What makes Puerto Rican coffee so unique from other coffees?
This may be a bit subjective because I am Puerto Rican but the reality is that I have tried many coffees from different origins and I can give my humble opinion. At the end of the day the best coffee is the one you like the most
Let's summarize the question in several historical facts.
1) We are one of two origins in the world that for better or worse are within the territory of the United States of America. The other origin is Hawaii, a permanent state of the United States that was able to develop its Denomination of Origin called Kona Coffee. We will talk about this topic another time.
2) With a territorial extension of 100 x 35 and a little more in the 19th century we became the sixth largest exporter of coffee in the world. I once had a conversation with Pedro "Pichi" Maldonado, owner of Café Don Pello and he told me that even Cuba at a certain time bought coffee from us. I found this fact very interesting because Cuba is a coffee producing country.
3) The Vatican and several European Kingdoms bought Puerto Rican coffee. So we can deduce that for more than a century ago we have been recognized for quality.
4) We are the coffee producing country that has received the most hurricane blows and yet our coffee growers have gotten up the next day to clean up the farm and continue planting. Its hard to remember but Hurricane Maria, wiped us off the coffee map and here we are still standing.
5) Puerto Rican coffee is exquisite. It has the perfect balance of sweetness, acidity and bitterness. Its chocolatey, caramel and hazelnut flavors make it the kind of coffee you want to repeat the cup over and over again.
Puerto Rican coffee is unique to us and that is why we take our job and the exposition of our coffee growers very seriously. We know that we have a lot to improve and this process will get us to that excellent cup of coffee that Puerto Rico has to offer.
