We went to Costa Rica in mid-January and fortunate to start our tour with a visit to Espiritu Santo in Naranjo on our way from San Jose to Arenal. The tour was superb. Karen was our tour guide. The coffee plants at plantation grounds were at the end of the harvest season as they are not in the mountains – but there were still plenty of cherries to see on the plants. Many of the shade trees were in bloom as harvest time is the best time for them to be free of leaves. Finally, coffee plantations also make for excellent bird watching. Many of the species that inhabit the rainforest canopy will also be seen on plantations. Some highlights of the plantation were – Karen showed us a Caturra cultivar – as a guide should, she asked if we could tell what was special about it and I got that correct – cherries ripen yellow. I also picked a peaberry – and that is where I learned that peaberries can come from all the varietals. The grounds also contain quite nice gardens. We briefly toured the coffee cherry processing stations – they were drying some of the hulled cherries. For me the highlight was at the roasting facility. They have three very large roasters at the site. A Diedreich CR-25 is for the higher end products. The drum roasters turn the coffee at a moderate rate. The roasters can see the beans change color in a small porthole in the roaster and they get the usual audible clues about the roast – near the end the take a small sample from a port on the front and place it in the cooling tray. They do this every few seconds and then open the hatch. The roast completion is a very visual process. And this is pretty much exactly how I do it at home. The head roaster made us an espresso (1 oz coffee, 1oz water) to test a new blend. It was pretty harsh at that strength as the roast was not that dark. So after watching this I showed them some pictures (on an iPhone) that I have of my roasting process. (Those pictures are shown below.) I use a metal drum inside an outdoor gas grill. The drum is mounted on a rotisserie attachment for the rotation. The head roaster looked quite intently at my pictures. He noted that they were peaberries, which of course was correct. He looked at the final product and gave me thumbs up. He was a bit puzzled by one of the pictures where I had used flash and the beans looked a little red-brown rather than brown-black. He also commented on the fact that the beans had a bit of the hull stuck to the ridge in the center of the bean. He remarked that this was a sign of a good quality bean – that was something else new for me, but not really a surprise given Sweet Maria’s sources. The tour ended with more coffee tasting and a gift shop. But it was a way above average gift shop. There were many nice local crafts in addition to the usual gift and coffee items.
Of course that is not the only coffee story from Costa Rica. We also visited Manuel Antonio. This is the home of Cafe Milagro. They are a small roaster. They offer a tour through Finca Rosa Blanca – which I did not take, but looks very interesting. In Manuel Antonio they run a superb restaurant called El Patio. At the restaurant there is also a gift corner. Again – way above average in selection and price. They also sell all the coffees that they roast at the restaurant.
Finally, I need to talk about the ubiquitous Coffee Britt. The best news is that you do not need to go out of your way to experience them. They have a huge shop at the airport. They had an excellent selection of coffees to taste and a knowledgeable person at the tasting station. Plenty of stuff to buy as well.
So what about the tasting? If you are in Costa Rica and they are serving Cafe Britt, you are likely getting one of the darker roasts. Darkly roasted Costa RIcan coffee is super smooth, richly flavored and has low acid. On the other hand, it is not all that complex. Certainly delicious - but you can not drink it for the rest of your life. I purchased the special 40th anniversary blend from Cafe Naranjo (Espiritu Santo) and the Britt Heritage blend. I got the espresso blend from Cafe Milagro as well.
Charles Jacobs