From Ground to Grande: Costa Rica Coffee

By Katie Hale

Any die-hard coffee drinker will tell you that first cup of Joe in the morning is essential to start the day off on the right foot. For the true coffee connoisseur, no watered-down cup of grab-and-go java from the corner store will do.

Finding that perfect blend is no easy task. That’s why many consumers compromise, leaving it up to mega-corporations like Starbucks to deliver their daily caffeine buzz. These middlemen offer freshly brewed espresso intended to lure the coffee junkie in, and they keep them coming back with trendy, exotically titled coffee blends, warm scones, and Norah Jones melodies that play seductively in the background.

You won’t find Starbucks in Costa Rica … at least not yet. Central and South America produce more coffee than any other area of the world, but it is Costa Rica in particular that has set the standard for coffee production.

Coffee was introduced to Costa Rica in 1808 from Cuba. In 1821 the government started giving out free coffee plants and ensured that families who produced coffee would live a tax-free life. Juan Mora Fernández was elected the country’s first head of state in 1824. He encouraged the cultivation of coffee with land grants for growers. These land owners saw rapid wealth, creating a new class of Costa Rican elite. The rest of the 19th century saw a dramatic rise in coffee exports and overnight, Costa Rica changed from a fledging third world country, to a more successful and dominant nation due to its coffee cash crop. In 1843, the first coffee export to Britain was shipped. Soon after, the U.K. heavily invested in the trade, becoming its main buyer until World War II.

Costa Rica is an ideal place to cultivate coffee because of its land and climate. Its volcanic-rich soil, high altitude, afternoon sun, plentiful rain, and cool evenings together create perfect conditions for yielding beans that are rich and intense in flavor. The most famous coffees types by region are Tarrazú, Tres Rios, Herediá, and Alajuela. The Tres Rios region near the Pacific Coast produces coffees that are mild, sweet, and bright. The Tarrazú region, which is located in the mountains of Costa Rica, produces a complex, heavier coffee. A “classic” Costa Rican coffee is clean, balanced, and strong.

Unlike many coffees, Costa Rican coffees are generally identified either by the estate or farm (finca) on which they were grown, or by cooperative or processing facility (beneficio) where they were processed. This information, which is often available to the importer, is seldom passed on to the consumer, except in the case of well-known estates like Bella Vista or La Minita. Hacienda La Minita cultivates the most sought after coffee in all of Costa Rica, thanks to clever marketing and product quality.

Coffee harvesting in Costa Rica is mainly dependent on the cheap labor of Nicaraguan immigrants, who make around $12 a day picking coffee cherries. After the cherries are picked, they are transported to the beneficios, where they undergo washing, drying, removal of the skin, and sorting.

There is nothing like the aroma of fresh coffee—whether it be from fields of growing coffee plants or brewing espresso. When you return home from Costa Rica, and find yourself standing in line for five minutes for that macchiato, it will definitely seem worth the wait, since you now know it that it takes six years for a coffee shrub to bear fruit. But even if your ordered blend is harvested from Costa Rican mountain-sides, there is no doubt; you will miss the authentic flavor only available back in the paradise nation itself.