Ready to Explore Costa Rican Coffee Quality?

Mountains, rivers, volcanos, sandy beaches, clear blue water, and exuberant wildlife is what you think when some say Costa Rica, right? We have among the most diverse terrain, climate, and ecosystems in an area of the size of ecosystems in an area of 12th the size of Alberta. Our economic income relies mostly on tourism (you bet!), the microchip industry, and agriculture production. Coffee is the third most important agricultural product.

Our focus in coffee production is primarily on quality, given that our volume represents only 1% of the total global production. This industry marked the country's first venture into exports and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the initial oligarchic society (we will delve deeper into how the gap between producers and exporters was created in Costa Rica shortly)

From 'Meh' to 'Marry Me': Coffee quality in Costa Rica

Have you ever noticed how there are some wines that are so fancy you could practically get married to them, while others are just plain terrible? Well, the same is true for coffee - it's all about the specialty stuff these days.

In coffee, when it comes to quality, there are a ton of different factors that come into play, like the absence of defects in the beans, the flavor profile, and variety. Most of these quality attributes are actually tied to the landscape where the beans were grown - aspects such as the country of origin, soil specifications, the weather of the region, and one of the most important factors: altitude(in case you missed it, why does coffee altitude matter?).Pretty cool, huh?

The Specialty Coffee Association defines specialty coffee as one that has a rating of at least 80 on a 100-point scale (Commercial coffee, or the ones you can find at any supermarket will point less than 80 points). To get this, as minimum coffee needs to be carefully harvested, as unripe and overripe beans, and beans damaged by diseases or by poor handling removed (Get to know how we process your coffee).

Traceable Beans, Transparent Brews: crucial in coffee quality

This idea has changed how consumers and producers look at coffee landscapes. The National Coffee Institute along with the Government has been creating long protocols and rules to export coffee. This means a lot of paperwork for us (a pain in the ass sometimes). But at the same time, it pays off since this ensures every coffee that goes out of the country can be traced down to regions (sometimes even farmers), preparation, process type, and elevation.

In our case, these are the specifications we fall into: Strictly Hard Bean (SHB), meaning that the beans have been grown above 1,200 masl (this is the highest quality category in our country), in the Tarrazú Coffee Region, one out of eight coffee regions in the country, European Preparation (EP), which means the coffee has been sorted to remove defective beans or foreign material, and honey process. 

Ou Catuaí Honey Process drying in our sun-beds

From Beans to Bucks: How Quality Assurance Transformed Our Coffee Game

Ensuring quality protocols as a coffee-producing country has led to winning crazy prices in the specialty coffee market. One of our neighbors (literately, we share the same road and neighborhood) won $300 per pound in a private auction, considering that the C price is around $1.9 per pound, this difference was huge! Of course, not every producer gets this price, but it’s been enough to change our coffee production paradigm. 

The search for experimentation and enhancing exotic flavors inside the cup has become a huge deal inside the industry. The different flavor profiles are associated with specific regions, weather, soil characteristics, agricultural practices, varieties, and processes. Producers are creating now specific fermentation processes to increase traits on the cup flavor, as well as linking agricultural practices and soil characteristics to cup quality. Every producer has the chance to present its unique coffee since every farm will have different agroecological factors.

"Where beans are sourced from farms instead of countries, roasting is about bringing out rather than incinerating the unique characteristics of each bean, and the flavor is clean and hard and pure"

Our goal with our coffee is to offer you our unique flavor profile by harvesting and sourcing the best coffee we produce on our farm. Some say you can taste strawberries, green apples, honey, and chocolate, but further than that, what you’ll taste is the essence of our land, our farm, and its unique conditions.