In a country famous for the best coffee, Cafe Britt is Costa Rica's premier export coffee. It is like no other coffee you have ever had. Browse and find out about coffee facts, how coffee is grown and harvested, how to brew a good pot of coffee and where you can mailorder Britt Cafe. Traveling? or thinking of it? Check out CoffeeTour, a fun way to learn, and, also, find out about the more technical seminars, for industry professionals and students!
 History of coffee in Costa Rica
Tips for storing and preparing coffee
Mail Order
Coffeetour
Full Day tours
On-location coffee seminars
Fun coffee facts
The Café Britt Story
USA Operations
Map to Britt Café
HISTORY OF COFFEE
The most widely circulated story about coffee's beginnings is difficult to substantiate, but has developed into an enjoyable tale-over the years. It goes something like this:
One day a Young Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi was minding his goats in the hillsides. He noticed that the goats seemed to bound with extra energy and delight after eating small red berries from a mountainside shrub. After watching this phenomenon for a while, Kaldi decided to try some of these berries himself. Immediately he began to dance and play with his goats and all his tiredness disappeared. From that day on, Kaldi began each morning by eating these mysterious red berries with his goats. They continued to have lively, cheerful days. One day a monk from a nearby monastery saw Kaldi dancing with his goats and inquired as to this bizarre behavior. Kaldi shared the secret of the red berries and after the monk tried them, he immediately felt a surge of energy. The story goes on from here to explain how the monk boiled the berries to make a liquid for the monks to drink so they would not fall asleep during religious prayers. The news of this magical drink spread quickly and soon all the monasteries in the kingdom were drinking it in order to spend more time praying. The drink became known as "Qahwah" which means "invigorating and stimulating."
TIPS FOR STORING AND PREPARING COFFEE
Preparing good coffee is as pleasurable as it is simple.
The steps are:
1. Maintain the aroma and the taste fresh
When you open your bag of Care Britt, keep the coffee in a jar, preferably one with a glass lid. Keep this jar in the refrigerator. In order to maintain the aroma and freshness as long as possible, it is best to avoid as much contact with air as possible.
If you chose the coffee in grain form, grind only what you need for your brewing.
2. Proper equipment
A coffee maker is good since the hot water has a long time to extract the flavor of a gourmet coffee.
3. Quantity of coffee
You should use only 8 grams of coffee per cup or a tablespoonful.
4. Additional recommendations
Make sure that the water used in preparing your coffee is very hot It is important to maintain your coffee making equipment very clean, so as to not absorb other aromas.
It is recommended to serve your coffee as soon as possible after preparation. Don't reheat your coffee, if you want to keep your coffee hot, keep it in a thermos.
PROCESS OF COFFEE (WHY COSTA RICA IS AMONG THE WORLD'S BEST COFFEES)
ARABICA COFFEE AND ROBUSTA COFFEE
There are basically two species of coffee that are of worldwide importance; coffee Arabica and coffee Robusta;
Coffee robusta This species of coffee is grown at lower elevations usually up to 2000 to 3000 ft . The tree is very hardy and can tolerate higher heat that the more delicate arabica species of tree. It also tolerates disease better and therefore produces a much better yield than arabica. Robusta coffee is certainly less expensive than arabica coffee and typically has a harsh flavor and a high caffeine content.
Coffee arabica The arabica species is the sole source of fine coffee. Arabica trees are delicate, more expensive to cultivate and probably most important; grow at higher altitudes. All other things being equal, the higher the altitude at which the tree is grown the finer the quality of the coffee will be. The arabica bean is harder and has the denser aroma that we associate with coffee.
The only type of coffee grown in Costa Rica is arabica and it is the only type of coffee we will be referring to in CRHP.
PROCESSING MILLING OF COFFEE
To prevent spoilage of the fruit, the freshly picked coffee cherries are transported to the mill the same day they are picked . It is extremely important that the coffee picked during the day is processed that same evening.
The optimum flavors are developed but this is within this time frame.
In Costa Rica a farmer must go no further than two kilometers to a receiving station. From these receiving stations, the coffee cherries are transported directly to the mill. This means coffee pickers are usually working at the trees during the day and delivering to the mill or receiving stations in the evening.
The coffee cherries are tipped into large tanks of water where the first separation of quality occurs:
FLOATERS The cherries which float are empty or immature and do not yield high quality coffee.
SINKERS The cherries which sink are excellent and ripe, perfect for processing into high quality coffee
Our mill works on a binary system which processes the sinkers along a totally different path than the floaters.
The cherries are then passed through a pulping machine which squishes out two coffee seeds. Each cherry has two coffee beans inside. This process exposes a sticky inner protective coat which surrounds the parchment. At this point the coffee beans are again screened for quality. The perfectly formed beans proceed on one path for further processing in the fermentation tanks, while the smaller, less developed beans proceed along a totally different path for their processing.
The beans are then soaked in tanks of water to loosen the covering and are left to ferment. During the fermentation period various enzymes dissolve starches, converting them into simple sugars. Bacterial fermentation can take anywhere from twenty to forty-eight hours. The timing of fermentation is critical to the ultimate quality and flavor of the coffee.
The coffee is then washed and laid out on open cement patios to slowly dry. The coffee beans, now called parchment coffee, are manually turned and heaped with large rakes to ensure that the coffee dries uniformly.
All our coffee is sun dried on patios. We do not use rotary dryers.
Once the coffee is dry and still on the parchment, it is considered to be safe from deterioration in quality.
We keep our coffee in the parchment in Costa Rica until it is ready for roasting and packing.
The next step in the process would be to hull and polish the coffee bean. This involves rubbing off the parchment layer and polishing the bean for an attractive appearance.
At this point the coffee beans are a light green to bluish color.
The coffee is then graded. This means the coffee is basically sorted by size, shape and imperfections. It is important to grade the coffee well so that small and large beans are not roasted together When this occurs the small beans burn and the large beans do not receive their proper roast.
Café Britt grades its coffee to specifications which exceed the national grading system.
The coffee is now ready to roast.
ROASTING COFFEE
A green coffee bean has no taste, no smell and is basically useless until it is roasted. It is the chemical transformation brought about by the absorption of a certain amount of heat that results in a coffee bean releasing its potential.
Time, temperature and airflow are all balanced to bring out the perfect roast for any particular coffee. This will differ from coffee to coffee.
There is no industry standard on roasting terms, but the most common are:
Cinnamon Roast / Light Roast: Finished surface is light brown and dry.
Medium Roast / America Roast: An even chestnut brown color with a dry surface.
Full City Roast / High Roast: Dark brown color with only slight patches of oil on the surface.
French Roast / Espresso / Continental: Very dark brown color with large amounts of oil on the surface of the beans.
Italian Roast: Almost black, very shiny with large amounts of oil on the surface of the beans.
HARVESTING AND PICKING COFFEE
When a coffee tree is ready to bear fruit it will first put forth clusters of white flowers which look and smell like jasmine. Unfortunately, these beautiful flowers only last a few days. After they wither and fall, small green cherries appear which take about anywhere from six to nine months to ripen and become red.
During the picking season a coffee tree has the potential of being picked three to five times at the very most. The coffee cherries rarely ripen all at the same time, but the most abundant quantity of perfectly ripe. cherries are available at the center picking. This center picking is the best, producing the most exquisite and beautifully ripe cherry.
Picking excellent coffee is a highly labor intensive. All the cherries must be handpicked and the picker must be very selective as to not include twigs, leaves, blossoms or unripe cherries. Only mature, ripe fruit will yield a high-quality coffee. This is key to the quality of the coffee.
This entire harvesting and picking process only happens once a year.
Café Britt processes coffee cherries which are all hand picked at the center of the crop.
THE COFFEE TREE
Coffee trees are grown from seeds which are essentially green coffee beans (with the parchment left on). The seedlings are planted about 3 feet apart from each other.
It takes about 4 years for a coffee tree to bear its first fruit. In the meantime it must be very carefully cultivated and cared for. The trees are pruned constantly to keep their ultimate height at about 5 - 6 feet. This makes them easier to pick and increases their yield.
The average yield of a mature coffee tree is about 2,000 cherries. Coincidentally, it takes about 2,000 handpicked cherries to produce one pound of roasted coffee.
Café Britt chooses its coffee cherries from amongst the highest grown and well cared for plantations in Costa Rica.
COFFEE CUP CHARACTERISTICS
Coffee is described by a number of terms used by coffee tasters. In this and many other ways, coffee is much like wine. A few of the most basic and widely used terms are:
Aroma This refers to the smell of the coffee: faint, delicate, strong, fragrant or flowery
Acidity This is not considered to be a negative characteristic. High acid coffees have a sharp, quality that gives them liveliness and snap in the cup. Acidity can be high, medium or low.
Body This is the impression of weight and texture. Is the coffee thin, full, light, heavy, buttery, oily, rich, smooth, slight, syrupy?
Flavor This is the combined impression of aroma, acidity and body
Bitter A harsh unpleasant kick usually felt in the back of the tongue.
Mellow This would describe a full, well-balanced, satisfying coffee. It implies a medium or low acidity.
Thin Would describe coffee with a watery body and a lack of flavor.
Café Britt is an aromatic coffee with excellent acidity, very good body and full rich taste.
The ability of coffee to maintain its flavor through temperature changes is an excellent measure of high quality. Fine gourmet coffee like Café Britt is able to sustain its flavor characteristics at every temperature stage; from hot, to room temperature, to cold.
FUN COFFEE FACTS
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The first "coffee break" on the moon took place at 7:27 pm., July 20, 1969. It was three hours after landing and four hours before the historic walk that an astronaut on the Eagle spacecraft radioed Houston control to say, "If you excuse me a minute, I'm going to have a cup of coffee."
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It takes an entire year for a coffee tree to produce only 1.5 pounds of coffee. This represents approximately 2,000 handpicked cherries to result in one pound of roasted coffee as we know.
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Coffee became the national drink in 1773. At this time the colonists were so angered by King George's tax on tea that they responded with the Boston Tea Party and a strong allegiance to coffee.
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Coffee is the second largest commodity international trade. It is second only to oil.
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More than half of all Americans drink coffee, averaging 3 1/2 cups per day.
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Finland holds the per-capita title, with each person drinking more than four cups per day This means for each cup of coffee consumed by an American, there are 2.6 cups consumed in Finland.
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Most coffee cherries contain two half round beans, but in about 10% of the cases, the cherry contains only one round bean. When this occurs, it is called a "pea berry."
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- Johann Sebastian Bach was so taken by the romance of the beverage, he wrote his "Coffee Cantata" and in it hailed coffee as "the most precious of blisses...."
- Coffee has been in use since about 900 A.D. It was first used as a stimulant, a wine, and as a medicine.
- Which has more caffeine, tea or coffee? A pound of tea, on average, has twice the caffeine of a pound of coffee. But a pound of tea yields about 160 cups, while a pound of coffee makes only about 40 cups. The net result is that a cup of tea contains roughly one-quarter the caffeine in a cup of coffee.
Caffeine content is nearly identical in all shades of roasts of coffee. In fact, it is slighty less in a very dark roast.
Caffeine content is directly related to the altitude at which coffee is grown. The higher the altitude, the less caffeine. Therefore, gourmet coffees are naturally lower in caffeine than typical supermarket blends.
- Old Turkish proverb: "Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love."
Contact us
1-800-GOBRITT
CafZ Britt
tel.: + 506 261-0707
fax: + 506 260-1456
Coffetour
tel.: + 506 260-2748
fax: + 506 238-1848
E-mail us britt@sol.racsa.co.cr
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