Puerto Rico Yauco Coffee

A mellow, sweet coffee from the mountains around Yauco in southwestern Puerto Rico, the island's coffee town. Island roasters and reviewers describe chocolate, nuts and caramel, with acidity that changes from lot to lot. Yaucono is the long-running brand that carries the town's name. Brewed as a pour-over or drip coffee at 93°C.

Origin & Story

The coffee town

Yauco sits on the southern slope of the Cordillera Central, and Puerto Rico knows it as El Pueblo del Café, the coffee town, and also as the town of the Corsicans. Growing areas on the island are quoted anywhere from about 700 to 1,200 meters, and the sources do not agree on a single figure for Yauco itself.

Coffee reached Puerto Rico in 1736. The route is disputed: one account says it came from Martinique, while a 1935 pamphlet by Jorge Saldaña says the plants were imported from Santo Domingo, having first come from Martinique. For a long time it was a minor crop grown mostly for local use. It grew into an export business in the 1800s, when European settlers brought expertise, and one reference work ranks the island as the world's seventh-largest producer by the late nineteenth century. Most of the crop went to Spain, Cuba and other European buyers.

Who made Yauco famous

An 1815 royal decree opened the island to European settlers, and Corsicans began arriving in Yauco in the 1830s, drawn by good farmland. Family names such as Mariani, Negroni, Pagani, Antongiorgi, Agostini and Rossi are still common in the town. By the 1860s Corsican growers were among the most prominent on the island, though no census gives an exact share, and Catalan and Majorcan landowners were also influential in the western mountains.

Then the market shifted. After Spain ceded the island to the United States in 1898, Spain and Cuba began charging duty on Puerto Rican coffee, while sugar could be sold in the United States free of duty. A hurricane in August 1899 flattened much of the crop, and sugar cane replaced coffee as the island's main export. Coffee did not disappear, and the Yauco National Coffee Festival, first held in 1975 and still held each February, is the oldest of the island's coffee festivals.

Hurricanes, haciendas and what is left

The industry is small now. The island's own production is about 30 percent of the coffee sold there, and Dominican and Mexican coffee is imported to fill the gap. Hurricane Maria in 2017 hit hard: the island's agriculture secretary said it destroyed 85 percent of coffee harvests, and the USDA says it damaged about 80 percent of the 18,000 acres planted. Because a coffee tree takes about three years to bear, the recovery was slow. Old haciendas have been revived, and the Cordillera Central is again the center of production, with Yauco among its main municipalities.

Yaucono, the brand

Yaucono is a roaster's brand, not a place. Its company counts its history from 1896 and says it buys more than half the coffee harvested in Puerto Rico. A Wikipedia entry on a former owner dates the Café Yaucono name to 1914, so the histories do not match. Another brand, Yauco Selecto, has been exported since about 1990, and one history of the region calls it a commercial brand, not a legal designation of origin. Neither name proves that the coffee in the bag was grown in Yauco, so read the label for 100 percent Puerto Rican and for the farm or region.

What the cup tastes like

The descriptions are consistent about chocolate and uneven about acidity. A 1998 Coffee Review panel found a Yauco Selecto balanced and clean, with nutty aroma and chocolate in the finish. A 2015 review of a natural Yauco-region coffee from Café El Mesón found lavender, cherry blossom, baker's chocolate and almond with a sweetly tart acidity, and scored it 89. Gustos Coffee describes a Yauco farm lot with sweet chocolate and caramel, medium acidity and full body. A Puerto Rican coffee shop's regional guide mentions a full body, a creamy texture and low to moderate acidity. So the smooth, low-acid label that comes with much Puerto Rican coffee is a marketing line on some bags and a fair description of others. Expect chocolate, nuts and caramel, and taste before assuming mildness.

Brewing it

Use water at 93°C, a medium grind and 14.4 g of coffee for a 240 ml cup, in a drip machine or a pour-over with a paper filter. If the cup tastes sharp or thin, grind a little finer. If it tastes dry or bitter, go coarser.

Reading the Flavor Profile

These values are comparative editorial positions within our own catalog, calibrated so entries can be ranked against each other. They are not laboratory measurements.