subject: Introduction To Costa Rican Coffee [print this page] The Costa Rican Coffee is classified under classic cup in the categorization as it has mild taste, and too balanced. It is so ordinary traditional when compared to other types of gourmet coffee. In terms of grades, they fall under the average class, whereby it is well balanced in criteria like taste, aroma, and texture. Nevertheless, they are regarded highly of the strong roasted aroma with the touch of cocoa, and these are the elements that made it shine.
Traditional methods are still used from hand-picking to roasting to preserve the original flavor of the coffee beans. By hand-picking, only matured and beans that fulfill the requirements are harvested to ensure the overall quality of the coffee. Coffee is harvested manually from 250000 acres of coffee plantation. The farms are located near volcanoes as the soil is rich in nutrients and perfect for cultivating coffee.
The wet process implemented by the farmers utilizes water to transfer the beans after they are being pulped at the wet mill. It allows the defective beans or parts to float on the surface, and these beans will be discarded. Next, the beans will be fermented and then washed before it is dried. Coffee that is produced by the wet process usually has milder flavor compared to the ones that are air or machine dried.
In Costa Rica, coffee is planted in small farms and there are low-volume mills in the farms for individual production. Large mills are used to process huge quantity of coffee beans but the quality of the coffee will have to be compromised. Therefore, these smaller mills are used in most of the farms to produce coffee in small quantity with their quality assured. By yielding small amount of coffee, farmers can be fully in charge of their own way of processing and roast the beans to perfect flavor. By turning their homes into small roasting factories, farmers get to venture out and seek for ways to produce coffee with new flavors. Although they are still implementing the traditional way of producing coffee, most of them came out with roasts with different flavors and aromas. Farmers experiment with small amounts of beans in order to yield new products with high quality and freshness.
Costa Rican Coffee is different from coffees like Ethiopian coffee as it is wet-processed. The fruits have distinctive vivid color and the floral smell. Brewed Costa Rican coffee is rich in taste, well balanced and ends with an acidic hint.
