Costa Rica
A small producer, and the home of CATIE — the research centre whose germplasm collection and breeding programme have shaped cacao planting across Latin America.
Costa Rica's own cacao production is modest, having been badly affected by monilia pod rot from the late 1970s. Its importance to the domain is scientific: the CATIE research centre at Turrialba holds one of the world's major cacao germplasm collections and has run breeding programmes whose selections are planted well beyond Costa Rica.
Commercial growing continues on the Caribbean side around Limón and in the south, with a small speciality and agrotourism sector.
- Flavour families
- fruity, nutty, acidic
- Named growing regions
- Talamanca(recorded in the catalogue; the regional index is not yet published)
Growing conditions
Grown principally on the Caribbean slope around Limón and in the Talamanca region, under shade and high rainfall.
Production scale
A small producer, significant to the industry mainly through cacao research rather than volume.
Flavour character
Often described as fruity with a nutty base and moderate acidity.
Why a research collection matters to a bar
Germplasm collections hold living examples of cacao diversity that commercial planting does not preserve. Breeding programmes draw on them for disease resistance and yield, and the clones that result — CCN-51 among the best known, though it was bred elsewhere — end up planted across continents. A great deal of what the world's cacao is genetically was decided in a handful of research stations.
Related
Varieties grown
- Regional hybrids and clonal selectionsHome of the CATIE germplasm collection, whose breeding selections are planted well beyond Costa Rica.
Growing regions
- TalamancaA Caribbean-slope region of Costa Rica with Bribri and Cabécar indigenous territories where cacao has long cultural use.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics — International Cocoa Organization (ICCO)(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)