Costa Rica Takeaways: Thoughts from a Seasoned Traveler

The NKG PACE experience includes a week with an NKG export company, learning about its operations, the export process, farms it purchases from and how coffee travels in that country. Over the last two years, the Partners have been hosted by Ceca, in San Jose, Costa Rica. When asked about the experience and her main takeaways, Zakiya Mason had the following to say.  

 By Zakiya Mason  

While coffee has brought me to Central America numerous times, I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of visiting Costa Rica. Our group was received so warmly by our host, Ceca trader Meylin Caranza. She brought us on hikes, out to restaurants, and exposed us to as much of Costa Rican culture as she could — going as far as welcoming us into her family home. Aside from learning about the warmth and kindness of our hosts, I was able to learn so much about coffee production in Costa Rica.  

Country Takeaways 

Because Costa Rica has a high dollar value, the highest minimum wage in Central America and a high cost of living, the coffees produced are not inexpensive, and it requires a high level of industrialization to keep costs low. Simultaneously, the country has strong centralized economic planning and government regulation around this key export, so there are unique systems in place to protect producers and keep them incentivized.  

Before visiting Ceca and the collection sites, I'd never heard of a finega — a standard volume regulated by the government and by which coffee is bought — nor had I heard of cherries being purchased volumetrically instead of by weight. While the downside of this method is that it does not incentivize quality picking, the upside is that it ensures a wage for producers that is hopefully sustainable. I can always appreciate a government attempting to protect its workforce! 

Another curiosity for me was not that Costa Rica exports 90 percent of what it produces but that it imports almost half that amount in low-quality grades from mostly Honduras and Nicaragua. This practice is not simply because of preference; rather, it’s compelled by the government. It’s a hard truth that locals are not able to enjoy the full spoils of their labor, even with a robust economy compared to neighboring countries.  

Hiking and a coffee break at the Poás Volcano National Park.

Processing Takeaways 

Processing is heavily streamlined and industrialized, even in smaller micro-mills — partially due to government regulations around size requirements for milling and exporting coffee and partially due to having more money to invest in processing equipment.   

Visiting the drying patios of producer Eduardo Navarro.

At Ceca, quality is created through sorting and drying methods. Increasing or reducing the amount of mucilage and fruit on a bean and the length of time in drying it is the prominent method for creating distinct flavors. Washed coffee has a relatively standardized flavor, and the quality expectation is less nuanced or complex in comparison with dry and semi-dry methods.  Therefore, washed qualities are readily achieved, meaning repeatable, reliable and highly valued coffee year after year.  

Another interesting norm that deviates from what I've known to be true elsewhere is the practice of milling coffee immediately after its resting period in parchment. I've known it to be a common practice for coffee not to be milled until there was a contract in play and an imposing export date. However, the climate in Costa Rica is so temperate that there is little concern about green coffee aging quickly in this state. As a buyer, the cool thing about this is that the pre-ship sample is more likely to resemble the coffee that will ship. 

The Lab Takeaways 

There are six people working in the quality lab at Ceca, which I found to be an impressive number compared to many places, including here at Neumann Gruppe USA. Certainly, everyone was busy all the time, though not in a way that felt frenetic or overwhelmed. There were always at least three people cupping a given table, which I think is an ideal number for cupping and decision making. 

Q prep, prepared for the Partners by the Ceca QC team.

This final takeaway is regarding not just the lab but most of the people at Ceca I encountered. I found it fascinating that most of them did not come from coffee-producing families or even have a family member who worked in coffee. This is way outside the norm from my experience visiting coffee-producing countries and is more like what we experience here in the U.S. It might be because even though it is a coffee-producing country, there are many avenues for income, and not everyone is so reliant on coffee. 

Outside of these takeaways, we did tons of triangulations and other sensory prep for our upcoming Q exam that the lab crew set up for us. They were generous with their time, and it was fun to learn from and practice with them! •

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Top photo: NKG PACE Partners at the Palmichal Micromill. NKG PACE Partner Zakiya Mason is in blue, in the center, along with Shaa’ista Sabir (left), Jalen Kelly (far right) and Ceca Trader Diego Guardia.