Characteristics of Costa Rican Coffee Beans - Premium Coffee Flavors

FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican beans are full-bodied, with ideal acidity and a unique, intense aroma.

Tarrazú in Costa Rica is one of the world's major coffee-growing regions, where the coffee has a light, pure flavor and a pleasant aroma. Costa Rica's volcanic soil is extremely fertile and well-drained, making it the first country in Central America to grow coffee and bananas commercially. Coffee and bananas are the country's main exports. Coffee was introduced to Costa Rica from Cuba in 1729, and today its coffee industry is among the best organized in the world, with yields reaching up to 1,700 kilograms per hectare. Costa Rica has a population of only 3.5 million but more than 400 million coffee trees, and coffee exports account for 25% of the country's total export value. Costa Rica also benefits from the Central American Agricultural Research Institute (IAAC) in Turrialba, Tarrazú, an important international research center.

Costa Rican Coffee Origins

High-quality Costa Rican coffee is known as "Strictly Hard Bean" (SHB), which can grow above 1,500 meters. Altitude has always been a challenge for growers. The higher the altitude, the better the beans — not only because higher elevations increase the beans' acidity and thereby enhance flavor, but also because the cooler nights slow the trees' growth, concentrating the coffee's flavor. The elevation differences at high altitude also create abundant rainfall, which benefits the trees greatly. For all the advantages of growing high, though, the extra transport costs have to be weighed, and they can make coffee production unprofitable. Costa Rica's coffee industry has adopted new technologies to raise efficiency, including "electric eyes" to sort beans and identify irregularly sized ones.

Tarrazú lies south of the capital, San José, and is one of the country's most prized coffee-growing areas. The coffee from "La Minita Tarrazú" is a local specialty, but production is limited to approximately 72,600 kilograms a year. It is grown on land called "La Minita," owned by the British McAlpine family for the last three generations. In fact, this land could produce more than 450 tons of coffee a year, but La Minita Tarrazú is grown without artificial fertilizers or pesticides, and its harvesting and selection are done entirely by hand — partly to avoid the damage that air-jet sorting can cause to the beans.

Other notable coffees include Juan Viñas (PR), H. Tournon, Windmill (SHB), Monte Bello, and Santa Rosa. Premium coffee generally grows in Heredia and the Central Valley. Another remarkable coffee is Sarchí (Sarchí is one of the five towns on Costa Rica's "Coffee Route"), grown on the slopes of Poás Volcano, 53 kilometers from San José. The Sarchí company was founded in 1949 with a land area of 30,770 hectares, growing sugarcane and coffee. The region is also famous for its handicrafts, drawing tourists from around the world.

The country's coffee industry was originally controlled by the Instituto del Café de Costa Rica (ICAFE) and has since been taken over by the Oficina del Café. Among exported coffees, those judged unqualified are dyed with a blue plant coloring before being returned for domestic sale. Coffee consumed domestically (dyed blue or not) accounts for roughly 10% of total production, and local per-capita coffee consumption is twice that of Italy or the United States.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Costa Rica's clean, bright, fruit-forward character sits alongside some of the world's finest light-roast floral and fruity coffees — and FrontStreet carries several well worth exploring. FrontStreet's Yirgacheffe Gedeb is many drinkers' first step into specialty coffee, with lively citrus, berry, and floral notes and a green-tea-like sweetness; its acidity is soft and bright, more like the natural tang of fruit than a sharp bite, making it easy to love.

For a tropical-fruit explosion, FrontStreet's Ethiopia Huakui is one of the most successful stars of the specialty market in recent years: strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, and even lychee leap from the cup, with clear sweetness, very low bitterness, and a smooth, juicy body — often called "the coffee that doesn't taste like coffee." For a juicy, complex cup, FrontStreet's Kenya Cherry Tomato comes from Kenya's Thika region at 1,550-1,750 meters, using SL28 and SL34 varieties and the classic 72-hour double washed process with a light roast to preserve its vivid acidity — cherry tomato and smoked plum up front, snow pear and black plum mid-palate, and a clean, long finish of brown-sugar sweetness and faint green-tea aroma. And for something truly rare, FrontStreet's Ethiopia Kaffa Forest beans come from the UNESCO-listed Kaffa Biosphere Reserve, arabica's original homeland, at 1,400-2,100 meters, bringing deep jasmine, citrus, and wild-berry aromas with delicate, vivid layers.