Costa Rica means "rich coast" in Spanish. With its abundant volcanic soil, the influence of Pacific Ocean currents and monsoons, and its high-altitude mountain environment, Costa Rica has a unique microclimate that provides excellent conditions for growing coffee.

Since the early 18th century, Costa Rica has imported coffee beans from Cuba, and it became the first country in Central America to grow coffee and the first to grow coffee for commercial value. Thanks to Costa Rica's relatively developed national economy, which provided an economic foundation, Costa Rica's coffee production also ranks among the world's top, with excellent coffee quality. Research and innovation in new varieties and processing methods, as well as the improvement of infrastructure, have supported the development of the country's coffee industry. Moreover, the Costa Rican government believed that only by producing high-quality Arabica coffee beans could it gain a firm foothold in the market, so it passed a law prohibiting the cultivation of Robusta varieties.

As a result, Costa Rica is now home to quite a few well-known coffee estates, such as El Cedro and Volcan Azul. However, many of Costa Rica's well-known estates are basically in Tarrazu, the country's largest and most famous coffee-producing region. It is located in the central part of the country, in a volcanic area, surrounded by multiple mountain ranges and national parks, and also has a humid climate and volcanic rock soil, providing an exceptional growing environment for coffee.

The Tarrazu region has a long history of coffee cultivation, and Costa Rica also attaches great importance to the development of this region. In 2019, the government registered the coffee designation of origin "Café de Tarrazú" with the European Union and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Among FrontStreet Coffee's everyday beans series is also this well-known region: this is an entry-level selected Tarrazu coffee, made with the Catuai and Caturra varieties, using the washed processing method, graded SHB. After brewing, it has a slight fruity acidity, with sweet orange, nut and honey flavors, and a smooth sweet finish.

In addition to the Tarrazu region, the country has also divided seven coffee-producing regions, all distributed along the Cordillera in central Costa Rica. Although the other coffee regions are not as famous as Tarrazu, they also have quite a few notable estates, such as Finca Las Piedra in the Brunca region.

The owner of Finca Las Piedra is Gerardo Arias, and coffee can be said to have been with him his whole life. Gerardo Arias's family has been coffee farmers for generations; his parents worked at the Llano Bonito cooperative, and the family owned 1.24 hectares of land. But at that time the coffee price was not high and could not support the family. So Gerardo dropped out of school at the age of 10 to help the family grow coffee, and continued until adulthood.

However, after becoming an adult he realized his knowledge was limited, so he entered the United States illegally to New Jersey, going through many hardships along the way, and after 8 years he saved enough funds and returned to Costa Rica to buy his parents' estate, and his experiences overseas broadened Gerardo's horizons, and he began to implement a modern agricultural layout and cultivation on the estate, and afterward he also continuously introduced new cultivation and processing techniques to improve the quality of coffee growing.

Megalith Estate is located in Brunca, a producing region in southern Costa Rica. Because the mountainous terrain connects to Panama, between the peaks of the two Cerro de la Muerte (Cerro de la Muerte) and Cerro Chirripo (Cerro Chirripo), the Cerro Chirripo mountain range is the highest volcanic peak in Costa Rica and has a humid tropical climate. The coffee trees are planted on hillsides at 800-1700 m, and the soil in which the estate grows coffee is a mix of red clay and grey clay, so the coffee beans produced here not only have high bean density, but also have exceptionally superior sweetness.

Megalith Estate was named after stone carvings of indigenous people from 200 BC to 1500 BC unearthed nearby, called "secret realm stone spheres," hence the name Megalith Estate. The varieties currently grown on the estate include Catuai (Catuai), Caturra (Caturra), Geisha (Geisha) and F1 hybrids, among others.

FrontStreet Coffee has previously sourced a Blue Mint coffee from Megalith Estate in Brunca, Costa Rica, processed and fermented using an anaerobic heavy honey process. Its intense sweetness and boozy style let you perceive flavors such as grape, blueberry and rum, with a full-bodied, high-thickness Body and powerful flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee: Costa Rica ROCKY Estate Blueberry Coffee Beans

 Region: Brunca, Costa Rica

Estate: ROCKY Estate

Altitude: 1700-1800m

Processing Method: Anaerobic Heavy Honey Processing

Varieties: Bourbon, Catuai

Grade: SHB