Costa Rican coffee producers

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.

Costa Rican coffee production:

High-quality Costa Rican coffee is known as "extra hard beans" 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.

Tarasu, located south of the country's capital, San Jose, is one of the most prized coffee growing areas in the country. La Minita Tarrazu coffee is locally famous but produced in limited quantities, grown on land called La Minita, owned by the last three generations of the McAlpine family in Britain.

Other coffees worth mentioning include Juan Vinas (PR), H.Tournon, Windmill (SHB), Montebello and Santa Rosa. Fine coffee is grown in Heredia and the Central Valley. Another coffee is Sarchi (one of 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.

Costa Rican Coffee:

Tarrazu in Costa Rica is one of the world's leading coffee producers, producing coffee with a light, pure flavor and pleasant aroma.

Flavor: Excellent, smooth, strong acidity, high grade, with attractive aroma

Recommended baking method: medium, can also be deep baking

★★★: Excellent

Costa Rican coffee market:

Coffee exports account for 25 per cent of Costa Rica's total exports. Costa Rica also benefits from the Turrialba of the Central American Agricultural Research Institute (IAAC), established in Tarazu, which is an important international research centre.

Costa Rica's coffee industry, formerly controlled by Instituto del Cafe de Costa Rica (ICAFE), has been taken over by the Official Coffee Council (Oficina del Cafe). Among coffee exports, those deemed substandard are colored with blue vegetable dye before being recycled for domestic sale. Coffee consumed domestically (dyed blue or undyed) accounts for about 10 per cent of total production, and per capita coffee consumption is twice that of Italy or the United States.

Moreover, while Costa Rica has many advantages in growing coffee at higher altitudes, it must be taken into account the additional transportation costs that result, 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.