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Costa Rican Coffee

Costa Rica is coffee to its very core. Upon gaining independence from Spain in 1821, the new nation’s government doled out plots of land to its citizens in a bid to get coffee cultivation up and running. It’s fair to say they were on to something. The money made from coffee had a major hand in modernising the country and Costa Rica wouldn’t be the place it is today without the coffee bean.

When you buy Costa Rican coffee beans from the UK, you’re taking part in a trading relationship of impressively long standing. The country’s crop has been landing on our shores since the mid nineteenth century, with the first shipment arriving in 1843 courtesy of enterprising Guernsey sea captain William Le Lacheur.

Not to cast aspersions on the good captain, but a word on ethical sourcing. Our Costa Rica single origin comes courtesy of the Coope Tarrazu cooperative. The collective takes its name from the Tarrazú region, one of Costa Rica’s coffee hotspots, which accounts for some forty percent of the country’s entire output. Tarrazú is renowned for its ‘micro-zones’ – high-altitude little spots nestling up to 1900 metres above sea level, where everything the arabica shrub desires is abundant.

Try jute Costa Rican coffee beans and you’ll be tasting the arabica plant’s sheer contentment. Once we’ve hand-roasted them in Northamptonshire, they’re ready to burst into brews with heady notes of raisin, persimmon and pear. If you can’t get hold of a chorreador – the traditional Costa Rican drip filter that resembles Ebeneezer Scrooge’s sleeping cap trussed up to a wooden frame – try V60 or Chemex®.