Heading to San Jose for a few days. Anyone have any coffee shop recommendations?

TIA

I sure wish I could help but I lived in San Jose in the 1980s. I can't even recall any cafes but have a great time - you will love it there!

Thanks! I have spent quite a bit of time in CR over the years but this will be my first time spending any real time in San Jose. I KNOW there is good coffee there so I will just have to report back on what I find.

I haven't been there in 10 years but I'm sure the Mercado Central is still pretty cool. Find the busiest lunch counter, wait in line and have some lunch. My wife and I had lunch there for less than $5 including the price for 2 CocaCola Lites.

No coffee there from what I can remember. But a cool place nonetheless.

It is easy to find good coffee in Costa Rica but today I found some great coffee at Cafetería Privilegios in the San Pedro neighborhood of San Jose. There were many coffees to chose from all roasted by the Dota cooperative. There were even more brewing methods to choose from. V60, Kalita wave, Chemex, Aeropress, French press, Moka pot, espresso, and Vandola.

What is Vandola you ask? I searched the forum and found nothing. Google found this: https://www.perfectdailygrind.com/2017/ ... dola-brew/

The shop owner explained it to me and since it is a locally invented method, I had to give it a try. It was very good. I may need to bring one home.

I also found another beautiful shop with an EK and a La Marzocco. They served below average espresso

Hope to have more good finds to report.

Just found another great spot. Nueve Specialty Coffee in barrio Escalante. Tiny space with great coffee. They roast their own and rotate the selection by season. All locally sourced coffee. I had an espresso that was bright and sweet. I also got to try the affogato and latte both of which were delicious.

I drove past and it looked good at first glance. We parked and walked up to find about 30 people standing outside getting a lecture from the owner about their coffee and their process. It was in spanish so I followed with about 90 percent comprehension. So the good thing was the free lecture. The downside was the wait for 30 espresso shots before I could place my order

Still, if you are in the bario, you should check it out!

Back home. I did find another great spot called Franco also in Bario Escalante. Very good food and very good espresso as well.

I did notice that quite a few places there offered coffee brewed in any way you can imagine. I can't see how you could expect your average barista to be proficient in so many brewing methods so I would just ask for an espresso and a black coffee in the brewing method of their choice. I was rarely disappointed but only mentioned the standout places.

One other stop I made was Coffea Diversa. Their main shop is in Escazu but that was on the other side of the city (close to the airport) and a 45 minute drive with no traffic or a 2 hour drive with. Fortunately I found they have a spot much closer to where I was staying. So I ubered there to find houses across the street from a park at the address of the business. Just as I was about to give up the uber driver said I should just ring the doorbell. Lucky for me, I did and it was the right address! It seemed like I stumbled upon their lab/storage space but I was able to buy my Vandola. I attached some pics of the place as well. They have a serious collection of brewing devices...all for sale, plus some roasters, grinders and even some Blind Shaker/Tumbler knockoffs.