Beethoven Coffee Bean Variety Origin Processing Method Costa Rica Coffee Bean Flavor Characteristics Evaluation

When it comes to Romantic classical music, Beethoven is undoubtedly the most renowned composer. FrontStreet Coffee offers a Costa Rican coffee bean named "Beethoven," originating from the Finca Canet estate in Costa Rica. Processed using the washed method, it exhibits pleasant aromatics and elegant sweet-tart flavors during brewing, reminiscent of the lively and vibrant melodies played by the musician Beethoven.

Costa Rica Tarrazú Region

Costa Rica is located in Central and South America, connected to Panama where Geisha coffee gained fame. Influenced by Pacific and Atlantic ocean currents and monsoons, it forms an excellent microclimate. Combined with various topographical features, it has become the perfect region for coffee to thrive.

Although Costa Rica doesn't rank high in coffee production volumes, its numerous volcanoes provide extremely fertile mineral-rich soil with excellent drainage. This allows crops grown here to receive abundant rainfall and nutrients, naturally resulting in higher quality fruits. It's worth mentioning that Costa Rican law explicitly prohibits the cultivation of coffee varieties other than Arabica. In other words, growing and producing Robusta coffee is illegal there, demonstrating the local commitment to maintaining high coffee quality standards.

From the map, we can observe that Costa Rica's territory is elongated, with coffee growing areas also distributed in a narrow strip across the central region. There are five main producing regions: Central Valley, TRES RÍOS, WEST VALLEY, TARRAZÚ, and BRUNCA, along with three smaller regions: Turrialba, Orosi, and Guanacaste. Among these, the Tarrazú region is the largest and most renowned in the country. The Costa Rican coffee beans on FrontStreet Coffee's regular selection come from this area. Tarrazú is located south of the country's capital, San José, and is one of the most valued coffee growing regions locally. With high-altitude growing conditions ranging from 1200 to 1700 meters, cool climate, and nutrient-rich volcanic ash soil, Tarrazú coffee exhibits diverse acidity and rounded body. Additionally, with the development of specialty coffee, continuous innovation and progress in processing techniques have earned Tarrazú coffee an excellent reputation within the coffee community.

Coffee Varieties

Like many Central and South American producing regions, Costa Rica primarily grows common coffee varieties such as Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai. The Beethoven coffee beans are selected from the Catuai variety. Catuai is an artificially cultivated hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo. Catuai inherits Mundo Novo's characteristics of high yield, strong disease resistance, and excellent cup quality, as well as Caturra's compact plant size, superior acidity, and sun-loving properties. Due to its smaller plant size, it can be planted at twice the density. Catuai coffee beans are oval and flat, with a more slender tail end. They possess soft acidity, clean mouthfeel, and rich fruity aromatics.

Finca Canet Estate

Finca Canet is jointly operated by three brothers and primarily produces coffee beans using honey processing methods, with over a decade of coffee production experience. The estate mainly grows fruits such as passion fruit, with coffee trees concentrated in specific designated areas for management. During the coffee cherry ripening season each December, the estate owners arrange for coffee cherry harvesting and transport them to a nearby small wet processing plant (Beneficio) for processing. The owners of Finca Canet are passionate about classical music and pursue romanticism, so the coffee beans produced on the estate are all named after musicians, such as Mozart, Bach, Chopin, and the protagonist of this article, Beethoven. The estate owners continuously research coffee variety selection and post-processing methods. High-quality coffee beans combined with different degrees of fruit mucilage in raisin honey processing result in coffees with good sweetness, consistency, and body, often displaying ripe fruit flavors similar to bananas. Coupled with the famous names of great musicians, they are more easily remembered by consumers.

Washed Processing

Unlike the other three musician-themed coffees, the Beethoven coffee beans are the only batch processed using the traditional washed method, presenting the purest aroma of the coffee itself. The washed processing method involves placing selected coffee fruits into a depulper to initially remove the skin and pulp. The coffee beans with remaining pulp and mucilage 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 the remaining pulp and mucilage. After washing, the coffee beans are dried to reduce the moisture content to about 12%, and finally, the parchment is removed from the green coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee believes that beans processed using the washed method have a cleaner and brighter mouthfeel, with more vibrant acidity expression.

For roasting, FrontStreet Coffee aims to preserve more fruit acidity and floral flavors, thus adjusting to a medium-light roast. Through cupping the Beethoven coffee, FrontStreet Coffee experiences the sweet-tart sensation of red berries and citrus-like lively and bright acidity. As it gradually cools, the juiciness of red berries slowly emerges, with the aftertaste carrying a hint of almond aroma.

Pour-over Reference

Filter: V60
Water Temperature: 91°C
Dose: 15 grams
Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: 80% passing through #20 standard sieve

For brewing, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas are accustomed to using a three-pour technique:

The first pour injects 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom, followed by injecting 95 grams (electronic scale shows around 125 grams), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, inject the remaining 100 grams (electronic scale shows around 225 grams), completing the pour in about 1 minute 35 seconds. The drip filtration completes at 2'10", remove the filter cone, completing the extraction.

Beethoven coffee bean brewing flavor: The overall mouthfeel is clean with rich aromatics. The entry presents the sweet-tart of strawberry juice and citrus-like lively acidity, much like cheerful and lively notes dancing in the mouth. The floral notes and almond-like aftertaste provide perfect embellishment to this musical chapter.

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473