What Makes Black Honey Costa Rica Coffee Beans Distinct?

The Las Piedras estate in Costa Rica's Brunca region sells coffee processed as black honey, the honey grade that leaves all mucilage on the bean during fermentation. That longer fermentation and drying cycle produces elegant winey aromas and deep sweetness, but the lots need constant turning and close supervision because a small lapse can push them into over-fermentation.

The estate sits in southern Costa Rica, named after indigenous stone spheres found nearby, and its varied microclimates suit the Caturra and Catuai varieties planted there. Costa Rica's Pacific and Atlantic breezes, volcanic ash soils and elevations above 2,000 meters let cherries ripen slowly, and the dry season from December to April coincides with harvest. This is a black honey coffee, not any animal-digested bean.

The black honey processed coffee beans from Costa Rica's巨石 Estate are a specialty bean that Front Street Coffee has been selling for a long time. Black honey processing, as the grade of honey processing that retains the most mucilage, has a longer fermentation time and drying cycle, bringing elegant winey aromas and rich sweetness, but if management is even slightly careless, it can easily over-ferment, so labor costs are quite high.巨石 Estate is located in the Brunca region of southern Costa Rica and is named after the nearby unearthed indigenous stone sphere relics, with diverse microclimates. This article will provide a complete analysis of this bean's flavor code and brewing key points, from the estate background, the characteristics of the Caturra and Catuai varieties, the principles of honey processing, Front Street Coffee's roasting curve, and cupping flavors to pour-over parameters.

The Costa Rica巨石 Estate coffee beans that Front Street Coffee has long sold use black honey processing. Choosing this bean is not only because black honey belongs to the highest grade within honey processing—retaining the mucilage completely for fermentation, giving the beans a fascinating faint fermented wine aroma; it is also because its fermentation time and drying cycle are longer than other honey processing grades, and labor costs rise accordingly, requiring constant turning to avoid over-fermentation. It is precisely this rigorous, almost demanding supervisory attitude that creates the excellent flavor experience in the cup. And the estate itself also hides a rather mysterious story...

Costa Rica is located in Central America, where ocean currents and sea breezes from the Pacific and Atlantic jointly regulate the local climate. Several volcanoes with elevations above 2,000 meters stand within its territory. Coffee cherries grow slowly in fertile volcanic ash soil and a cool high-altitude environment, thus developing complete and rich flavors. The country has two seasons in a year: the dry season is roughly from December to April of the following year, which is exactly the coffee harvest period; the wet season continues from May to November. In recent years, micro-processing stations have been established one after another, using only 5% of the water consumed by traditional washed processing plants, and requiring no large fermentation tanks or drying yards, so the investment threshold is much lower. Honey processed coffee, with low acidity, high complexity, and rich sweet aromas, has thus become an object pursued by the coffee world in recent years.

Costa Rica's coffee cultivation history can be traced back two hundred years, first planted on the slopes of Poas and Barva volcanoes, which is today's Central Valley. At present, the country has eight main producing regions: West Valley, Central Valley, Tarrazu, Tres Rios, Orosi, Brunca, Turrialba, and Guanacaste. Tarrazu is one of the important coffee producing areas, with a long history of producing beans. It has won the favor and recognition of the British royal family, and was even praised in a speech by the Pope.

Estate introduction:巨石 Estate is located in the Brunca region of southern Costa Rica. Its mountainous terrain connects with Panama, and it has diverse microclimates. Near the estate, stone carvings made by indigenous people between 200 BC and AD 1500 have been unearthed, known as the secret stone spheres, and the estate is therefore named after the giant stones.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Green Bean Analysis

Caturra: Caturra is a Bourbon variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its productivity and disease resistance are both better than Bourbon, the tree is shorter, making harvesting convenient, and it has strong adaptability, requiring no shade trees, and can thrive even when directly exposed to the bright sun, hence its common name Sun Coffee. Caturra is suitable for planting in areas from low elevations of 700 meters to high elevations of 1,700 meters, with strong altitude adaptability, but the higher the altitude, the better the flavor, while productivity decreases accordingly. This is the fate of specialty beans.

Catuai: Catuai is also an Arabica hybrid variety, crossed from Mundo Novo and Caturra. It has good resistance to natural disasters, especially wind and rain. It inherits the advantage of Caturra's short tree height while correcting the shortcomings of Mundo Novo; another advantage is that the fruit is firmly set and not easily knocked off by strong winds, making up for Arabica fruit's fragile weakness.

Processing method: Honey process, called Honey Process or Miel Process in English. Many people think when they hear "honey process" that it is processed with honey, or that the coffee will have a honey flavor after processing, but this is not the case. The honey process involves removing the pulp and then drying the fruit directly with its parchment. During drying, the moisture in the gelatinous substance on the surface of the seed gradually evaporates and becomes as sticky as honey, hence the name.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Roasting Analysis Roasting Machine Yangjia 800N (batch size 300g)

This bean is a SHB extremely hard bean, with relatively hard bean quality and medium moisture content. The yellowing point is at 5 minutes 25 seconds, and first crack begins at 9 minutes. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) chooses to develop for 2 minutes after first crack before discharging. Charge at 160°C, heat setting 100, airflow opening 3; turning point 1'42", when the temperature is 146°C, open airflow to 4, heat unchanged; when the temperature is 153.6°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage; when the temperature reaches 168°C, adjust heat to 80°C, airflow 4; at 8'09", the bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and dark spots, and the toast aroma clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen clearly for the sound of first crack. First crack starts at 9'00", airflow unchanged, develop for 2 minutes after first crack, discharge at 195.5°C.

Agtron bean color value 66.5, Agtron pink value 77.6, Roast Delta value 11.1.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Cupping Flavor: fermented aroma, fruity aroma, red wine, raisin, strawberry, jackfruit, nut, hazelnut, caramel.

Country: Costa Rica

Estate:巨石 Estate

Grade: SHB

Processing Method: Black Honey Process

Altitude: 1700-1800m

Variety: Caturra, Catuai

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Pour-over Recommendation Dripper: V60 Water Temperature: 90-92°C Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15 Grind Size: Medium-fine grind

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Brewing Method: staged extraction. Use 30g water for blooming for 30 seconds, pour in a small stream in circles until 124g for the stage break, when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed continue pouring until 227g and stop pouring, when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed remove the dripper, (timing starts from the beginning of blooming) extraction time is two minutes.

When Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) brews with the V60 dripper, it smells of obvious fermented aroma and ripe strawberry aroma. It tastes relatively smooth and mellow, with strong juicy feel, and flavors of strawberry, nuts, cream, red wine, and raisin, with a winey aroma in the finish.

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