Costa Rican Coffee Production at a Glance
The Americas
Costa Rica 
In 1989, Costa Rica passed a famous law that prohibited the planting of low-quality Robusta beans.
The goal was to force the entire country to focus exclusively on specialty Arabica.
While that law was recently relaxed to allow for some Robusta research, the “Quality First” mindset is baked into the culture.
Costa Rica is where the Micro-Mill Revolution started—farmers began processing their own small batches rather than selling to massive industrial co-ops.
Variety: Arabica and Robusta
Growing
Region:
Yunnan, Pu’er, Baoshan
Processing
Method:
Washed – Natural
Flavour Profile:
Floral, Citrus
Harvest Season:
November – February
Acidity:
Medium
Body:
Medium
World Production Ranking
14
Production per Year
1.4 million0
60 grm Bags
World Production Share
0.8%
Altitude
1000m – 1800m
Climate
Subtropical Highland
Costa Rica: The Boutique Origin
The only country in the world that made low-quality coffee illegal — and where the honey process was born
1989 – Year Robusta was banned by law
100% – Arabica — quality enforced by legislation
Micro – Mill revolution started here
History
Quality by decree: the law that defined a nation’s coffee
To understand Costa Rica’s place in the coffee world, it helps to start with a comparison.
Côte d’Ivoire — covered elsewhere in this series — is the archetypal volume producer: vast quantities of hardy Robusta grown at low altitude, destined almost entirely for commercial blends and instant coffee. Costa Rica is, in almost every respect, its opposite.
In 1989, Costa Rica passed legislation that made the country unique in the history of coffee: it became illegal to plant Robusta.
The law wasn’t an accident or a bureaucratic quirk — it was a deliberate, government-level commitment to quality over volume, forcing every farmer in the country to focus exclusively on specialty-grade Arabica.
No other coffee-producing nation has ever gone this far.
The law was recently relaxed slightly to allow limited Robusta research in response to climate change concerns — a pragmatic acknowledgement that higher temperatures are making some traditional Arabica-growing areas increasingly difficult.
But the cultural legacy of that 1989 legislation runs deep.
The “quality first” mindset it established is baked into how Costa Rican farmers, processors, and exporters think about coffee at every level.
That same spirit gave birth to the Micro-Mill Revolution — one of the most significant shifts in specialty coffee processing of the past two decades.
Rather than selling their freshly harvested cherries to large centralised cooperatives for bulk processing, Costa Rican farmers began investing in their own small-scale mills, processing their own lots with complete control over fermentation times, mucilage levels, and drying conditions. The result was an explosion of experimental, high-quality processing — and the honey process as the world now knows it.
Processing
The honey process kings
If you’ve picked up a bag of expensive specialty coffee and seen “Honey Process” on the label, there’s a strong chance its roots trace back to Costa Rica.
While the technique has since spread to Thailand (covered in this series) and beyond, Costa Rica is where it was pioneered and perfected, and where it remains most deeply embedded in the farming culture.
The name has nothing to do with bees or added sweeteners.
It refers to the mucilage — the sticky, honey-like layer of fruit pulp that clings to the bean after the outer skin of the cherry has been removed.
Rather than washing it all away (as in a fully washed coffee) or leaving the whole fruit intact (as in a natural), honey processing deliberately leaves a controlled amount of that mucilage on the bean during drying.
That decision — how much to leave — determines the honey’s “colour” and the flavour profile in the cup.
Yellow honey – Less mucilage retained. Cleaner, brighter, closer to a washed profile.
Red honey – More mucilage. Richer sweetness, fuller body, deeper stone fruit
Black honey – Maximum mucilage. Most complex — intense dark fruit, wine-like depth
Costa Rica’s micro-mill farmers control the honey level with extraordinary precision — adjusting the exact percentage of mucilage left on each lot to target specific flavour outcomes.
This level of processing intentionality is what separates boutique Costa Rican coffee from mass-produced alternatives.
Varieties
Caturra, Catuai and the F1 frontier
Costa Rica’s two most widely grown varieties — Caturra and Catuai — are both compact, high-yielding Arabica cultivars well suited to the country’s mountainous terrain.
Caturra, a natural mutation of Bourbon, produces a clean, bright cup with good acidity.
Catuai, a hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo, is hardier and more productive, making it the workhorse of Costa Rican coffee farming.
But the more exciting development is at the experimental end of the spectrum.
Costa Rica has become one of the leading testing grounds for F1 hybrid varieties — a new generation of coffee plants bred specifically to combine the cup quality of traditional Arabica with resistance to climate change, disease, and the increasingly unpredictable weather patterns affecting highland growing regions.
These hybrids are still being refined and evaluated, but they represent the cutting edge of coffee agronomy and a potential roadmap for the future of specialty Arabica worldwide.
Flavour profile
What to expect in the cup: bright and sunny
Costa Rican coffee is the connoisseur’s choice — vibrant, clean, and built around a sparkling acidity that feels bright rather than sour.
This is a coffee that rewards attention and repays the quality of its processing with a cup that is genuinely pleasurable to analyse as well as to drink.
Apricot
Brown sugar
Honey sweetness
Citrus brightness
Stone fruit
Sparkling acidity
The honey process gives Costa Rican coffee its signature sweetness — that brown sugar and apricot quality that sits underneath the brighter citrus notes.
The acidity is clean and sparkling rather than sharp or aggressive, making this an unusually approachable bright coffee even for drinkers who usually shy away from high-acidity origins.
Tasting note
Look for the honey sweetness as your guide to quality.
A well-processed Costa Rican lot should have a clean, almost confectionery sweetness in the finish — brown sugar or ripe apricot rather than anything jammy or fermented.
If the sweetness is absent and the brightness feels sharp, the lot was likely under-ripe at harvest or under-processed.
The best Costa Rican coffees feel simultaneously bright and sweet — a balance that’s harder to achieve than it sounds.
Brewing
How to brew it
Costa Rican coffee’s natural fruit notes and honey sweetness are best served by clean, paper-filtered brewing that preserves clarity without stripping the delicate sweetness that defines this origin.
Recommended method: V60 pour over
The V60 is the ideal method for Costa Rican coffee — its paper filter removes heavier oils while leaving the delicate fruit notes and honey sweetness fully intact.
Use water at 93°C, a medium grind, and a 1:16 ratio.
Bloom for 30 seconds, then pour in slow, steady stages over 3 minutes.
The resulting cup should be bright, clean, and noticeably sweet on the finish.
Also excellent: flash-chilled iced coffee
Costa Rica’s natural citrus and apricot notes make it one of the best origins for flash-chilled iced coffee — a method where hot, freshly brewed coffee is poured directly over a full glass of ice, chilling it instantly rather than slowly cooling it in the fridge.
The rapid temperature drop locks in the volatile aromatic compounds that make hot Costa Rican coffee so vivid, producing an iced cup that is bright, sweet, and entirely free of the flat, stale quality that plagues batch-brewed iced coffee.
Brew at double strength (1:8 ratio) to compensate for the ice dilution.
Decoding the “Honey”
“In Costa Rica, you’ll see ‘White, Yellow, Red, and Black Honey’ labels. This refers to how much fruit was left on the bean. White Honey is washed clean (crisp/acidic), while Black Honey leaves almost all the fruit on (heavy/sweet). For The Coffee Guide reader, this is the ultimate way to see how processing—not just the bean itself—changes the flavor in your cup.”
The ‘Boutique Origin’s’ commitment to the 1989 Arabica law has set a gold standard for purity. Learn more about how Costa Rica’s laws differ from other producers in The Coffee Belt.
