Costa Rica organization promotes coffee blends

Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By Marie Feliciano

Francisco Mena, director of Deli Cafe from Costa Rica, demonstrates how to make good coffee at Taipei, yesterday./KEYE CHANG, TAIWAN NEWS
Costa Rica's rich, intensely fragrant, and full-bodied brews are winning the hearts and wallets of Taiwan's coffee connoisseurs, the Central American nation's coffee ambassadors said yesterday.

"We call our specialty coffee 'cups of gold,'" explained Deli Cafe president and top coffee producer Francisco Mena.

"The gourmet coffee that our country produces is made from the choicest coffee beans harvested from Costa Rica's high-altitude farms, and processed under the strictest of quality standards. We call them our 'volcanic treasures' because they thrive on volcanic soil."

Producing only the Arabica varietal, Costa Rica had been synonymous with extraordinary brews, added Grace Mena, president of Sintercafe, a non-profit organization that promotes and markets Costa Rica's golden crops.

"Yes, our coffee is expensive and we are proud of that," the official said.

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