Where Do Costa Rica Coffee Beans Come From and Why Are They Sweet?

Costa Rican coffee is known for honey-like sweetness, and most specialty lots come from Tarrazú, a region south of the capital San José. Costa Rica was the first Central American country to plant coffee, and its volcanic soil, especially in the Central Plateau at 1,200 to 1,600 meters, gives beans chocolate notes, bright fruit acidity, and an elegant aroma.

Honey processing leaves part of the mucilage on the bean during drying, which deepens sweetness and body, and the raisin honey method is a good example. A Geisha blend grown in Tarrazú, like the Strawberry Candy lot, shows both floral and berry character. Harvest there runs from November to March, and Costa Rica has eight coffee regions in total.

Costa Rican coffee is deeply favored by coffee lovers for its honey-like sweetness, and the Tarrazu region in particular is a flagship of specialty coffee. From the perspective of Front Street Coffee, this article systematically introduces Costa Rica's growing regions and the terroir characteristics of Tarrazu, with a focused analysis of the estate background, variety composition, and raisin honey processing method behind Front Street Strawberry Candy · Geisha Blend coffee beans, giving you a full picture of this pour-over gem that boasts prominent sweetness along with both floral and berry notes.

Coffee produced in Costa Rica has always been unforgettable to many coffee lovers for its honey-like sweetness. Guests often come to Front Street asking the baristas whether there is a pour-over coffee that tastes sweet, and at that point the Front Street baristas will bring out beans from Costa Rican regions and explain them one by one. Why is Costa Rican coffee said to be sweet as honey? In this article, Front Street will introduce you to Front Street's Costa Rican coffee beans.

Costa Rican Growing Regions Costa Rica is located in Central America and was the first country in the region where coffee was introduced and cultivation began, giving it a very long history. The local volcanic soil is fertile with good drainage, especially in the Central Plateau, which sits at an altitude of 1,200 to 1,600 meters, has a harvest period from November to March, and encompasses three sub-regions: San José, Heredia, and Alajuela. Within this area are three high-altitude volcanoes—Irazu, Barva, and Poas—which provide abundant nutrients to the surrounding coffee. The superior microclimate combined with the fertile soil of two volcanoes gives the beans in this area outstanding quality, such as chocolate and cocoa notes, bright fruit acidity, and elegant aroma.

Costa Rica has eight major coffee regions in total: Valle Central Occidental, Valle Central, Tarrazu, Tres Rios, Orosi, Brunca, and Turrialba. Most of Costa Rica's specialty coffee comes from the Tarrazu region.

Tarrazu is located south of the capital San José and is one of the country's most valued coffee-growing areas. "La Minita Tarrazu" is a local specialty, but its output is limited—about 72,600 kilograms per year—grown on a plot of land called "La Minita," which has been owned by the British McAlpine family for the last three generations and includes the LaMinita estate in the Tarrazu region with an annual output of only 160,000 pounds. In fact, this land can produce more than 450 tons of coffee each year. However, no artificial fertilizers or insecticides are used in the cultivation of Tarrazu La Minita coffee, and both harvesting and sorting are done entirely by hand, in order to avoid the air-jet sorting method causing some degree of damage to the coffee beans.

Costa Rican coffee has always been known for its balanced flavor, rich chocolate notes, and smooth mouthfeel. Tarrazu is located south of the capital San Jose and is one of Costa Rica's most valued coffee-growing areas. Front Street believes that Tarrazu coffee beans are plump, with a rich body, a smooth mouthfeel, intense chocolate and nut aromas, moderate acidity, and an alluring fragrance. The Representative of Costa Rican Coffee — Front Street Strawberry Candy · Geisha Blend Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica Estate: Mirazu Estate Altitude: 1700m Processing Method: Raisin Honey Processing Varieties: Geisha, ET47, SL28, MAICO

Costa Rica Mirazu Estate Mirazu Estate is very small, and the entire estate is managed by Esteban and his family together. Esteban Sanches was originally a member of the family at the neighboring Little Candle Estate, and out of his dedication to coffee beans, he established Mirazu Estate on his own; the small wet-processing machines at the processing station were designed and assembled by Sanches himself.

In the coffee plantation, Sanches said that the quality of coffee starts with the trees themselves. Although machines can separate the good from the bad, if everything grown is of good quality, there is no need for machines to distinguish superior beans from inferior ones. He also said that God gave us a beautiful environment, and we take care of the coffee beans with love—this is giving back and sharing. He is grateful for everyone's help, which has allowed him to fulfill his dream, and he is also willing to share his own experience and results with other farmers so that everyone's coffee dreams can come true. Coffee Bean Varieties

Front Street Coffee's Costa Rica Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend purchased this time is composed of 50% Geisha coffee beans and 50% a mix of ET47, SL28, and MAICO. These are all grown on the same estate and then blended from single-region coffee beans.

It is worth mentioning that among the ET47 and SL28 varieties, ET47 is a native Ethiopian variety. In the 1990s, the Costa Rican Coffee Institute gave many of these, introduced as research trees for leaf rust resistance, to farmers in the Tarrazu region for cultivation. The original goal of breeding SL28 was to mass-produce coffee beans that combined high quality with resistance to pests and diseases, while in some regions the main breeding goal was high yield without considering disease resistance. Thanks to its Bourbon genes, although SL28's yield later fell short of expectations, its bronze leaf color and fava-bean-shaped beans have excellent sweetness, balance, and complex, ever-changing flavors, along with distinctive citrus and smoked plum characteristics.

This Front Street Costa Rica Strawberry Candy bean is a Geisha blend—can it still be considered a single-origin coffee bean? Front Street believes the answer is definitely yes. All the coffee varieties in this Front Street Costa Rica Strawberry Candy coffee bean come from Mirazu Estate and belong to the same single origin, so it is a single-origin coffee bean. Why do we say this? Front Street will give an example: Ethiopian coffee varieties are numerous and complex, and the local coffee trees are basically planted mixed together and then harvested mixed together, which is also why Ethiopian coffee beans vary in size. As long as the coffee beans are grown within the same region, whether single-variety or mixed-variety, they all count as single-origin coffee beans. Coffee beans like those from Ethiopia are equivalent to natural blending, while this Front Street Costa Rica Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend is equivalent to post-blending.

Coffee Bean Processing Method

The raisin honey processing method retains 100% of the mucilage and uses a zero-water process. This increases the difficulty of the honey processing method, requiring strict control of timing. On the day the coffee cherries are harvested, the harvested coffee fruit is poured into a large water tank; ripe, plump fruit sinks to the bottom, while underdeveloped or overripe fruit floats to the surface, and these floating beans need to be removed. The selected coffee fruit is placed on raised beds to dry for at least three days, then the cherry skin is removed, and after the mucilage is retained, it is dried again.

At this stage, climate is the key factor for successful honey processing. During drying, these coffee cherries must be turned constantly to ensure even drying, but the frequency of turning must be well controlled, and drying must be slow to ensure the coffee undergoes fermentation without being so slow that over-fermentation occurs. Front Street believes that this very sweet raisin honey processing method can give the coffee a white wine-like mouthfeel and balanced acidity, with a relatively intense fermented aroma.

The Geisha variety coffee beans provide this Front Street Strawberry Candy with jasmine aroma, while the other varieties give this coffee richer strawberry and berry flavors, and the raisin honey processing method enhances the sweetness of this coffee. To highlight the floral aroma and fermented sweetness of this Front Street Strawberry Candy coffee bean, Front Street's roaster used a medium-light roast for this Front Street Costa Rica Geisha Blend coffee bean.

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