Coffee culture: Costa Rican Coffee Types

With so many roasts and varieties of gourmet coffee available online today, buying gourmet coffee can be an experience all on it's own. In fact, the average consumer will likely have heard that Costa Rican gourmet coffee is reported to be an excellent choice. Only a few online gourmet coffee roast buyers begin to explore the many types of roasted highland gourmet coffees from Costa Rica.

Did you know that the tiny republic of Costa Rica received its first gourmet coffee seedlings from Cuba in 1779, and it had no idea that gourmet coffee would become so vital to its economy. Currently the ninth largest gourmet coffee producer in the world, Costa Rican gourmet coffee is renowned for its exceptional high quality.

We harvests, selects and processes some of the finest gourmet coffee from Costa Rica. Espresso, dark roast, medium roast, light roast and organic are all available to you at this online coffee shop. We have become experts in the roasting, packaging, exporting and marketing of gourmet coffee roasts world wide. Our gourmet coffee roasts fits into the niche coffee market that defines the finest Arabica gourmet coffee in the world. Not by chance, is it a happy circumstance that our location lies in the highland farms.

Gourmet coffee from different regions of Costa Rica is known to express distinct flavor characteristics. Coffee gourmet roasted coffees have bright acidity which brings zest and sparkle. Unblended, it is frankly delicious; few gourmet coffees can boast such a rich, delicious flavor along with full body, and a variegated aroma with hints of so many notes. Costa Rica has been blessed with the high altitude, moderate climate, abundant rainfall and volcanic soils that produce some of the world's finest Arabica gourmet coffees.

Here we include a few important coffee facts to make a more tasteful and tasty choice when making your gourmet coffee roast selection about gourmet coffee quality. Predominantly grown around the capital of San Jose, Costa Rican gourmet coffee:

• The type of coffee. There are only two species of coffee, Arabica coffee and Robusta coffee. Arabica is the only true gourmet coffee, of which older varieties such as Bourbon have been proven by time to posses the best flavor characteristics. Arabica is the only gourmet coffee cultivated by law in Costa Rica. Also known as Tipica Arabica, the Bourbon coffee bush, besides producing a coffee which is superior in flavor, has a longer productive life - from 15-20 years, versus 7-9 years for newer hybrid varieties.

• The altitude and region where the gourmet coffee was grown makes a big difference in the gourmet coffee flavor in your cup. The higher-grown the coffee, the better. This is due to the fact that Arabica gourmet coffee, the only species which encompasses gourmet coffees, will only grow at a higher altitude. Gourmet coffee is classified by it's relative density - the denser the finer. The higher-grown it is, the denser it is. The relative density is denoted by a system of names which groups coffee as follows, and whose categories are delimited by the altitude at which the coffee grows: Fantasy, Strictly Hard Bean, HardBean, Semi-HardBean, etc. Different regions have different flavor characteristics, due to factors as diverse as rainfall, climate, and type of soil. Costa Rica has been blessed with so many microclimates that it has many recognized flavor regions.