I love Costa Rican coffee, and as I have mentioned before in several posts I am by far not the only one who does, and there are quite a bunch of reasons as to why the taste of the Costa Rican coffee is so unique; but perhaps I am getting a little ahead of myself, so let me start from the beginning.

As many of you may know, Brazil is currently the biggest coffee producer in the market with a massive 35% of the world production, followed by Vietnam with a 13% (I bet you were not expecting that) and Colombia in the third place with 10%. These are currently the worlds “coffee giants”

So what about Costa Rica’s production?

Even though Costa Rica’s world production is merely 1.5% they have already made a name for themselves in a more selected sector of the market; for everybody knows that there is a difference between quality and quantity. And that is precisely what has set the Costa Rican Coffee apart from the rest, capturing the attention of huge companies like Starbucks; and even the interest of a tea oriented country, China.

For those of you that want to learn more on these subjects I suggest to check out the following posts: China ready for a Hot Mug of Costa Rican Coffee!! - Costa Rica Coffee + Starbucks = A Good Deal!

The Costa Rican Institute of Coffee (ICAFE) has work hard on the raising the bar when it comes to the standard quality of the product; the results from this new initiative have been not only what they have expected; but even a little more, as the production went up 35% for this year.

In addition to the ICAFE initiative, there are also several other tournaments and local and international competitions and tournaments like the one described in: The Best of the Best Coffee in Costa Rica that keep pushing the limits of the Costa Rican coffee in terms of taste, making it the preferred choice of the connoisseurs.