Doka Estate

Jeni, Anna, Courtney, and I decided to get one last caffeine fix and headed up to the Doka Coffee Estate near Poas Volcano in Alajuela. The weather was perfect up on the mountain and the drive through the countryside was beautiful!

Before beginning the coffee tour, we had time to walk around the bonsai and butterfly gardens.

Some of the trees in the garden were nearly 30 years old. 

Blue Morpho Butterfly from the outside

Blue Morpho Butterfly on the inside!

Our tour guide Isaac showed us around the entire operation sharing fun facts with us along the way!

First the seed sprouts out of the ground. The seed is on top of the sprout and resembles a soldier helmet and is referred to as the soldado. The first leaves to sprout are the broad ones on the left and right resembling butterfly wings. They only appear once to protect the young roots from the harsh sun... this stage is called the mariposa. Finally the more slender leaves on the top and bottom sprout and this type of leaf continues to sprout for the rest of the plant's life. 

 Here the coffee plant is a year old. At this stage it is planted next to another coffee plant in the field that is about 16 years old. In a few years this plant will be ready to start producing fruit and the older one can be cut down and used as fuel in the drying process of the coffee beans.

The berry pickers, who do all their work by hand and must be careful to only pick the ripe berries, are paid by the basket full. Each basket is emptied into this green box to be measured again then emptied into the 17 ft of water below to be washed and sorted by weight and density... the better quality cherries will sink to the bottom and the ones that float are discarded. 

After being washed the shell of the berry is peeled to find the beans inside (2 or 3 beans each flat on one side or a single rounded bean called the peaberry... this is the highest quality bean because it has sucked up all the rich flavor and nutrients as the sole bean of its cherry)

Once peeled, the berries ferment in order to remove the sugary coating. If this step were skipped, the beans would burn during roasting. The by product is used to make coffee rum and vinegar.

Then the beans are dried using a machine or spread out by a rake on a large outdoor patio and dried by the sun. 

Next, roasting and packaging. 

Three grades of coffee... third (instant coffee), second (usually stays in Costa Rica to be sold in grocery stores but still better than most country's first grade) , and first grade (shipped to the US and Europe).  

Our guide also had plenty to say about decaf coffee. As a Costa Rican.... it is basically an abomination to drink decaf or even think about drinking it. He said besides being totally pointless, the process to remove the caffeine is also highly chemical intensive and not very good for you. Apparently Germany is the only country which does not use chemicals in this process (instead they use boiling water) so Costa Rica sends a portion of their coffee there and Germany ships it back caffeine free. They do this completely for free because they get to keep the caffeine which they then sell to energy drink, soda, and pharmaceutical companies. My favorite factoid of the tour!

After the tour we got to sample some of their coffees and then began the journey back to Ciudad Colon.