Costa Rican coffee thoughts:
For a coffee-producing country, it was surprisingly hard to find a good cup of coffee in Costa Rica. Good coffee is absolutely available, but it seemed like using fresh roasted beans was not as standard as I would’ve hoped. When I found it, though, the espresso from said beans was excellent.
We stayed at a very nice place in the Monte Verde cloud forest area—Hotel Belmar. The operation is run truly farm-to-table, and the food was fantastic. One day, we took a tour of their organic, “sustainable” farm, which was really a family trip highlight. It included seeing their coffee fields, where they use “shade grown” type methods with interplantings amongst the coffee shrubs.
The biodiverse farm is pollinator-friendly, like for these tiny stingless honey bees.
Here is Finca Madre Tierra’s (the farm of note) coffee drying table in the off season.
They make a good dry process coffee. I brought home some from them for myself and to gift, along with a few other varieties I came across. I think Costa Rican coffee is an under-the-radar high performer. Good stuff, properly roasted and brewed.
For a coffee-producing country, it was surprisingly hard to find a good cup of coffee in Costa Rica. Good coffee is absolutely available, but it seemed like using fresh roasted beans was not as standard as I would’ve hoped. When I found it, though, the espresso from said beans was excellent.
We stayed at a very nice place in the Monte Verde cloud forest area—Hotel Belmar. The operation is run truly farm-to-table, and the food was fantastic. One day, we took a tour of their organic, “sustainable” farm, which was really a family trip highlight. It included seeing their coffee fields, where they use “shade grown” type methods with interplantings amongst the coffee shrubs.
The biodiverse farm is pollinator-friendly, like for these tiny stingless honey bees.
Here is Finca Madre Tierra’s (the farm of note) coffee drying table in the off season.
They make a good dry process coffee. I brought home some from them for myself and to gift, along with a few other varieties I came across. I think Costa Rican coffee is an under-the-radar high performer. Good stuff, properly roasted and brewed.
I used to drink sweet desserty coffee, too. I figured out that there are actually coffees out there that have all those flavors and more without adding anything to it, it’s a trip, but what I first came to love in coffee is far from what I like now.
