Puerto Rico's Cordillera Central mountains were once the source of one of the world's most coveted coffees — Café de Yauco was shipped to the courts of European royalty in the late 19th century. After decades of decline following Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and economic shifts, a specialty revival is underway. The island's unique terroir — volcanic soils, Atlantic trade winds, and consistent tropical rainfall — produces coffees with a rich, creamy body unlike anything grown on the Central American mainland.
Puerto Rican coffee carries one of the most dramatic origin stories in the coffee world: from European royal tables to near-extinction and back. Today's specialty producers in Yauco, Lares, and Las Marías are writing the next chapter of that story.