transports them to a nearby small water processing plant (Beneficio) for processing. The owners of Canet Estate are passionate about classical music and pursue romanticism, so all coffee beans produced on the estate are named after musicians. The estate owners continuously research coffee bean selection and post-processing methods. High-quality coffee beans paired with honey processing at different pectin levels produce coffees with good sweetness, consistency, body, and ripe fruit flavors similar to bananas. Combined with borrowing the famous names of great musicians, they are more easily remembered by everyone.

Washed Processing Method

Unlike the other three musician varieties, Beethoven coffee beans are the only batch processed using traditional washed methods, presenting the purest aroma of the coffee itself. The washed processing method involves placing screened coffee fruits into a depulper to initially remove their skin and pulp. The coffee beans with remaining pulp and pectin are placed in water to ferment for about 18-36 hours. After fermentation, the parchment coffee beans are placed in flowing water channels to wash away their pulp and pectin. After washing, the coffee beans are dried to reduce moisture content to about 12%, and finally, the parchment is removed from the green coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee believes that washed processing results in cleaner and brighter taste profiles, with more lively acidity.

Coffee Variety

FrontStreet Coffee's Beethoven coffee beans use the Yellow Catuai variety. Catuai is a hybrid of Mundo Novo and Caturra. Like Red Catuai, Yellow Catuai has extremely high disease resistance, is suitable for cultivation in high-altitude areas, and is characterized by high yield, strong disease resistance, ability to withstand direct sunlight, and delicate, clean acidity.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasters found that Beethoven beans have high density, so they decided to use a medium-light roast level. This preserves the bright acidity while showcasing the bean's fruity notes, and also enhances richness and balance. Preheat the roaster to 170°C before loading, adjust heat to 120, open the damper to 3, return to temperature at 1'36", maintain heat;

At 140°C, keep heat unchanged, open damper to 4. At 5'55", beans turn yellow, grassy aroma disappears, entering dehydration stage. At 151°C, reduce heat to 100, keep damper at 4. At 176°C, adjust heat to 85, damper unchanged. At 8'15", dehydration completes, wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma turns to coffee aroma, signaling the prelude to first crack. Pay attention to the sound of first crack. At 9'01", first crack begins, open damper fully to 5, heat unchanged. Post-first crack development time is 1'45", unload at 193°C.

Cupping Experience

Freshly roasted Beethoven coffee beans are first cupped by FrontStreet Coffee to evaluate the flavor and texture of this musician series. Through cupping Beethoven coffee, FrontStreet Coffee detected the sweet and sour sensation of red berries, as well as citrus-like lively and brisk acidity. As it slowly cools, the juiciness of red berries gradually emerges, with a hint of almond aroma in the aftertaste. When FrontStreet Coffee tasted this coffee bean, it reminded them of Beethoven's romantic musical compositions, similar to Beethoven's early romantic style. The ground coffee beans have a strawberry-like aroma, and during brewing, one can sense floral notes and the sweet and sour sensation of grapes.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

Dry Aroma: Strawberry
Wet Aroma: Citrus, white floral notes
Flavor: White floral notes, citrus, strawberry, ripe berries, almond

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Recommendations

Dripper: Hario V60
Water Temperature: 91°C
Dose: 15g
Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: Medium-fine (80% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee's Step-by-Step Extraction Method

First, use 30g of water to fully saturate the coffee bed into a "hamburger" shape and bloom for 30 seconds, then proceed with the second infusion. For the second stage, FrontStreet Coffee uses steady medium-fine water flow in circular motion, injecting water to 125g at 55 seconds on the timer, then stops to wait for the water level to drop to 2/3 of the coffee bed before starting the third stage. For the third stage, FrontStreet Coffee continues with steady medium-fine water flow, injecting water to 225g at 1'45" on the timer. After the coffee completely drips through, the total extraction time is 1'59".

Brewed Flavor of Beethoven Coffee Beans

The overall mouthfeel is clean with rich aroma. The entry presents the sweet and sour of strawberry juice and citrus-like lively acidity, much like light and brisk musical notes dancing in the mouth. The floral notes and almond-like aftertaste bring perfect embellishment to this musical movement.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

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Tel:020 38364473