Costa Rica Coffee: Tarrazú, Micromills and the Honey Process
Costa Rica coffee is high-grown Arabica from eight regions, best known for Tarrazú in the mountains south of San José. Small farms and family micromills produce clean, bright cups with citrus and honey sweetness, and Costa Rica helped make the honey process famous.
Costa Rica grew about 1.16 million 60-kg bags of coffee in 2025/26, with 1.2 million forecast for 2026/27, according to the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service. That is a small share of world output, from roughly 25,000 growers, about half as many as a decade ago.
The name is older than the volume suggests. Coffee arrived in the Central Valley in 1779, and Costa Rica was exporting by the 1830s, first via Chile and then directly to Britain from 1843.
The Micromill Revolution
From the early 2000s, families began processing their own cherry in small wet mills, or micromills, instead of delivering it to large mills. That is why Costa Rican lots now often carry a mill or farm name, and why process experiments such as the honey process took off here.
Is Costa Rican Coffee Arabica Only? The Robusta Ban, Corrected
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You'll read that growing Robusta in Costa Rica is illegal.
That was true for decades, and it is still true in practice, but not quite for the reason people think. A decades-old ban on Robusta was suspended by Executive Decree 41110-MAG in May 2018.
Commercial planting still wasn't authorised when La Nación reported on it in September 2024, because ICAFE, Costa Rica's coffee institute, had not yet published the policy the decree requires. For now, Robusta is limited to trials in low-lying areas. More on how Arabica and Robusta differ in the cup.
The Costa Rican coffee on the market today is Arabica.
Costa Rica Coffee Regions
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Costa Rica's coffee is grown in eight regions. Tarrazú is the best known, and it is where our lot comes from.
Tarrazú
01
Los Santos · South of San José · Our lot's region
Tarrazú covers the Los Santos area south of San José, including San Marcos de Tarrazú, Dota and León Cortés. Farms sit high on volcanic soils, and a distinct dry season at harvest helps the coffee dry well. The region is known for crisp citrus acidity and a clean cup, and it is home to large cooperatives as well as many micromills. Our Tarrazú lot comes from here.
What Tarrazú on a bag means
Tarrazú is a region, not a grade or a farm. A supermarket Tarrazú and a single-micromill Tarrazú lot can be very different coffees. Look next to the word for the micromill or farm, the altitude, the process and the harvest year.
The Other Seven Regions
Region
What to know
West Valley
Naranjo, Palmares and Sarchí. Fruit-forward lots, and the birthplace of the Villa Sarchí variety.
Central Valley
Volcanic slopes around San José, Heredia and Alajuela. The oldest coffee land, and most of the coffee tours.
The Costa Rica Honey Process: White, Yellow, Red and Black
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In the honey process, the skin and fruit are removed but some of the sticky mucilage stays on the bean while it dries. It sits between washed and natural processing: the more mucilage left on, the closer the cup moves toward a natural.
01White
02Yellow
03Red
04Black
Closer to washedLess mucilage, cleaner
Closer to naturalMore mucilage, fruitier, heavier
Honey processing spread in Costa Rica in the late 2000s, helped along by the micromills and partly as a way to save water.
Nobody regulates the colors
One producer's red honey can be another's yellow. When a lot is sold by color, ask the producer what they mean by it.
Costa Rican Coffee Varieties
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Caturra and Catuaí make up most of Costa Rica's plantings. Villa Sarchí is the country's own: a compact natural mutation of Bourbon, found in Alajuela province in the 1950s or 1960s according to World Coffee Research, and well suited to high, windy farms.
A few micro-lots are planted with Geisha. See how all of these compare with other coffee varieties.
What Costa Rican Coffee Beans Taste Like
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Our Tarrazú lot shows citrus and honey sweetness with a sugarcane finish, over a medium body and medium-high acidity. It scores 87 on the SCA scale.
That brightness comes from altitude. High-grown Costa Rican coffee is often sold as SHB, or Strictly Hard Bean: a label for dense beans grown high enough to ripen slowly, which carry more acidity and sweetness into the cup.
Next to Colombian coffee, which is usually rounder and caramel-led, Costa Rica tastes crisper. Guatemalan coffee tends toward more cocoa and spice.
How Costa Ricans Brew: The Chorreador
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The chorreador is a wooden stand that holds a cloth filter bag, the bolsita, over a cup or pot. It makes a clean, full cup without paper, which suits bright Costa Rican coffee.
Grind mediumFill the cloth bag with medium-ground coffee.
Pour slowlyAdd hot water in stages, a little at a time.
Let it dripThe coffee drips through the cloth into the cup or pot.
If you brew pour-over at home, the method will feel familiar.
Costa Rican Coffee Brands and Micro-Lots
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National brands such as Café Britt and Café 1820 are many visitors' first taste of Costa Rican coffee, and they are widely sold in the country.
Specialty micro-lots are labelled differently. Instead of a brand, the bag names the region, the micromill or farm, the process, the altitude and the harvest year.
The best Costa Rican coffee is the one whose label tells you those things.
How to Buy Costa Rica Tarrazú Coffee Beans
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We are a green coffee sourcing desk. Every lot we list is cupped before and after shipment and ships with its documentation. If it is not traceable, we do not list it.
Roasted / retailCosta Rica Tarrazú
Citrus, honey sweetness and a sugarcane finish, 1,200–1,700 masl, SCA 87. Sold by the bag, with the lot's origin and documentation on the product page.
It has a strong reputation for clean, bright Arabica, much of it grown high. Our Tarrazú lot scores 87 on the SCA scale. As with any origin, the label tells you more than the country name: look for the region, the micromill or farm, the process and the harvest year.
Is Costa Rican coffee 100% Arabica?
In practice, yes. A decades-old ban on Robusta was suspended in 2018, but commercial planting had still not been authorised as of September 2024, and Robusta is limited to trials in low-lying areas.
What is Tarrazú coffee?
Coffee from Tarrazú, the Los Santos area in the mountains south of San José. It is a region name, not a grade or a farm, and the region is known for crisp citrus acidity and a clean cup. Look for the micromill or farm name next to it.
What's the best Costa Rican coffee region?
There is no single best. Tarrazú is the best known, for crisp, citrus-led cups, and West Valley is known for fruit-forward lots. Within any region, the micromill, the altitude and the process tell you as much as the region name.
When is the coffee harvest in Costa Rica?
It varies by region and altitude, running roughly from the second half of the year into March. Check the harvest year on any lot you buy.
