Coffee Tips

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

Did you know that the tiny republic of Costa Rica received its first coffee seedlings from Cuba in 1779?, and it had no idea that coffee would become so vital to its economy.  Currently the ninth largest coffee producer in the world, Costa Rican coffee is renowned for its exceptional high quality.
Here we include a few important coffee facts to make a more tasteful and tasty choice when making your coffee roast selection about coffee quality:

• The type of coffee. There are only two species of coffee, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is the only true gourmet coffee, of which older varieties such as Bourbon have been proven by time to posses the best flavour characteristics. Arabica is the only coffee cultivated by law in Costa Rica.  Also known as Tipica Arabica, the Bourbon coffee bush, besides producing a coffee which is superior in flavour, has a longer productive life - from 15-20 years, versus 7-9 years for newer hybrid varieties. 
• The altitude and region where the coffee was grown makes a big difference in the gourmet coffee flavour in your cup. The higher-grown the coffee, the better. This is due to the fact that Arabica coffee, the only species which encompasses gourmet coffees, will only grow at a higher altitude. 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 flavour 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 flavour regions.
• Blend. Usually, in the interest of greater profit, fine Arabicas are blended with lesser coffees. Not so with Café Montaña. Only 100% Arabica coffee is sold on this web site and grown in Costa Rica. Some other blends have more Robusta than Arabica, resulting in a rotgut brew that upsets the stomach. Robusta is a vigorous plant that produces well close to sea level but won't grow at the higher altitudes. The coffee it produces is generally low in flavour acids and high in caffeine - Robusta naturally contains more caffeine than fine Arabica coffee. So, if you like quality coffee, avoid any blend with Robusta. Sometimes Espresso roasted blends, will contain a percentage of Robusta because it gives a "cream" to the Espresso brew - the frothy white foam on the surface of the cup. However, as a general rule, you should look for an unblended, high-grown, gourmet Arabica coffee. Most people can't believe how delicious coffee like this is when they finally taste it!
• Roast. Coffee can be roasted to almost any degree, from a very light roast to, a medium roast, to a very dark one. The same coffee can change color, from cinnamon through chestnut, chocolate, and on from mocha to ebony, as it is roasted darker and darker. And, the same coffee will have a change in taste according to the roast as it brings out different flavours. European roasts traditionally flavour a darker roast, and Americans prefer lighter roasts. Although this has changed as tastes have changed and evolved in the United States. Darker roasts are a better value for your money, since coffee becomes increasingly voluminous as more moisture is driven off with darker roasting. And, the darker the roast, the less caffeine it contains, as caffeine is destroyed at high heat. However, in spite of these last two points, the flavour of dark roasts, will give you a nice medium roast every time: medium roasting allows for the development of a multitude of flavour notes, whereas a dark roast's flavour is less lively and interesting though it's more intense and lasting.
• Freshness. As soon as coffee is roasted, its volatile oils become vulnerable to oxidizing. Coffee packed in oxygen-proof bags is your best assurance of fresh-roasted quality when you can't roast your own! Also, if you crave that fresh-roasted flavour, try to buy whole bean coffee and grind it just before making your coffee. This step will improve your coffee's flavour. And, as long as the coffee is kept away from direct heat sources, it's not necessary to keep it in the fridge or freezer. Oxygen is much more damaging to the quality of roasted coffee than heat.

There are volumes to be said about how to better enjoy fine gourmet roasted coffees! But the best thing to do if you love coffee is to taste one of Café Montaña´s gourmet Costa Rican varieties of delicious high-grown gourmet 100% Arabica coffees today.