Costa Rican Coffee Beans | Introduction to Tarrazú Region Musician Series Bach Coffee Beans

As we all know, coffee beans are typically grown in the "Coffee Belt," which refers to the equatorial region between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The equator spans multiple continents, and the Americas happen to be situated within this Coffee Belt. Therefore, many countries cultivate coffee, including Guatemala, Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Among these, Costa Rica is renowned as the first country in Central America to grow coffee and bananas for commercial purposes.

Costa Rican Coffee Cultivation

Costa Rica is located in Central America, bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The climate is tropical and subtropical, with numerous towering volcanoes reaching altitudes of 2000 meters and temperatures ranging between 17°C-28°C. Additionally, influenced by the Pacific and Atlantic ocean currents and sea winds that regulate the climate, the year is divided into a rainy season from April to December and a dry season from late December to April of the following year, with annual rainfall between 2000-3000 millimeters. Fertile volcanic soil, high-altitude growing conditions, and abundant rainfall provide Costa Rica with an exceptionally suitable geographical environment for coffee cultivation.

Tarrazu Growing Region

Currently, Costa Rica cultivates over 400 million coffee trees across eight coffee growing regions: Western Central Valley (Valley Central Occidental), Central Valley (Valley Central), Tarrazu, Tres Rios, Orosi, Brunca, and Turrialba, almost all distributed along the central mountain range.

Tarrazu is Costa Rica's largest and most famous coffee producing region, accounting for nearly 35% of total production. The majority of coffee is grown in areas at altitudes of 1200-1900 meters, making Tarrazu the highest altitude coffee region in Costa Rica. Unique climatic conditions, abundant rainfall, and fertile volcanic ash soil, covered by dense forests, provide an excellent growing environment for coffee beans. Consequently, coffee from this region exhibits pleasant acidity with notes of chocolate, floral, and fruity flavors. This reputation led the Costa Rican government to register "Café de Tarrazú" as a coffee designation of origin in 2019, protecting both the Tarrazu region and Tarrazu coffee. FrontStreet Coffee offers a washed processed Costa Rican Tarrazu coffee as an introductory selection, featuring sweet orange, chocolate, and nutty aromas with a long-lasting caramel aftertaste.

Finca Canet Estate

Finca Canet Estate is located in the San Marcos town of the Tarrazu region, which is also Costa Rica's highest altitude area with the most intensive fruit cultivation. While Finca Canet primarily grows passion fruit, it has a specific area dedicated to coffee cultivation with special care. The estate is owned by the Robles brothers—Leo, Elian, and Melvin—who also share a small processing plant.

They have introduced the Musician Series products, consisting of four different beans, each using different varieties to showcase unique characteristics. The naming convention for this series of coffee beans stems from the Finca Canet estate manager's deep passion for classical music. When tasting a coffee bean, they associate the characteristics of musicians similar to the bean's qualities, thus creating names such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin. Currently, FrontStreet Coffee offers both the Frontsteet Mozart and Frontsteet Bach coffee beans.

F1 Variety

F1 is the result of coffee variety breeding programs. Unlike specific varieties, F1 does not refer to a single cultivar but rather a type or collection of coffee varieties. In 1970, when coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), the main pathogen affecting coffee trees, swept across the American continent, a new variety breeding program was launched to combat this coffee disease. This initiative was jointly launched by the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD) and the Central American Coffee Organization (ROMECAFE), with assistance from the American Agricultural Research Institute (IIAC) and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica. Through hybrid cultivation, they developed new generation coffee varieties that are high-yielding, disease-resistant, and possess excellent flavor profiles.

From hundreds of coffee varieties, CATIE selected Caturra, Catuai, Catimor, Sarchimor (a hybrid of Villa Sarchi and Timor), and an ancient African wild variety Rume Sudan. Using manual pollination, they extracted pollen from T5296 (a descendant of Sarchimor) and applied it to the stigmas of Rume Sudan. After five years of effort, CATIE harvested 100 different new generation varieties and selected 20 with superior performance for propagation and cultivation. These first-generation F1 varieties not only possess stronger disease resistance and drought tolerance but also offer higher yields and excellent flavor characteristics. However, F1 varieties have drawbacks in mass production, as hybrid vigor begins to decline in the second generation. Therefore, most F1 varieties cannot be propagated through conventional plant self-pollination but instead require repeated manual pollination or cloning methods to produce new batches of F1 plants, which is one reason why these coffee varieties are commonly referred to as F1.

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rican Musician Series Bach Coffee Bean

• Region: Tarrazu Region
• Estate/Processing Plant: Finca Canet
• Altitude: 1900 meters
• Variety: F1
• Processing Method: Raisin Honey Process
• Flavor Profile: Fermentation Aroma, Rose Floral Notes, Blueberry, Cream, Caramel

The Frontsteet Costa Rican Bach coffee obtained by FrontStreet Coffee uses the raisin honey processing method, which results in more intense fermentation aromas and richer, fuller flavor layers. FrontStreet Coffee uses V60 with a 1:15 ratio and 92°C water temperature for brewing. You'll notice mature berry-like fermentation aromas and rose floral notes, with blueberry-like sweet and sour flavors upon entry, a creamy smooth texture, and caramel-like aftertaste.

Important Notice :

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