I’ve been to a number of coffee producing countries, and I’ve written a number of articles from those. (Click here for Cartagena, Colombia and here for Antigua Guatemala.) Those have focused on how coffee is grown, or how visitors can find the best coffee-related experience. I’ve even spoken about coffee culture from a purely drinking point while in Italy.

So here I am in Costa Rica, another coffee producing country, and here I am writing another coffee-themed article. But this one is a bit different, because coffee in this Central American country is important not only to the culture and economy, but also to Costa Rica’s very independence.

In 1821, after the Mexican War of Independence was won, Central America also won its freedom. (This is due to Spain leaving the entire region with the loss of its powerhouse colony in Mexico.) Costa Rica, then the poorest and most sparsely populated of the regions that were part of the Captaincy-General of Guatemala, had competing views about what to do with this newfound independence. One group, the republicans, favored becoming an independent nation. The other wished to ally with Mexico as part of the new Mexican Empire.

Well, the Mexican Empire didn’t last long, and in 1823, it collapsed, leaving Central America out in the cold. Those countries banded together for a brief time as the Federal Republic of Central America (other than Belize, which was British, and Panama, which was historically part of Colombia). That, too, proved short lived, ending in 1838. Now Costa Rica was on its own, an independent country that didn’t even have a population equaling its pre-Spanish 400,000 or so.

The economy, as you could imagine, was a tiny one, with little population and little infrastructure. Enter coffee. Coffee was one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and with the help of a British merchant, a trade route to Europe was established for Costa Rica’s fledgling new industry. It was a hit. It was so much of a hit that the new Costa Rican democratic government gave coffee plants to citizens just to make sure it was grown in more of the country. And the income from it allowed the new tiny nation to survive as an independent country.

So it isn’t hyperbole to say that without coffee there might not be a Costa Rica. And the industry maintained importance, with income fueling social projects and infrastructure as the nation grew.

And today, Costa Rica has the most regulated coffee industry in existence, with a council of growers from each region working with the government to make sure it maintains a high level of excellence. Stickers will tell you if you are purchasing 100% Costa Rican coffee and not a Central American blend just bagged here, for instance.

But the odds are that you didn’t come to Costa Rica just to learn about the history of coffee in the country. No, you probably want to drink it. Well, of course that is also possible, and what better way to do that than from the source. Costa Rica has several coffee regions, and just an hour or so outside of San Jose I visit Cafe Los Volcanes. Here on the slopes of the Poas volcano, the highly nutrient-rich soil is put to good use. The coffee trees are interspersed with banana and others, both to provide shade for newly planted coffee, as well as to help with soil acidity. And yes, for another cash crop when needed.

Coffee growers like this are not exactly dying out here in Costa Rica, but they are becoming rarer. Since only the year 2000, coffee production in the country has halved. (All of Costa Rica’s agriculture is doing similar things, with that sector down to 9% of the economy, and coffee coming in third to bananas and pineapples as far as agricultural exports.) Fewer young people want to work such physical and time intensive jobs, especially with huge investments made by Costa Rica and foreign companies in teleservice, engineering, medical equipment, and other more lucrative careers.

Those growers who remain are prioritizing quality to quantity. Here at Los Volcanes, their most recent crop rated an 8.6/10, which is well into the “excellent specialty coffee” segment of the industry. Therefore it fetches a higher price on the market, which for Costa Rica means the U.S. or Europe. (Only 15% of coffee grown in Costa Rica stays here, meaning local consumption has to be supplemented by imports.) So while Costa Rica is currently the 14th largest producer, that is quickly dropping.

One result of higher paying jobs in other sectors is a lack of workers on coffee farms. Today, that is typically done by Nicaraguan immigrants, but border tensions have made this more of a challenge in recent years. Finding domestic laborers at the price growers are able to pay (remember, the average 100 pound sack of coffee will fetch about $22,000 as brewed cups in cafes in the U.S., but the grower is paid about $200 for it, with every other middle person in the process: cleaning, roasting, exporting, etc… all getting cuts, and then the cafe in a wealthier country) is exceedingly difficult, and the Costa Rican population is basically a stagnant one sans immigration.

But while these issues are a focus on my tour at Los Voncanes, they take nothing away from the product itself. Costa Rica is still up there with anyone as far as quality of coffee is concerned, although it should be noted that here it seems to generally be steeped for a shorter period of time, and therefore tastes milder and has less of a caffeine kick. (My tour ends with a French press, one that only steeps for four minutes, whereas at home I tend to go for about fifteen.)

Coffee can be found all over, but here in Costa Rica, a cup of coffee is also a history and politics lesson. Without that magical brew, and the bean that powers it, this country may never have achieved independence. We say freedom is sweet, but here, it tastes bitter. Unless you add sugar.

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