Every time I take that first long sip of one of our single origin coffees from Costa Rica, I'm taken right back to Arizona on Canada Day 2015. I know it sounds odd, a Canadian daydreaming of Arizona when he tastes Costa Rican coffee, but stick with me here. The memory of a great trip, sometimes lives in the taste of the coffee you drank when you were there. Let me take you back with me to explain...
The day starts early in Arizona in July, and on this day I woke up with it at 5:30am. I was staying in a small cabin in the desert and was up to see the moment that the sun peeked over the cliffs on the horizon, which created these long, creeping shadows across the landscape. However, what I remember from that early morning was the unbelievable heat that met me on the porch of the cabin. I had never experienced a heat like this before. It was super dry, similar to an oven, and combined with the aromas of cedar and rock, it was like an open-air sauna.
Despite being in this proverbial sauna, my first thought (as always) was to start brewing my hot morning coffee. In preparation, I'd brought all my specialty coffee essentials: my aeropress, a small pocket scale, and a porlex hand grinder-as I always do on road trips. But I needed something to boil water with. I searched around the cabin's kitchenette for some tools and found a small pot, filled it with bottled water, set it on the hot plate, and turned the finicky knob to boil. As I waited for the water to boil, I stepped back outside and saw the world transforming. The sunrise had changed my view of the rocks, unlocking features and details of the rock face I hadn''t seen 15 minutes earlier.
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"The sunrise had changed my view of the rocks, unlocking features and details of the rock face I hadn''t seen 15 minutes earlier."
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I got lost in the shifting of shadows for a couple of minutes before realising it was time to dose and weigh my coffee. On the porch I rearranged a small table for optimal brewing possibilities. I cracked open the mason jar I had brought along to store the coffee from the Helsar de zarcero mill (located in the west valley of Costa Rica) and instantly I knew the coffee felt different. Even though I had been brewing this coffee at home prior to the trip, being in another country and in such incredible surroundings, made the aromatics remarkable and unexpected. The heightened intensity of orange-like citrus aromatics seemed fake, like an imitation citrus candy. It was almost as if I had stored something else in this jar previously and contaminated the aromatics, but I hadn''t. I dosed out the coffee into an interesting mug with a western motif that I had found in the cupboard, carefully coerced it into the small opening on my hand grinder, attached the lever, and started turning.
While grinding, I walked off the porch into the red sandy dirt and took a stroll around the small cabin. In the distance I could see clouds, but over my little cabin the day looked crystal clear. It was surely going to be another almost 40 degree day with a slight breeze gently moving the small shrubs on the ground. As I finished grinding the coffee I took a deep breath. The smell was intoxicating, heavy sugar browning sweetness, deep orange blossom, and a lot of rich chocolate-like tones filled the air. It reminded me very much of a sweet dessert ready to be baked.
I went back inside, found that the water was boiling, flicked off the hot plate, unplugged it for good measure, and brought the pot outside to set it on a small coaster on the table to cool for a few minutes. Once again I found myself looking around, the terrain was so different from home. It was barren of trees and greenery, the world was almost silent, and it felt like nothing else was awake or within 100 miles of me.
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"I wasn't in barren land, life was all around me, just in ways that I wasn't used to recognizing."
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I positioned the press inverted on my scale, dropped in the coffee, and gave it a slight shake to settle the grinds. I teared off the scale, picked up the small pot by the rickety handle, and slowly poured half the water into the press and swilled the press like a wine glass to wet all the grinds. The aromatics were comforting now. The florals had subsided and made way for more sweet toffee notes and a slight stewed raspberry note reminiscent of the summer fruits back home.
I poured the rest of the water, capped the press, and carefully flipped it over onto my new (favourite) western-style mug. Quick side note on my fascination with that mug: I love finding new weird and interesting mugs at random places I'm staying on trips, it''s one of the small pleasures of a travel coffee, trying to figure out the backstory and journey about how it found its way to this cupboard, who could have left it behind or what story it has to tell me!
Anyway, back to the coffee in the mug... As I slowly pressed the coffee into the mug, a small lizard caught my peripheral vision, and I remembered that I was outside in the desert. I wasn't in barren land, life was all around me, just in ways that I wasn't used to recognizing. With this revelation, I finished the brew, flipped the aeropress off the mug, and took in all the layers of aromas from the cup.
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"it was all the things that I had come to love about Costa Rican coffees and their flavour experience but never really knew it until then."
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I sat in a chair on the porch, put my feet up on the ledge of a rock that I could just reach, and let the coffee cool slightly. The first sip of the first coffee of the day is always delicious and very deceiving as it most often seems like a hyper-intense version of that coffee's flavours. This was no different. The texture was super velvety, layered, and rich, and all those citrus-like and soft fruit aromatics turned into a jammy or honeyed version of the actual fruits in the cup. It was really sweet and had all the right flavours I was looking for this particular morning without even knowing it. All the freshness of a Canadian summer seemed to have come with me to that Arizona desert-but from a Costa Rican source.
When you work in coffee you really relish these little moments. Moments where you get to enjoy the process of brewing and experience a coffee in a totally different element than you are used to. It was a moment without judgement, analysis, or overthinking of how you could''ve roasted, brewed, or made it better. On this particular day, it was all the things that I had come to love about Costa Rican coffees and their flavour experience but never really knew it until then. Just like the desert around me, I learned there was more life in my coffee than I'd ever realized.
Happy Canada Day Week everyone! Hope wherever you are you''re enjoying the perfect coffee experience that you never knew you needed.
Ryan
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*Offer Valid until Friday, July 10th at 8am.
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