How Do Coffee Bean Trees Shape Canet Beethoven Coffee?

Beethoven is a washed Yellow Catuai from Finca Canet in Costa Rica's Tarrazú region, grown at roughly 1,900 meters, the only washed lot in the estate's Musician Series alongside Mozart, Bach, and Chopin. The cup shows clean, bright acidity with red berries and citrus, and an almond note in the aftertaste.

Finca Canet sits in Tarrazú's highest-altitude zone, run by three brother families with over ten years of production experience; most of its lots use honey processing, while coffee bean trees are managed in designated plots and cherries are picked each December. Front Street Coffee documented the roast curve and staged extraction for reference.

At Finca Canet in Costa Rica's Tarrazú region, there is a series of coffee beans named after classical musicians, and Beethoven is one of them. Unlike Mozart, Bach, and Chopin, Beethoven is the only batch in the Musician Series that uses traditional washed processing; the variety is Yellow Catuai, grown at an altitude of about 1,900 meters. This bean presents a clean and bright acidity, lively flavors of red berries and citrus, with an almond aroma in the aftertaste. Front Street Coffee has fully documented this bean's performance from roasting to cupping and brewing. This article will walk you through the background of Finca Canet, the characteristics of washed processing, the varietal advantages of Yellow Catuai, as well as Front Street's roasting curve and staged extraction method, offering coffee lovers a detailed tasting reference.

Beethoven coffee comes from Finca Canet in Costa Rica. Because the estate owner has a particular passion for classical music, all the coffee beans produced here are named after musicians, and over time they came to be collectively known as the "Musician Series." In addition to Beethoven, the series also includes Mozart, Bach, and Chopin, which together showcase gorgeous fruit tones and elegant aromatic notes, making the series instantly memorable.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) — Costa Rica Musician Series · Beethoven

Region: Costa Rica, Tarrazú

Estate: Finca Canet

Processing Method: Washed

Variety: Yellow Catuai

Altitude: 1900m

Finca Canet

This estate is located in the highest-altitude zone within Costa Rica's Tarrazú region, an area that is also the country's most densely planted fruit-growing region. Tarrazú is one of Costa Rica's most important coffee-producing regions, with the highest average latitude and excellent climatic conditions, fertile soil, and good drainage. With these outstanding conditions, Tarrazú is recognized as Costa Rica's finest major coffee region and has long received considerable praise and recognition.

Finca Canet is jointly run by three brother families, and most of the coffee beans it produces use honey processing; the estate has accumulated over ten years of coffee production experience to date. The estate mainly grows fruits such as passion fruit, while the coffee trees are managed in designated plots. Every December when the coffee cherries ripen, the estate owner organizes the picking of coffee cherries and transports them to a small on-site wet mill (Beneficio) nearby for processing. The owners of Finca Canet are all obsessed with classical music and embrace Romanticism, so the coffee beans produced by the estate are all named after musicians. The estate owner continues to delve into coffee variety selection and post-processing methods. High-quality coffee beans combined with raisin honey processing at different pectin levels produce coffees that mostly possess good sweetness, body, and thickness, with a ripe fruit flavor reminiscent of bananas. Combined with the borrowed fame of these musicians' names, they are naturally all the more memorable.

Unlike the other three in the Musician Series, Beethoven coffee beans are the only batch that uses traditional washed processing, presenting the purest aroma of the coffee itself.

The washed processing method proceeds as follows: first, the sorted coffee cherries are fed into a depulper to initially remove the skin and pulp; next, the green coffee beans with residual pulp and mucilage are immersed in water and allowed to ferment for about 18 to 36 hours; after fermentation is complete, the green coffee beans still in parchment are placed in a flowing water channel to be washed, removing residual pulp and mucilage; after washing, they are dried in the sun until the moisture content drops to about 12%, and finally the parchment is removed from the green coffee beans. Front Street believes that washed beans have a relatively clean and bright mouthfeel, and their acidity is more lively as well.

The Beethoven coffee beans that Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) sourced use the Yellow Catuai variety. Catuai is a hybrid of Mundo Novo and Caturra. Like Red Catuai, Yellow Catuai has extremely high disease resistance and is suitable for planting at high altitudes. High yield, strong disease resistance, tolerance of direct sunlight, and a delicate, clean acidity are the variety's greatest characteristics.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Roasting Recommendations

Front Street's roaster believes that the Beethoven bean is relatively dense, so a medium-light roast level was chosen, which preserves the bright acidity while showcasing the bean's fruit tones and enhancing richness and balance. Preheat the drum to 170°C before charging, adjust the gas to 120, open the damper to 3, with a turning point at 1'36", and maintain the gas;

At 140°C, keep the gas unchanged and open the damper to 4. At 5'55" the beans turn yellow, the grassy smell disappears, and the dehydration stage begins. At 151°C, lower the gas to 100 and keep the damper at 4. At 176°C, adjust the gas to 85 and keep the damper unchanged. At 8'15" dehydration is complete, wrinkles and dark patches appear on the bean surface, and the toasty bread aroma turns into coffee aroma — this is the prelude to first crack, so listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'01" first crack begins; open the damper fully to 5 and keep the gas unchanged. Post-first-crack development time is 1'45", and the beans are dropped at 193°C.

For the freshly roasted Beethoven coffee beans, Front Street first conducts a cupping to see how this musician's flavors and mouthfeel perform. Through cupping the Beethoven coffee, Front Street perceives the sweet-tartness of red berries and a lively, nimble citrus-like acidity. As it gradually cools, the juicy quality of red berries slowly emerges, and the aftertaste carries a faint hint of almond aroma. When Front Street tasted this coffee, it brought to mind Beethoven's Romantic-period compositions, much like Beethoven's early creative period, which was predominantly Romantic in style. After grinding, the coffee beans have a strawberry-like aroma, and during brewing you can sense floral notes along with the sweet-tartness of grapes.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Cupping Report

Dry Aroma: Strawberry

Wet Aroma: Citrus, white florals

Flavor: White florals, citrus, strawberry, ripe berries, almond

Front Street's Brewing Recommendations

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 91°C

Dose: 15g

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Medium-fine (80% passing through a No. 20 standard sieve)

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Staged Extraction Method: First, use 30g of water to fully saturate the coffee bed into a "hamburger" shape and bloom for 30s, then proceed to the second pour. For the second pour, Front Street uses a steady, medium-fine stream of water in circular motions, pouring up to 125g at the 55s mark on the timer, then stopping to wait until the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed before pouring the third stage. For the third pour, Front Street continues with a steady, medium-fine stream, pouring up to 225g at 1'45" on the timer, and after the coffee liquid has fully dripped through, the total extraction time is 1'59".

Beethoven coffee bean brewing flavor: The overall mouthfeel is clean with a rich aroma. On the palate, the sweet-tartness of strawberry juice and the lively citrus-like acidity are like nimble, spirited musical notes dancing in the mouth, while the floral and almond-like aftertaste bring a perfect embellishment to this chapter of the music.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.