NESPRESSO TAKES US TO COSTA RICA

I don’t know about you, but my beginning of the year has been very exotic, see I’ve travelled to Nicaragua, Indonesia, Ethiopia, India and Colombia on a rather regular basis – every morning actually. When pressing the on button of your favorite Nespresso machine assures you a round trip to the most exotic destinations, you just go for it, right? As a reminder, last year Nespresso launched its Master Origin range; five unique coffees that tell the story of their own lands, as well as five distinct processes, all orchestrated hand in hand with local coffee farming experts, or so-called AAA farmers : these are farmers that are part of the brand’s AAA program, developed to secure the highest quality green coffee required to produce the Nespresso coffees, while protecting the environment and enhancing farmer welfare. We have Indonesia – rich and woody (also, Nespresso’s first FairTrade-labelled permanent coffee!), Ethiopia – flowery and bright, Colombia – fruity and vibrant, India – intense and spicy, and Nicaragua – sweet and harmonious. I already introduced you in details to Nespresso’s Master Origin Indonesia, Colombia and Nicaragua in a previous article (feel free to read it HERE), and in the meantime I really got into Master Origin India and Ethiopia, so let me give you a deeper insight of these two too:

MASTER ORIGIN INDIA

Unlike other locations, Indian coffee farmers use the monsoon technique to process their coffee. In the 19th Century this process was a natural one as the coffee beans were transported by ship to Europe and absorbed moisture of the sea winds along the way. Nowadays to achieve this intensity and spicy taste Nespresso’s partner farmers mimic this journey by leaving the coffee beans face to the wind for months, this results in the beans swelling and dying, and giving that wild, woody and spicy notes to Master Origin India’s coffee.

MASTER ORIGIN ETHIOPIA

Got a preference for not too strong coffee with floral notes? Master Origin Ethiopia might be the right choice for you : after being picked, coffee cherries are placed on braided dry beds where, for weeks, Ethiopian farmers continually hand-turn the beans under the highland sun – a method they perfected for centuries – to ensure an even drying and the layers of sweetness that can be achieved through this dry-processed technique. The result is an orange blossom aroma with rich fruit jam notes. 

By its diversity, the Master Origin range has been my favorite so far, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see some of the top hotels all over Switzerland jumping on the trend and proposing these sorts to their clients. Second very pleasant surprise has been the addition of a new Nespresso Master Origin destination: the Limited Edition Master Origin Costa Rica! 

Imagine the Costa Rican mountains, picture the country’s rich and wild scenery – this is where local farmers selectively handpick their Arabica coffee cherries. With this new Limited Edition, Nespresso is exposing another unique process: the Hot Springs technique. Basically, the coffee beans are soaked into rainforest hot mineral waters from the nearby springs during 12 hours, to thoroughly clean the beans and enhance its fine characteristics. This one-of-a-kind process results in a malty sweet, perfectly balanced coffee with delicate cereal notes. I’ve been having it with a drop of oat milk recently and I can tell you: it’s a must-try!

In collaboration with Nespresso

Pictures by Charles Legrand