'CCOffee Break: Costa Coffee

It's been a while since I have been able to write a coffee blog. If you watch our morning show on a regular basis you may have heard I just got married.

Simply put, it was the best day of my life! After our wedding, my husband Brandon and I took off for Montezuma, Costa Rica for our jungle/"nature-ific" honeymoon.

This was my first experience out of the country. Brandon picked out a breathtaking location! We stayed in a bungalow on the edge of the rainforest, 25 yards from the beach of the Pacific. We were surrounded by wildlife, and the most colorful and beautiful plant life I have ever seen. We saw white-faced capuchin monkeys from the porch, playing in the trees and putting on a show for us. A few palm-sized lizards made themselves at home in our bungalow. On occasion we would hear howler monkeys, the loudest animal on earth, howling from the trees.

We hiked rocky terrain to one of Montezuma's majestic waterfalls, took an adventurous horseback ride to another waterfall, and took a restorative yoga class on the beach. Every morning we made a cup of Costa Rican coffee, and walked down the path to the ocean and watched the sunrise. The coffee certainly can't outshine the sunrise, but it was outstanding!

Something about coffee beans grown in the volcanic soil and tropical climate of Costa Rica that makes it a rich and flavorful experience, not just a cup of coffee! I am usually a one-cupper, but on this trip I got wildly caffeinated and had two cups a day.

We had a repeatedly funny and somewhat frustrating experience with our second cup of coffee of the day. Every time we sat down for breakfast, we had a blue jay eyeballing us. I typically add a packet of raw sugar to my coffee. The tourist savvy jay saw that and swooped in like a bandit and stole the sugar packet right in front of me. Was the bird trying to tell me something, no sugar needed for Costa Rican coffee? Is it a faux pas? Well it scared the daylights out of me. From that point on we kept a close eye on the jay! And I did keep adding a raw sugar packet to my fabulous cup of coffee.

One of the things Brandon got a kick out of is, every time we were served coffee, it came con leche, with steamed milk. Superb!

I put a few details about the type of coffee we had and where it's grown at the end of the blog and of course we brought several bags of coffee home.

One final note, for me, the Costa Rican coffee enhanced peaceful moments watching the sunrise with my husband, and now a wonderful memory of the happiest time of my life!

(The type of coffee we were drinking was made from Arabica coffee beans from the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Because of the high altitude, the beans are produced more slowly. Here's a link to the coffee we brought home.)