If you go to any supermarket or fería (outdoor farmers market) in Costa Rica you will notice that organic produce is more expensive and not usually as attractive as regular produce. However the benefits of organically grown foods are many. Organic foods are much healthier and beneficial for the environment. They are grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics, growth hormones a...

“The Food Truck” is the first restaurant on wheels to ride through the streets of Costa Rica. The project is an investment and risk by the Salas Barboza family, the first to bring to Costa Rica the popular style of eatery in the U.S. and Canada, but almost unknown in Costa Rica. Since the beginning, the family has faced all the limitations and tribulations of building in Costa Rica a company...

If you are a vegetarian or vegan, traveling in Costa Rica is easy. Even those needing a gluten-free or dairy-free diet will have options. Rice and beans (both black and red) are part of every meal, even breakfast. Plenty of tropical fruits, salads, steamed vegetables, fried plantains and corn tortillas are common and available. If you eat fish, the country is full of fresh fish (both saltwater and...

Once in awhile there comes along a drink recipe that is so abstract and unique, you ask yourself why in the world am I drinking this? This is definitely one of those times. Everyone has heard of Cacique Guaro, Costa Rica's most well known hard liquor. But fewer have heard or tried the following drink recipe. We must warn you that these shots go down very smooth and you can drink them quickly d...

Angie Morelli. Source: GMO Free Vegas Residents of Las Vegas are borrowing a page from Costa Rica's ongoing fight against agro-industrial leviathan Monsanto. Earlier this year, activists in Las Vegas staged one of the largest anti-Monsanto demonstrations seen in the United States, drawing 3,000 supporters and compromising traffic on the world-famous Las Vegas strip. Sin City may seem like a...

Source: Flickr CC For several decades, the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) in Costa Rica was described as a spartan, no-frills facility for air travel. It wasn't until almost the end of the 20th century that tourists and expats coming to Costa Rica started to see features that are standard in many airports around the world, such as terminals, lounges, duty-free shops, and places to...

Thank you to Mike Poynton for providing the following guest article, he is the owner and manager of Paradise Social Media in Costa Rica. Copos (literally, "flakes" - as in "snow flakes") are sold on the street and many of the popular beaches of Costa Rica by Copos vendors, pushing two-wheeled carts with insulated compartments that house a large block of ice (maqueta de hielo). The carts are...

Cheese, cheese, cheese and more cheese. The Santa Cruz Feria Del Queso (Santa Cruz Cheese Festival) is perhaps Costa Rica's greatest undiscovered culinary event for any tourist who does not mind severe constipation. It is a month of dairy delight culminating in the final Sunday unveiling of Costa Rica's largest cheese. Ever. It will probably remain undiscovered by most tourists because even wi...

Popular throughout Central American countries, though not readily available in the USA, “Guaro” is a distilled liquor originating in Costa Rica. Manufactured from sugar cane juice, Guaro has a high alcohol content, clear coloring and a strong but slightly sweet flavor. Most commonly mixed with fruit juice or soda (Fresca being a favorite), few people choose to consume this liquor in straight sh...

San Jose, April 10th, 2013 - Expo Vino Costa Rica 2013 is the event where wine lovers can travel around more than 80 wine distributors and producers from all around the world, they are going to be able to try the different wine varieties and qualities and get to know their main cellars. Expo Vino Costa Rica will be going on from Wednesday, October 23rd to Friday, October 25th, 2013 from 3:00 ...

If you make the trip to Samara or Carrillo Beaches in Guanacaste be sure to stop of at Panaderia y Heladeria PRINCESA Bakery & Ice Cream Parlor. It’s located just as you come down the hill from Nicoya into Samara on the right hand side at Patio Colonial. You can’t miss the big pink sign! Panaderia y Heladeria PRINCESA Bakery & Ice Cream Parlor opened in Samara July 14, 2012. The owner, Joan...

Note: This article is a real life experience of a pig farm in Guanacaste Costa Rica. If you eat Chicharrones, you need to know where they come from and how the process works. This day has been in the works for months, the one my brother-in-law has been threatening me with. I'm back on the enormous rice farm in Guanacaste. I've had a day to settle in and fired off about 150 pictures wanderin...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has published many articles about Volcano Brewing Company. Costa Rica is well known for its beautiful beaches, lush, wildlife-filled jungles, and ideal climate, not to mention low cost of living, bargain real estate, and low-cost medical care. “There was only one problem with Costa Rica,” says California native Joe Walsh. “No pale ale.” So he solved the problem...

Finca Luna Nueva will be hosting its second “Slow Food in the Rainforest” luncheon in celebration of Terra Madre Day on December 9, 2012. It will be a fun and exciting day at our eco-lodge in the rainforest. The event will start between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. with an introductory gathering in Casa Luna where we will serve fresh juice, coffee or tea, and galletas, after which the group will spli...

Recently The Costa Rica Star published an article on a breakfast smoothie recipe, the one below involves liquor. Congratulations to Adrian Vega, head bartender at the Costa Rica Marriott San Jose, for winning 1st place at the Costa Rica National World Class bartender competition by Diageo. Find his winning drink recipes below: “Magma Fusion” -1 ½ oz Tanqueray Ten (gin)...

You relocated to Costa Rica to enjoy a relaxing and peaceful lifestyle, the weather, to allow your money to go further, or some combination of that, plus other factors. Yet, you brought your old eating habits along with you. The fact is that eating processed meats, cheeses, and packaged goods costs a lot more in Costa Rica, as many of the brands you are used to are imported. Well, do yourse...

One of the best ways retirees can immerse themselves in Costa Rica’s culture and get the most out of the country is to understand its traditions. Costa Rica’s typical food dishes play a large role in its culture and traditions. Probably the first introduction retirees and others have to the country’s cuisine is a dish called gallo pinto. Gallo pinto means spotted rooster in Spanish and the ...

Volcano Brewing Company just launched a brand new website, check it out! Driving in Costa Rica is definitely a hot topic for many of our guests! Many tourists ask us if it is safe and easy to rent a car in Costa Rica (short answer: yes it is!). We get many locals that live everywhere from San Jose to Manuel Antonio, La Fortuna to Nosara, asking for driving directions and points of inter...

First distilled on sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean beginning in the seventeenth century, rum has enjoyed a long history in popular culture as the preferred drink of pirates, sailors and daiquiri-swilling tourists on tropical vacations. While early descriptions of the molasses-based spirit refer to it as a "hot, hellish, and terrible liquor," today we know rum as the base alcohol in tiki...

Spend only hours in Costa Rica and you are still likely to come across the ubiquitous brand of Dos Pinos. Easily the most popular and profitable Dairy Operation in Costa Rica (and much of Central America), their milk, ice cream, yogurts, cheeses and other varied list of dairy (and other) products can be found in every Costa Rica hotel, business, restaurant and private household in the county, ...

What's 44 years old, four countries wide, and comes in more than 30 flavors? For any Costa Rican, it's a no-brainer: POPS, the premium ice cream company that, since its founding in 1968, has found a way to become a multinational success with an increasingly diversified product line while maintaining its roots as a Costa Rican institution. According to president Carlos Abreu, American Ice Cre...

This article may have caught you way off guard, but you would not believe how much of an underground Harley Davidson and Motorcycle culture their is in Costa Rica until you head over to the Motor Psychos Bar and Grill in Santa Ana. When you pull into the parking lot, you notice that everyone is kind of doing their own thing. There is a calm chaos in the air, the servers don't respond to cat cal...

The French Alliance in Costa Rica presents "Bon ArtPetit: A Dining Table", a unique cultural and artistic project that is currently in its fifth iteration. "Intervention at the dining table" would be the most appropriate phrase to describe the concept of Bon ArtPetit. The dining table is an important place in our lives, for therein it is where we converge on to sit down, share, meet, and communic...

The town of Santa Cruz de Turrialba is preparing for the 2012 Cheese and Fair Expo to be held on June 30th, July 1st, July 7th, and July 8th. This is a community activity set up to promote their number one economic resource. The cheese production industry employs 96 percent of adults in Santa Cruz, and the Cheese Fair and Expo is an opportunity for neighbors to celebrate their traditions while pro...

A recent article in the online version of the Cleveland Jewish News described a typical example of conflict resolution in Costa Rica. Dental practitioner Dr. Yoav Taub and his wife arrived in the Juan Santamaria International Airport and tried to clear customs with a few days' supply of kosher food. As previously reported in The Costa Rica Star, importing food into our country can be a highly bur...

Researchers and scientists recently planted Clearfield rice, a transgenic crop produced in Costa Rica and marketed by biotechnology giant BASF, in farmland located in Guanacaste and other sectors of the country's Northern Zone. BASF is based in Germany, but the Clearfield seeds were developed by scientists at the private Rice Investigation Institute (INARROZ in Spanish). According to an article...

This is a guest article submission by David Ackley of Local Beer Blog (you can find them on Facebook). If there were an award for Most Scenic Brewery, Volcano Brewing Company would certainly be in the running. Just a few hours north of San Jose in the rural highlands of Costa Rica, lies one of the country's most active volcanos, Arenal Volcano.  Volcano Brewing Company sits a safe distance...

Inspired by the The Costa Rica Star's recent articles, and frustrated by the poor quality of the bell peppers at my local supermarket (you know the one that starts with “W” and ends in “almart”) my girlfriend and I decided to visit the Farmers' Market in Heredia. I had heard that I should arrive early for the best products, so when we arrived at a leisurely 9:30 am we expected things to have c...

Earlier this month, the Humane Society International announced its support of the following restaurants in Costa Rica for their use of cage-free eggs: Alquimia Healthy Buena Tierra Jardin del Parque Oasis Veggie House The restaurants above are located in the the Greater Metropolitan Area of San Jose. Regarding Oasis' choice of cage-free eggs, Cynthia Dent, Regional Manager for Lati...

Seventeen of the most skilled coffee cupping experts in the world have chosen the best beans in Costa Rica, and many of the wining roasts come from micro coops in the mountainous regions of Los Santos, province of San Jose. As written on the pages of Los Santos Hoy, an online news portal for one of Costa Rica's premier coffee growing and roasting regions, the 2012 Taza de la Excelencia (Cup of...

If you were not able to attend the first-ever Costa Rica Craft Beer Festival at Avenida Escazu a couple of weekends ago, you certainly missed out on a lot. While everyone hopes that a future iteration of the Craft Beer Festival will yield more master brewers, a greater range of microbrewery products, and greater overall interest in the craft beer scene in Costa Rica, you don't have to wait unti...

Early rains and precipitation forecasts for the rest of the year will bring instability to the agricultural markets, with uncertainty for farmers and benefits to consumers in a number of produce items. Preliminary reports indicate that May will be a good month for shoppers who flock to the farmers' markets in Costa Rica, and climate change has a lot to do with it. A 2008 study by researchers at...

As the first-ever Costa Rica Craft Beer Festival is underway in Avenida Escazu, more good news for beer lovers just arrived: Passengers flying from Denver or St. Louis to our Juan Santamaria and Daniel Oduber international airports will be able to enjoy Colorado's finest offerings on their next flight. The latest press release from Denver-based Frontier Airlines announced: "This brew is on y...

Tickets are now on sale for the first-ever Craft Beer Festival in Costa Rica, which will take place at Avenida Escazu on Saturday, April 21st at 11:00 am. The festival will feature the best that our microbreweries have to offer, tastings, workshops, presentations, music, and a brew-off between craft beer makers based in Costa Rica. The cost of a VIP ticket is 15,000 colones. A VIP ticket gi...

Faith travel or religious tourism has gained popularity over the years. This is a type of cultural tourism whereby people visit other parts of the world in order to see how their own faith is practiced, or to learn about how society is affected by religion (or even the other way around). Costa Rica may be the only constitutionally Catholic country in Latin America, but Christianity and Cath...

UPDATED: Go here for the most up to date information on the Beer Festival at Avenida Escazu. Beer lovers in Costa Rica are no longer limited to the commercial offerings of the Florida Ice & Farm S.A. and expensive imports at the store. On Saturday, April 21st, the first ever Microbrewery and Craft Beer Festival will take place in Avenida Escazu (map), featuring the best Costa Rica has t...

SAN JOSE – The annual gallo pinto fair held at Paseo Colon earlier today managed to attract more people than the Calle 13 concert on Friday night at the nearby La Sabana metropolitan park. The culinary activity, which showcases the most representative folkloric dish in Costa Rica, was part of the "Smoke-Free Sundays" initiative that the Municipality of San Jose is promoting each year. During ea...

This year's Festival Imperial is heavier on the estrogen than in previous years, and that's a very good thing. While we wait for the lucky reader who will take home two free weekend tickets to the festival, here's a look at some of the female artists who will grace the stages at La Guacima speedway in Alajuela on Saturday, March 24th and Sunday, March 25th. The Great Wilderness – Costa Rica ...

One of the most exciting musical acts that will play at the Festival Imperial this year is TV on the Radio, a Brooklyn-based band that has been producing an interesting brand of indie rock. TV on the Radio may not be as popular as some of the other acts playing at Festival Imperial, such as Maroon Five and Bjork, but they are darlings of the finicky indie rock critic industry spearheaded by Pitchf...

UPDATED Congratulations to the winner of the commenting contest, Ericka Castillo Arias, she will be going with her friend to the Festival Imperial weekend courtesy of The Costa Rica Star! Unfortunately Alex did not respond in time to claim the tickets to Imperial Festival, so we are resorting to another method. Tell us why you want to go to Imperial Festival on our Facebook page and we w...