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The Coffee Atlas
Costa Rica Honey Process
Costa Rica honey process coffee dries with sticky mucilage left on the bean, giving sweet, syrupy cups: a sourced look at the method and three scored lots.
Flavor profile
avg. of 3 published reviewsScale: 1-10, Coffee Review / SCA-classic-form convention. Averaged from 3 independently published, dated Coffee Review scores of Costa Rican honey-processed lots (2016, 2023, 2025). Coffee Review reports whole-number attribute scores, so the averages are coarse. Not a category-wide sample: the lots differ in farm, variety, and honey grade (one is a white honey), and individual lots vary.
What it tastes like
Honey process is a Costa Rican style of drying: the cherry skin and pulp come off, but some of the sticky mucilage stays on the bean while it dries. Per Barista Magazine’s account, the Las Lajas micromill began making honey coffees after a 2008 earthquake cut off its water during harvest, and the grades run yellow, red, black. At most mills the colors come from mechanically removing different amounts of mucilage. Las Lajas instead leaves all of it on and sets the color through how it dries.
The three Coffee Review lots averaged here score 92 to 94 and share a pattern: sweet, rounded, and fruit-led. Notes range from salted caramel and orange blossom (Tarrazu) to blackberry, brown sugar, and star jasmine (Turrialba), with a satiny or syrupy mouthfeel and a juicy acidity that stays lively rather than sharp.
Two cautions. The honey label alone does not predict the cup: the lots differ in farm, variety, and grade, and the 2016 review noted it would have scored a point higher with more consistent cups. And because mucilage fermentation happens during drying, a sweet honey lot sits closer to the fermented edge than a washed one; the comparison with the other methods is laid out in the washed vs natural vs honey entry.
How to brew it
Method fit for this origin · editorial guidance from roaster convention
A filter brew lets the sweetness and fruit read clearly while keeping the syrupy body from turning heavy.
Roasters often like honey lots for the sweetness they bring to a shot, but the fruit can turn jammy if the extraction runs long.
Immersion emphasizes the rounded body and sweetness, at the cost of some of the acidity and floral detail.
⚠ Fit tiers are editorial guidance drawn from roaster convention; no industry standard scores brew fit, so we show tiers, never invented numbers. Reflects brew guidance commonly shared by specialty roasters for honey-processed lots, not an SCA-defined standard.
Caffeine content
Caffeine by dry weight · each gold dot = 0.1%
Caffeine content tracks species, not origin, altitude, or processing: roughly 1.2% for Arabica versus roughly 2.2% for Robusta, close to double (see Sources & data). Honey processing changes how much fruit mucilage dries onto the bean, not its caffeine. The lots reviewed here are Arabica, and no credible per-process caffeine figure exists at a category level.
Where to buy it
Transparency: some links on this site are affiliate links; if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Roasters are picked for genuine, current sourcing of this coffee, never for who pays us.
Competition-circuit roaster that has listed Las Lajas micromill lots from Costa Rica; check the shop for the current honey release.
View lot→Has listed Las Lajas black honey Costa Rica coffee, a lot from the micromill most associated with the method.
View lot→Runs a dedicated honey-process collection, which makes it easy to compare honey lots across origins.
View lot→Wide selection; check roast dates, whether the bag states Costa Rica and honey process, and seller reviews before buying.
View lot→Sources & data
- Crozier et al.: Espresso coffees, caffeine and chlorogenic acid intake (Food & Function, 2012)Peer-reviewed (Univ. of Glasgow): states robusta coffee beans contain almost twice as much caffeine as arabica, by species (no percentage figures given in this paper)
- Development of a fast and simple method to identify pure Arabica coffee and blended coffee by Infrared Spectroscopy (J. Food Sci. Technol., 2021, PMC8292507)Peer-reviewed, open-access: "Arabica beans usually presents 1.0 to 1.5% w.w-1 of caffeine and Robusta beans presents 2.0 to 2.5% w.w-1" (quoted verbatim, source's own wording) -- source for this entry's 1.2% Arabica / 2.2% Robusta figures, both within the stated ranges
- Barista Magazine: Hello, Honey, a look at the Costa Rican process that's making coffee colorfulYellow-to-red-to-black grades, usually set by how much mucilage is mechanically removed; Las Lajas' 2008 earthquake origin story and its drying-controlled approach
- Coffee Review: Costa Rica Honey Process, Green Stone CoffeeCupping scores (1 of 3 averaged): Tarrazu, Caturra, 94 points, October 2025
- Coffee Review: Costa Rica Turrialba Volcano Honey Process, Buon CaffeCupping scores (2 of 3 averaged): Aquiares Farm, 94 points, June 2023
- Coffee Review: Costa Rica Sol Naciente White Honey, Reunion Island CoffeeCupping scores (3 of 3 averaged): Central Valley, Catuai, white honey, 92 points, October 2016
- Coffee Review: scoring methodology1-10 attribute scale definition