The news about Starbucks opening an office in Downtown San Jose came as a good reminder that Costa Rican Coffee is key for the specialty coffee industry future. Yes, they have been paying premiums to the Costa Rican exporters (and at some degree to the farmers themselves, which is not always the case. ) It remains unclear how they are planning to ¨discover¨ new specialty coffee sources where most central american coffees are harvested not in the mountains but in lower elevation plantations controlled by a few. Costa Rica Tarrazu gourmet coffee harvest cannot be extended by desire. It is limited and Starbucks demand to satisfy their ¨gourmet coffee¨ loving consumers grows higher by the year. Mixing the high quality beans with lower degree coffee from elsewhere become too tempting and difficult to track for the Starbucks customers

posted by Jorge @ 7:14 PM

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