Costa Rican vs Peruvian coffee: taste, roast and which one to buy

Buy No. 8 Consent if you want a sweet, clean cup with apple and honey that suits someone who says they do not like black coffee. Buy No. 10 Folklore if you want a mild, round cup with salted caramel and citrus for the second pot and the one you make for the house. Both are medium roast and both are fine in a drip machine, so this comes down to taste and not to brew method.

How do No. 8 Consent and No. 10 Folklore compare on the label?

Here is everything the roaster, Temecula Coffee Roasters in Temecula, California, prints for the two bags, side by side.

The price is the same, so you can ignore budget and pick by taste.

What is actually different in the cup?

Start with the notes. Consent reads as fruit and sugar: sweet apple, raisin and honey. Folklore reads as caramel with a bright edge: salted caramel and citrus, with a silky feel. If your usual complaint about coffee is that it is sharp or bitter, the sweeter profile of Consent is the safer start. If you like a little brightness but nothing that bites, Folklore sits there.

Then look at process. Both are sun dried. Consent is eco-pulped, which is the term on the label. Folklore is fully washed, the more familiar process. We do not want to guess at how much each step shows up in the cup, so we stick to the notes the roaster prints. If you want to know how a fully washed coffee from another origin compares, we put Tanzania against Peru and Costa Rica against Tanzania in separate posts.

Altitude is the other number worth a look. Consent is grown at 1,300 to 1,445 m, a fairly tight band. Folklore spans 1,100 to 1,700 m across two regions, Piura and Amazonas, and lists five varietals against two for Consent. A wider spread of origin and varietals is a fact about the blend of lots, and we will not stretch it into a claim about quality.

How should you brew each one?

Both labels give the same starting dose: 60 g of coffee per litre of water, which is roughly 2 oz of coffee for 34 fl oz of water. Consent is labeled for drip or pour-over, and the roaster describes it as clean and sweet, with nothing in it to push back against. Folklore is labeled for drip or French press, and described as mild and round, the kind of cup that does not fight back.

That gives you a practical split. Pour-over lover: Consent. French press household: Folklore. Drip machine: either. Our full instructions live in the guides for No. 8 Consent and No. 10 Folklore, so we will not repeat the recipes here. For a cup-by-cup description of the Costa Rican, see what No. 8 Consent tastes like.

What do the two have in common?

More than the table suggests. Both bags are medium roast, both are sun dried, both share Caturra and Catuai among their varietals, and both are labeled for drip. Neither is a flavored or dark coffee, and neither is built to be punchy. If you are coming from a darker roast or from a supermarket bag, either is a gentle step toward a coffee you can taste. We wrote about the other half of that switch in our Costa Rican label vs a supermarket Costa Rican bag, which shows what to look for on any bag.

The roaster does not publish cupping scores or lot details for either coffee on the bag, so we will not offer any. What you have is the label, and the label is enough to choose.

Which one should you buy?

Pick Consent when the coffee is for you and you want fruit and honey, when you pour over, or when you are handing a bag to a friend who avoids black coffee. Pick Folklore when the coffee is for the whole house, when you brew a big pot or a press, or when you want something mild with caramel in it. If you cannot decide, buy one now and the other next month. The subscription is 11% off, skip or cancel in one click, so trying the second one costs you nothing extra to commit to.

You can also browse all ten coffees.