COFFEE

 

COFFEE

One of the things I miss most about Australia is the coffee.

On leaving three years ago it had become an art form, an obsession by many and truth be told, way too much importance had been placed on the brew.

Baristas are trained, well paid and many places may as well not even open their doors for trading if their coffee is not up to a high standard only the wealthy in the world can afford to be obsessed about. 

And it is just not the coffee bean that has to be of high standard. 

It is all about the milk. 

Not to be burned or frothed, cappuccinos now a days are creamy and definitely are not full of bubbles. 

Lattes come with a 1 to 2 cm head, never to be served as a flat white.

From a country that has fostered an elitess society around the brew, I now live in a country that grows some of the best coffee in the world. 

 

With ideal growing conditions of fertile soil, high altitude, and a cool climate the Arabica coffee plant was first grown in Costa Rica near the end of the 1700s. 

Realizing the enormous economic potential of coffee the government offered free land to coffee farmers in the 19th century to encourage production. During this time, production skyrocketed. By 1829, the revenue from coffee exports surpassed tobacco, sugar, and cacao. 

Creating a wealthy upper class of growers and traders the role of coffee in the Costa

Rican economy contributed to the modernization of the country. It helped construct the National Theater in San José and build a railroad to the country’s Atlantic coast.

Grow it they do, but a good brew here in Costa Rica is one of the hardest things to find.  

Most of the best coffee grown in this country is exported out of it, leaving the low grade bean to be consumed by the locals. 

Not only is the coffee consumed inside of Costa Rica sub standard compared to what the rest of the world receives from here, but it is also put through a sock. 

As horrible as that sounds it is true. 

Coffee Costa Rican style is black and sieved drip style through a cloth that traditionally hangs from a wooden stand with the coffee cup or collector pot beneath.  A simpler version of the much to left be desired North American drip style of coffee popular with cheap hotels.

Unlike the north American version that uses disposable papers, the Costa Rican style is a sock that is re used and washed until it is no longer recognizable as a coffee maker. Sewn onto a ring of wire all socks through out the country look hand made and their simplicity is genius and unchanged wether you are in the house of a farmer or in a five star hotel.

Traditional it may be. Delicious it is not. 

Even Costa Rican friends of mine will agree that good coffee inside of their own country is hard to find. Coffee Machines that serve an expresso with the tell tale signs of perfection of a creme on top the color of stained pine wood is a rarity , not the norm.   They do exist and the famosity is rising, but to open a cafe in Costa Rica a good coffee machine it is not a requirement like it is in Australia.

Costa Rica is not alone in serving bad coffee.

 Peru is actually worse. Local coffee is served as a thick liquid not unlike soy sauce, which you then pour desired amount into a cup of hot water. Watered down liquid coffee. Not tasty at all nor not one bit satisfying.

Liquid Coffee served in the markets of Peru

Drinking coffee in Costa Rica is like traveling around in the eighties. Machines sponsored by Nestle that are push button offerings of bad lattes, bad cappuccinos and bad coffee beans are considered by most the better version than the sock. 

When it comes to this, give me the sock any day.

Enter stage left, Starbucks.

The international numbness of belonging and feeling safe has arrived to San Jose.

Staffed by chirpy locals and trained not to burn the milk, the only thing it really has going for it is the copy cat of good over the top service and the knowing that if you liked your coffee in Plaza de Armas Cuzco, in the Lima airport, or in San Telmo in Buenos Aires, you will surely know that it will be to your liking here in San Pedro in San Jose.

 

Outisde on the street the traffic is loud, dirty and relentless. Most new small businesses offering the bohemian style cafe experience is wide open to the street. 

Starbucks with its buying power offers a safe haven to all that is uncomfortable. Back ground music buffers out the street noise whilst the air conditioning, wifi and copy cat menu provides customers with a sense of being anywhere in the world. 

Now locals can feel like they have been somewhere. 

The cost of a piece of carrot cake that comes in at $9 AU and coffee that averages $6 AU it is obviously worth the price to enough people. Local coffee else where costs between 600 to 900 colones . That is between $1.50 to $2 for a cup of black sock brew.

 Starbucks has introduced the latte and cappuccino to the land of coffee for the price of elite safety and sameness. 

For years the company did not enter into Costa Rica believing that a country that produces such great coffee would have no need to host the empire of Starbucks. 

Sitting in a said establishment of San Pedro yesterday sharing a Chai Latte with my son over the period of two hours whilst watching Pirates Of The Carribean on my laptop, this theory has been proved completely wrong.

The place filled up over and over again through out the afternoon.

As the door let in a constant stream of wealthy locals all wanting to pass their moment of peace from the outside chaos eating from paper plates with plastic forks and drinking from the new look red coffee cup of Starbucks, I would safely say that this franchise has certainly found its coffee niche in a country that produces a hell a lot of it.

Already it is a small pool of a populous to gain any business from here in Costa Rica. With such a franchise opening it leaves to wonder if it is a take over that will benefit this country or once again the big cats sitting in their franchise office head quarters elsewhere.

It is also left to see if the coffee will be imported to serve at the green painted and brick walled signature Starbuck establishments. Will Starbucks take the initiative and support only local growers of the country they are trading in , or will they begin the unspeakable and import most of its beans into this country where the value of the country’s coffee exports is up 40 percent to $56.1 million in this year of 2015. 

Coffee is King , in many shapes and form. 

 Yes Life Is Awesome.

A Traveling Mother & Her Son