Costa Rican coffee beans introduce characteristics, flavor description, origin information

Professional barista communication, please pay attention to coffee workshop (Weixin Official Accounts cafe_style )

About Costa Rican Coffee Beans (Central America)

Tarrazu, Costa Rica is one of the world's largest coffee producing regions, located in the central valley of Costa Rica, south of the country's capital San Jose, where there is a very rich alpine volcanic soil. Tarrazu is one of Costa Rica's four premium coffee growing regions, the other three being Tres Rios, Heredia and Alajuela.

The coffee produced in Tarazu is light and pure in flavor, with bright acidity and citrus or berry aromas. Coffee produced in this area is highly rated in the international coffee market. At Tarrazu there is a hard-to-find gluttonous coffee bean, La Minita Tarrazu, which produces coffee in limited quantities, about 72,600 kilograms (160,000 pounds) per year, grown on land called La Minita, owned by the last three generations of the McAlpine family in England. The reason it's so popular is that Tara Zulamata is grown without artificial fertilizers or pesticides, and is harvested and picked separately by hand (to avoid some of the damage done to the beans by air-jet sorting).

Yellow honey, red honey, black honey treatment, where is the difference?

When you buy honey-treated coffee, you usually have yellow, red, or black honey to choose from, and you may have heard about how much of the pectin layer is retained in each of these honey treatments, and what does that mean?

Coffee farmers will sort coffee, some will retain less pectin layer, which allows faster exposure, others will retain more pectin layer, which requires longer exposure. Yellow honey (approximately 25% pectin layer retained) must be carried out in an environment with minimal shade (clouds, shade trees) to achieve a yellow appearance in order to complete the process faster. Red honey (which retains about 50% of the pectin layer) takes longer and requires some shade to expose. Black honey (retaining approximately 100% of the pectin layer) is usually covered to prolong exposure.

Yellow honey, red honey, black honey treated coffee (from left to right)

Yellow honey & red honey & black honey which is better?

Black honey may be better, honey processing flavor will bring more subtle and deep influence because of the residual sugar in pectin layer, the more pectin layer residue, the more intense flavor. (This is the view of the author of this article. Coffee seedlings believe that each treatment has its own unique flavor, which varies from person to person.)

However, coffee producers must face another commercial consideration: although the benefits of black honey treatment are to produce better quality and better price coffee, the risks and costs are also greatly increased, which may affect farmers 'willingness to use black honey treatment. The longer coffee is exposed to the sun, the more bacteria will breed during fermentation, resulting in defective moldy beans. The beans need to be turned more frequently and take up to twice as much exposure space as yellow honey. Not just to make high-quality coffee, but also to make coffee farmers produce the best coffee.

Costa Coffee

Full-bodied particles, ideal acidity, unique and intense aroma.

Tarrazu, Costa Rica, is one of the world's leading coffee producers, producing coffee with a light, pure flavor and pleasant aroma. Costa Rica's volcanic soils are fertile and well drained, making it the first country in Central America to grow coffee and bananas for commercial value. Coffee and bananas are the country's main exports. Coffee was introduced to Costa Rica from Cuba in 1729, and today its coffee industry is one of the most organized in the world, producing up to 1700 kilograms per hectare. Costa Rica has a population of 3.5 million, but coffee trees number 400 million, and coffee exports account for 25% of the country's total exports. Costa Rica also benefits from the Turrialba of the Central American Agricultural Research Institute (IAAC), an important international research centre, based in Tarazu.

High-quality Costa Rican coffee is known as "extra-hard" and can be grown at altitudes above 1500 meters. Altitude has always been a problem for coffee growers. Coffee beans are better at higher altitudes, not only because higher altitudes increase the acidity of coffee beans and thus enhance flavor, but also because lower night temperatures at higher altitudes cause trees to grow slowly, thus making coffee beans more flavorful. In addition, due to the high altitude drop caused by sufficient rainfall, the growth of coffee trees is also very favorable. However, while there are many advantages to growing coffee at higher altitudes, the additional transportation costs associated with it must be taken into account, which may well make coffee production unprofitable. Costa Rican coffee has adopted new technologies to increase efficiency, including the use of "electric eyes" to select beans and identify beans of irregular size.

Tarasu is located south of the country's capital, San José, and is one of the country's most prized coffee plantations. La Minita Tarrazu coffee is locally famous but produced in limited quantities, about 72600 kilograms per year, grown on land called La Minita, owned by the last three generations of the McAlpine family in England. In fact, the land produces more than 450 tons of coffee per year. But Tarasulamita coffee is grown without artificial fertilizers or pesticides, and is harvested and picked entirely by hand, in order to avoid some of the damage done to the beans by air-jet sorting.

Other coffees worth mentioning are Juan Vinas (PR), H.Tournon, Windmill (SHB), Monte bello and Santa Rosa. Fine coffee is grown in Geredia and the Central Valley. Another striking coffee is Sarchi (one of the five towns that represent Costa Rica's "coffee route"), which grows on the slopes of Poas Volcano, 53 kilometers from San Jose. Saatchi was founded in 1949 and has 30770 hectares of land to grow sugar cane and coffee. The area is also known for its handicrafts, attracting tourists from all over the world.

Located in San Isidro de Heredia in Costa Rica's volcanically fertile Central Valley, Zamora Estate is the winner of the 2012 Costa Rica C.O.E. Coffee Competition. Farm by Rodr? Owned by the Carlos Carballo family, they have been involved in coffee production since 1880. This coffee has a complex flavor with floral and ripe juicy fruit notes and a very clean taste.

Laminieta is a world-class manor, in the eyes of some coffee circles and barrista, she is a king class, because last year's WBC champion, Danish Klaus Thomsen used Laminieta as the main espresso formula, but also used as a creative drink structure flavor, this year in Tokyo, there are still contestants to use.

Starting this year, McAlpin family, with "La Minita" as the common quality control label for all raw beans of the group, all raw beans exported by the group are marked on the seam of the sack car, the following is the newly arrived La Minta and the label:

The McAlpin family started La Minita in 1967, so to speak. When discussing boutique coffee estates, it is inevitable to mention "La Minita"! In recent years, SCAA and SCAE cup test courses, lecturers almost every time in the list of taste or fine beans, will mention La Minita, and La Minita not only sold in Europe for more than 50 years but also enjoyed a high reputation in the American market!

La Minita has been known for 7 main features over the years:

[1] Superior geographical conditions and microclimate: Tarrazu is the most famous growing area in Costa Rica, but Laminita has two rivers, Tarrazu River and Alubre River. These two rivers converge in the mountains to the west of the estate, which can fully regulate the temperature. The advantage of facing west of the estate makes the farm not too cold in the morning and not too fast in the evening. The rainfall distribution is very good. There is moderate rainfall from flowering to fruiting period. Moisture, good clay layer provides sufficient nutrients, The average altitude of 4000 to 6000 feet makes the beans hard enough to be sweet!

Why is honey processing popular with coffee farmers?

Honey processing started in Costa Rica when some people saw that this process could keep their coffee beans up, and it's now a process that's getting stronger.

So why did Costa Rican coffee farmers plan to treat it with honey in the first place? When coffee farmers want to increase the quality or price of their coffee, they have three options: change the species of coffee, change the elevation at which they grow it, or change the treatment. Just as most people brew coffee in a simpler way, adjusting the grind and powder levels before adjusting the water, pressure and temperature of the coffee machine, most coffee farmers want to change the treatment before they consider planting new trees or relocating their farms, which requires time and money.

Honey treatment is time-consuming and exquisite

The honey treatment method can be difficult, and the treatment takes a long time and must be handled carefully. What steps does honey processing involve?

First, coffee farmers pick ripe cherries from coffee trees and sift them out of the outer pulp, as mentioned above, to retain the pectin layer around the beans. The pectin layer retains a high proportion of sugars and acids, which are key to honey processing.

The following steps are the most complex and delicate part of honey treatment: exposure. The time point must be well mastered, the length of time is the key, if the exposure time is too short, the pectin layer cannot be converted into coffee beans, and the time cannot be too long, the action must be fast to avoid internal fermentation of beans and moldy beans.

So how do you strike a balance? Put the beans on a sun rack or concrete floor and turn them several times per hour for the first few days until they reach the desired moisture content, a step that usually takes 6-10 hours. After 6-8 days, turn at least once a day. Time consuming, huh? The reason why the honey-treated sun is so time-consuming is that each night the beans absorb moisture from the air, so that they need to spend more time in the sun the next day.

When the coffee is fully exposed, it is almost ready for drying and roasting, just like any other treatment.

Honey treated coffee is being exposed to the sun on concrete floors

Costa Rica Finca Tres Milagros

Camilo, owner of Casa Santo Ario, is mentioned in the fine coffee circle and most people agree that because of his unusual passion for coffee cultivation and his innovative spirit, he has been the partner of many top Barista companies around the world for many years. In 2013, the Facusse family, which has long operated a food sales company Dinant in Costa Rica, decided to use Camilo's successful experience in planting estates in Colombia to start a new estate project in Costa Rica and named it Three Miracles Estate. The name comes from Camilo's belief that all successful estates absolutely have these three factors working together and cooperating with each other. These three factors are coffee trees, farmers and land.

Location was the most decisive factor in deciding to start the Costa Rican estate project, and after a long process of discussion and land evaluation, Tarrazu, Costa Rica's highest producing area, was chosen. The estate is located in an area with an altitude of 1,450 - 1,750 meters and a soil of volcanic ash from Irazu, which provides sufficient nutrients for coffee trees. At the same time, Camilo also requires the estate to maintain a low density of coffee tree planting area, which is more conducive to the absorption and growth of coffee tree nutrients, and has a higher promotion for cup taste. At present, the planting area of Three Miracles Manor is about 120 hectares, and the annual top micro-batch yield is only about 300 bags. In addition, the hardware equipment of the estate is mainly planned according to four key points:

The first is to use the Green House System to provide better humidity, temperature and ventilation of green coffee beans during the sun drying stage.

The second is the Intercrop system, which provides diversity to the farm ecosystem by planting different plants and also helps farmers control the farm ecology.

The third is Shade Grown System, most of the trees in the estate are Inga species combined with some other local trees, so that the coffee trees grow in a perfect shade environment to protect the growth of coffee trees.

The fourth is to choose the right coffee varieties. Camilo decided to adopt traditional coffee varieties with low yield but better flavor at the beginning of plantation. Besides Bourbon and Geisha, F1 is a new variety developed by CIRAD in Costa Rica in recent years. F1 is a mixture of Villa Sarchi+Sachimor and Sudan Rume. In addition to the traditional flavor of Villa Sarchi in Central America, it also has the citrus flavor of African variety Sudan Rume.

Three Wonders Bourbon Honey Three Wonders Manor Bourbon Honey Finca Tres Milagros Bourbon Honey

Country: Costa Rica

■ Production area: Dota, Tarrazu

■ Altitude: 1450-1750 m

■ Treatment method: honey treatment

■ Level: SHB

■ Breed: Bourbon

■ Flavor description: stone fruit, syrup, brown sugar, honey

Three Miracles F1 Day Three Miracles Manor F1 Sunburn Finca Tres Milagros F1 Natural

Country: Costa Rica

■ Production area: Dota, Tarrazu

■ Altitude: 1450-1750 m

■ Treatment method: sun exposure

■ Level: SHB

■ Variety: F1

■ Flavor description: peach, fruit juice, cranberry juice, good cleanliness

Three Miracles F1 Honey Three Miracles Manor F1 Honey Finca Tres Milagros F1 Honey

Country: Costa Rica

■ Production area: Dota, Tarrazu

■ altitude: 1450-1750 m

■ treatment: honey treatment

■ level: SHB

■ variety: F1

■ flavor description: syrup, apricot, grape, apple juice, smoky aftertaste

Three miracles geisha day three miracles manor geisha sun Finca Tres Milagros Geisha Natural

■ country: Costa Rica

■ producing area: Dota, Tarrazu

■ altitude: 1450-1750 m

■ treatment: insolation

■ level: SHB

■ breed: geisha

■ flavor description: citrus peel, orange, clean, sweet

Three Wonders Manor Bourbon washes Finca Tres Milagros Bourbon Washed

■ country: Costa Rica

■ producing area: Dota (multi-tower), Tarrazu (Tarazhu)

■ altitude: 1450-1750 m

■ treatment: washing

■ level: SHB

■ variety: bourbon

■ flavor description: the first light floral, drupe, chocolate, hazelnut, citrus, herb aromas in Costa Rica and good quality coffee (Juan Vinas,PR); Hain (H.Tournon); Windmill,SHB (Windmill,SHB); Montebello (Monte bellow); Santa Rosa (Santa Rosa) FJO Saatchi (FJO Sarchi) Note: excellent Costa Rican coffee beans are called "extra hard beans", and their classification criteria are:

Special hard bean SHB (Strictly Hard Beans) is above 1200 meters (3900 feet) above sea level.

Good hard bean GHB (Good hard Beans) 1200m above sea level (3900 m / m)

Zhongying bean MHB (Medium Hard Beans) is 500m (3300 ft) above sea level.

Sweet flower fragrance

Why is honey treatment so beautiful?

When honey treatment is so difficult and time-consuming, you may wonder if it's really worth it.

There's no doubt it's worth it.

Honey-treated coffee generally has a great balance of sweetness and acidity, and the flavor is generally not as strong as the coffee in the sun, but it is more fresh and mellow, so why not?

The key to this flavor difference comes from the sugar and acid content of the pectin layer. During exposure, the sugar in the pectin layer becomes more and more concentrated, and these sugars soak into the coffee beans.

So what does honey treatment mean to you?

Bean baker: the key to honey treatment is to keep the consistency of taste and flavor.

The challenge that bean bakers often face is how to make the formula beans, or to maintain a certain formula flavor as much as possible. This means that it is necessary to understand not only honey treatment, but also other treatments in order to be helpful for mixed beans. You can swap beans more accurately, create new recipes, and narrow the flavor options you fill when replacing beans.

However, it is still based on the region, treatment, planting altitude and other conditions, there are many different variables and changes. Don't buy the final coffee blindly just because it's honey-processed coffee. It may have a great sweet, sour and fruity finish, but it's not always the same.

Barista: the knowledge of coffee is valuable

Baristas make coffee for everyone every day, and knowing how to grow, process, harvest and bake coffee from scratch will be of great help to baristas to make coffee with a better flavor, so that you can make a good taste that you have never tasted before. Each cup of coffee is unique, a coffee shop contains rich chocolate and caramel-flavored formula beans, before mixing, its single product may be highly sweet and low-sour tanned Ethiopian coffee.

Know yourself and the enemy, and absorb all kinds of knowledge with the heart of seeking knowledge, not only for yourself, but also for consumers. If you can tell consumers why tanned Ethiopian coffee is much sweeter than the Indonesian Sumatra coffee they drank last week, consumers will be willing to come back to your coffee shop. People are curious, and when they think the baristas around him know what they want, they will come back to the store.

The country's coffee industry, originally controlled by the Costa Rican coffee industry company Instituto del Caf é de Costa Rica (ICAFE), has been taken over by the official Coffee Committee (Oficina del Caf é). Among the exported coffee, those products that are considered to be of substandard quality are colored with blue vegetable dyes and then transferred back to China for sale. Coffee consumed domestically (dyed blue or undyed) accounts for about 10% of total production, and local per capita coffee consumption is twice that of Italy or the United States.

Costa Rica Honey Process

If you like coffee that is as light and sweet as tea, with a slightly floral, lemon and nutty flavor like melon, honey beans from Costa Rica in Central America may be to your taste. The so-called honey treatment, refers to the first use of a pulper to remove the outer skin of coffee cherry fruit, and then will take? Pectin raw beans with shells are placed on the scaffolding for sun exposure. This water-saving treatment can make the coffee taste sweeter.

The following picture shows the rivers and spectacular waterfalls in the manor area:

[2] selected varieties: there are Caturra, Catuai red, Catuai yellow and Hibrido (i.e. hybird) in the manor. After cup quality test and statistical screening, Caturra and a small amount of old Hibrido are the main ones at present.

[3] strict quality control (1) under the system of rotation and tree replacement, all coffee trees are harvested for five years, that is, the trees with only 50% Michael must be cut down in the fifth year after four years of harvest to rest and wait for harvest when they grow up! There are a total of 1.5 million trees in the farm, with an average of 350000 trees being cut down every year. In addition to planting rotation, we have to change trees! Each coffee tree is harvested for only 15 years, and it is replaced 15 years later to ensure its quality. 150000 coffee trees are replaced each year and shade trees are planted around the coffee trees to plant them.

[4] the procedure of the wet treatment field is very strict and the drying machine is used after the treatment.

The following picture shows an aerial view of the wet treatment plant and some of its equipment.

[5] the elimination rate of raw beans is more than 70%, that is, less than 29% of raw beans can be sold as La Minita manor beans.

[6] in the final selection stage of raw beans, it takes 30, 000 man-hours to select carefully, and only qualified ones can be marked with La Minita.

The manual screening of the following figure is the final stage.

[7] use your heart! For example, Harvesting, Pruning and processing are all handled very carefully; in the harvest period, Raminita's coffee trees are harvested in five batches on average, because only the most ripe cherry fruits are picked, while batch harvesting requires a great deal of labor and patience. Pruning is rotational planting, a system that ensures that the land is not too barren and ensures that the quality of raw beans can be maintained at its peak without the use of chemical fertilizers; processing refers to the treatment of coffee fruits after harvest, and in 2001, La Minita had its own wet treatment plant, with the aim of maintaining consistent quality.

The picture shows the manor manager introducing the coffee tree and the process of planting and pruning, with La Minita beans being bagged on the other side:

This year La Minita's spices are sweet and berries are still the same! And the clean and changeable flavor generally maintains the usual elegant demeanor, especially this year more Tokyo WBC competition contestants use as formula beans, each shows her magic power, and presents her charming and diverse flavor, this is Raminita!

The following is the cup test report of 2007 la Minita: (Oshe M0 baking degree, Japanese Fuji 1kg bean baking machine, 11 minutes pot)

Country: Costa Rica: Tarazu Manor: Raminita La Minita

Harvest time: February 2007

Variety: caturra, old hibrido treatment: washing fermentation, the latter stage of the first sun and then low-temperature drying

Grade: SHB appearance / defects: green 0d/350g

Dry aroma: similar to elegant perfume, alpine tea, sweet candy, sour berries and apples, grapes, clean and elegant aromas

Wet fragrance: a variety of berries, caramel, cream, flowers, slightly spicy aromas

Sipping: raspberry lime sour, caramel, good grease, elegant apple, melon, tea, grapefruit sour and sweet, clean aftertaste and unique spice sweetness, the aftertaste is not tight and delicious.

Selling price

Bulk discount price (description)

Tarazhu Diamond Mountain, Costa Rica-Costa Rica Tarrazu SHB Montanas del Diamante Estate

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Lianjie Coffee, which specializes in the import and sale of raw beans of coffee from various countries, in the quotation in April, a new Diamond Hill Manor in Taragu, Costa Rica, marked that it was planted in a mountain of extremely hard beans at an altitude of 1800 meters. Although it was packed in linen bags, it had a number of plastic inner bags (GrainPro Bag). The quality should be at a certain level and the price was approachable. Let's take a look at a small package of 5 kilograms.

At the same time, the data of Costa Rican Diamond Hill searched on the Internet are as follows:

ORIGIN: Costa Rica

REGION: Tarrazu

SUBREGION: Dota Valley

PRODUCER: Montanas Del Diamante Estate/Gutierrez Family

PLANT SPECIES: Arabica

PROCESSING METHOD: Washed

PROCESSING DESCRIPTION: The coffee is fully washed and patio dried.

WET MILL NAME: Montanas del Diamante Mill

COFFEE GRADE: SHB EP

SCREEN SIZE: 15 Up

GROWING ALTITUDE: 1750-1850m

ANNUAL RAINFALL (MM): 250

SOIL TYPE: Volcanic

PLANT VARIETAL (S): Red Catuai

TYPES: Estate Coffees, Grain Pro / Ecotact

It is also mentioned on another website that most of the varieties grown here are Red Catuai, a hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo. The granules of this batch of raw beans are not large, about 15 mesh. I wonder if they are the characteristics of this variety.

This time it was not very shallow, and the baking degree was about 3 minutes before it was allowed to come down, so the overall acidity is much milder, and the aroma is not very prominent, which can be smelled from raw beans, but the cleanliness of the taste is quite satisfactory, and the supple citrus is sour, which should be acceptable to even friends who don't drink sour coffee very much. The sweetness and cocoa taste of the latter part of the black molasses lasted for a long time before dissipating in the mouth.

In recent years, Costa Rica has not let everyone down, and the Cmax P value has left Guatemala far behind. Whether it is made into a single product or put into a comprehensive formula, it is a good choice.

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Contact: 02-23583032

Lianjie Coffee, Costa Rica, Tara Pearl producing area, Diamond Villa, Costa Rica Tarrazu, Montanas del Diamante Estate, Coffee beans, Raw beans, Linking Coffee, Costa Rican Diamond Hills

Have you ever wondered what coffee honey treatment is? (this article only discusses the treatment of red honey) is there any coffee that tastes better than other treatments you are used to drinking?

This article takes you to explore what honey treatment is, what are the characteristics of honey treatment, and what is the different significance of honey treatment for baristas and bakers.

Why is it called honey treatment?

There are three main ways to treat coffee: sun exposure, water washing and honey treatment. The sun drying method is to directly expose the coffee cherries before removing the shell and pectin layer; the water washing method is to screen the coffee pulp before exposure and ferment to remove the pectin layer; the honey treatment law is between the sun method and the water washing method: the pectin layer is directly retained and exposed after the coffee pulp is screened.

Then you will ask where is Mi?

The word honey treatment makes many people think that coffee is treated with honey, or that coffee tastes as sweet as honey, but in fact it is not either of these two explanations. The meaning of honey treatment comes from the sticky pectin layer of coffee beans before exposure, which feels as sticky as honey; when the coffee pulp is separated from the coffee beans, the outer coated pectin layer is exposed to absorb moisture in the air and make the pectin layer sticky.

When the coffee is screened, the pectin layer will remain on the outside of the coffee bean.