Costa Rica La Pastora

Costa Rica La Pastora

Regular price $ 12.99 Sale

We tried a few costa's this year and were slightly underwhelmed but this one hits the spot in a nice and pleasing way. Historically we've leaned heavily into the chocolate - not the roast driven chocolate - realm of america's with some pit stops at tropical stuff.  If you like my ventures into the sweeter tropical fruity stuff then this one should do the thing. We're going to be doing more of that as the year goes on. 

In my experience there are two general tiers of costa coffee's in specialty coffee. The one this occupies and others. This one occupies the side I really like. Costa at it's best - when light roasted - are extremely bright and brisk tasting with a balance of sweetness and fruity tones as well as being unusually  "clean". Costa was a early coffee adopter and being as developed as it it along with proximity to ports for their growing regions you get a lot of well processed stuff though we did notice some quakers in this lot. They add to "cup character". Not quite Mierisch level of perfection but still solid. Further I dislike saying this at times but I still seem to put it out there again and again - (aka this is a in before)yes, it's coffee, but it's also refreshing. You'll get a lot of fruits and ones you don't quite know the name of but know exist. I just default to "fruity" anymore because people have gotten abnormally mad at me for putting a taste note and not delivering that on every cup.  Lastly there's a nice but not overpowering sweetness to this coffee.

Overall is there a general central Americanness to it? Yes. it probably resides in the middle spot between the general costa taste and the super high end stuff. Sometimes you can't not have some kind of caramel, nutty, bodied tones but it's that sweetness and fruity that higher elevations can make happen outside of processing.  I liked this costa for the above reasons.

Try as Iced coffee and cold brew for sure. Summer jawn.