Costa Ricans love their coffee, and with good reason: The brew is delicious and the aroma is absolutely intoxicating. Dark roast is the most popular, enjoyed as a hot drink and also in smoothies, mixed with cocoa and as a body scrub. The skin-smoothing tradition is on the spa menu at the Four Seasons Costa Rica, on the Papagayo Peninsula—paradise!—where the Organic Coffee Body Scrub features a full-body dry brushing, an exfoliation with organic Costa Rican coffee scrub (hand-mixed at the resort, from local grounds and soybean oil), followed by a shower and application of delicious vanilla bean lotion. For a detoxifying add-on, the Green Coffee Detoxifying Wrap, made from 98 percent green coffee powder from Pevonia, is divinely relaxing. “The scrub is a great nonabrasive skin polisher, which gives a nice finish to the skin,” says Spa Director Livvia Reddington. “The caffeine absorbs into your system, acts as a diuretic and detoxes the system.” Especially enjoyable when followed with a nice cup of joe on the beach. fourseasons.com/costarica/
—Rona Berg