Does coffee beans grow on trees in Costa Rica's Tarrazú region?

Yes, coffee beans grow on trees, and Costa Rica's Beethoven coffee comes from trees at Finca Canet in the Tarrazú region. The beans are the Catuai variety, washed processed and given a medium-light roast, producing lively red berry and citrus-like sweet acidity with a clean mouthfeel and floral finish.

Costa Rican law permits only Arabica varieties to be planted, so Robusta farming there is illegal, which helps explain the emphasis on cup quality. The country's volcanoes leave mineral-rich, well-drained soil, and the coffee belt runs in a narrow strip through five main regions, including Tarrazú, Central Valley and Brunca.

On the Front Street Coffee bean list, there is a Costa Rican coffee named "Beethoven," produced at Finca Canet in the Tarrazú region, using traditional washed processing and a medium-light roast to present lively red berry and citrus-like sweet acidity. This article will walk you through the regional advantages of Costa Rican coffee, the characteristics of the Catuai variety, the musician-naming heritage of Finca Canet, and the washed process and pour-over parameters of this Beethoven coffee bean. From terroir to the cup, this is a complete analysis of a specialty coffee that combines a clean mouthfeel with a floral finish, ideal reading for coffee lovers who enjoy bright acidity and elegant layers.

When it comes to Romantic classical music, Beethoven is undoubtedly the most resounding name. On the Front Street Coffee bean list, there happens to be a Costa Rican coffee also called "Beethoven." It comes from Finca Canet, is processed by the washed method, and after brewing gives off a delightful aroma and an elegant sweet-tartness, as if you could hear the brisk, nimble melodies beneath that composer's fingers.

Costa Rica Tarrazú Region

Costa Rica lies in Central and South America, bordering Panama, the country famous for Geisha. At the same time, it is influenced by both the Pacific and Atlantic ocean currents and monsoons, creating exceptionally favorable microclimatic conditions, and together with its diverse topography, this makes it an ideal place for coffee trees to grow.

Although Costa Rica does not rank especially high in terms of coffee production volume, its many volcanoes give the land fertile, mineral-rich soil with excellent drainage, allowing crops to receive ample rainfall and nutrients, so the fruit they bear is naturally of superior quality. It is worth mentioning that Costa Rican law explicitly stipulates that no coffee varieties other than Arabica may be planted within the country; in other words, growing Robusta there is illegal, which shows just how much importance is placed on coffee quality.

On a map, Costa Rica's territory is long and narrow, and its coffee-growing belt is correspondingly distributed in a long, narrow strip through 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 them, Tarrazú is the largest and most famous, and the Costa Rican everyday-drinking beans on the Front Street list come from there. Tarrazú is located south of the capital, San José, and is one of the most closely watched coffee-growing areas locally. This region has high-altitude conditions of 1,200 to 1,700 meters; the cool climate, together with nutrient-rich volcanic ash soil, gives the coffee rich acidity and a rounded body. As the specialty coffee wave has advanced, producers have continued to innovate in processing methods, and Tarrazú coffee has thus built up an excellent industry reputation.

Similar to many Central and South American producing regions, the coffee varieties grown in Costa Rica are mainly common ones such as Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai, and the Beethoven coffee bean uses Catuai. Catuai is a variety bred by artificially crossing Caturra with Mundo Novo. It inherits Mundo Novo's characteristics of high yield, strong disease resistance, and excellent cup performance, while also inheriting Caturra's traits of a small plant, fine acidity, and suitability for natural processing. Because the tree is relatively small, it can be planted at double density. Catuai coffee beans are oval and flat, with a relatively slender tail, and in flavor they have soft acidity, a clean mouthfeel, and rich fruity aromas.

Finca Canet

Finca Canet is run jointly by a family of three brothers, and most of the coffee beans it produces use honey processing. To date, it has accumulated more than ten years of coffee production experience. The estate mainly grows fruit crops such as passion fruit, while the coffee trees are concentrated in specific areas under unified management. Every December, when the coffee cherries ripen, the estate owners organize picking and send the cherries to a small, self-built wet mill (Beneficio) nearby for processing. The owners of Finca Canet are all devoted to classical music and admire Romanticism, so the coffee beans produced by the estate are all named after musicians, such as Mozart, Bach, Chopin, and the protagonist of this article, Beethoven. The estate owners continue to study variety selection and post-processing; high-quality beans paired with raisin honey processing at different levels of mucilage often yield good sweetness, body, and thickness, with a ripe-fruit flavor reminiscent of banana, and with the names of these musicians, they are naturally even easier to remember.

Washed Processing

Unlike the other three in the musician series, the Beethoven coffee bean is the only batch using traditional washed processing, showing coffee's truest aroma. The washed method proceeds as follows: first, the selected coffee cherries are sent into a depulper to remove the skin and pulp initially; then the parchment coffee still carrying mucilage is immersed in water and fermented for about 18 to 36 hours; after fermentation is complete, the parchment beans are placed in a flowing water channel to be washed, removing residual pulp and mucilage; after washing, they are spread out to dry until the moisture content drops to around 12%, and finally the parchment is removed. Front Street believes that washed beans are cleaner and brighter in mouthfeel, with more lively acidity.

In terms of roasting, in order to retain more fruit acidity and floral aroma, Front Street set this bean as a medium-light roast. When cupping the Beethoven coffee, Front Street sensed the sweet-tartness of red berries and a citrus-like brisk, lively acidity. As the temperature gradually dropped, the juicy quality of the red berries gradually emerged, and the finish carried a hint of almond aroma.

Pour-over Reference

Dripper: V60

Water temperature: 91℃

Dose: 15 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: 80% passing a No. 20 standard sieve

For brewing, the baristas at FrontStreet Coffee habitually use a three-stage pour: in the first stage, pour 30 grams of water and bloom for 30 seconds; then pour 95 grams (showing about 125 grams on the scale), finishing in about 1 minute; when the water level drops to two-thirds of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100 grams (showing about 225 grams on the scale), finishing in about 1 minute 35 seconds. Dripping ends at 2 minutes 10 seconds; remove the dripper and extraction is complete.

Brewed flavor of the Beethoven coffee bean: the overall mouthfeel is clean and the aroma is rich; on entry there is a strawberry-juice-like sweet-tartness, and the lively citrus-like acidity dances in the mouth like brisk, leaping notes, while the floral and almond-like finish puts a perfect end to this movement.

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