Day Three in Costa Rica

Today we visited the coffee farm of Rodrigo Vargas (Doka Estate) - the largest coffee farmer in all of Costa Rica and one of the most technically advanced farmers in the world. He has worked a great deal with the Agronomy center here in Costa Rica to provide land for experimentation and study to continue to find ways to help the farmers increase their yields in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Carlos Mario and Orlando, two of the agronomists from the Farmer Support Center, took us again through the entire life cycle of the coffee tree throughout the day.

The Doka coffee estate not only grows and processes their own coffee, they are well known for opening up their operations to tourists to educate people visiting Costa Rica on the coffee industry. Most tourists who visit Costa Rica and request a coffee estate tour are taken to Doka Estate, as it has the oldest wet mill in the entire country and is only a short distance from San Jose. Cindy, the guide who walked us through the processing mill let us know that when the tourists come from the cruise ships and tours of Costa Rica, they always speak very highly of Starbucks, and ask many questions about our relationship with the estate! She even let us know that one day she would love to work for us, at which point many in the group rumaged through their bag for a business card!

We visited the nursery where the coffee plants are germinated (1 - 1 1/2 month process) and then raised as seedlings (another 8 months) before being transported to the actual coffee farms. As most trees only produce coffee cherries for about 20 years, every year farmers replant 5% of their farm with seedlings that they need to care for for 3-4 years before they will produce their first, small crop. In this manner the farmer can maintain his crop yield (and income) at a relatively even level, while ensuring that every 20 years he has replanted his entire farm. We were given the opportunity to plant seedlings on the estate today, and I am looking forward to returning in a few years to see how the seedlings Marie and I planted are doing!

We were also given saws (the machetes were a bit too dangerous for a group of our size) and went through another lesson on how to prune coffee trees. After coffee trees have been producing cherries for about 8 - 10 years, their production begins to slow down. At his point, the trees are pruned back (at about the 120 cm mark) to encourage new shoots to grow to increase the productivity of the plant again and extend the life cycle to the 20 - 25 years mentioned previously. Marie and I pruned about 6 trees in our 20 minute activity and then learned that the average pruner will usually prune 500 plants in a six hour day!

As well, the Canadians all took a turn working the coffee drying patio, where the green coffee beans are turned every 15 minutes for 5 days to ensure that they dry evenly before being bagged for "reposa" (resting period).

My take away from today was that the quality of the coffee we drink all happens on the farm. Everything that occurs after that can either maintain or take away from the quality of the cup - but there is no process that can restore the quality if care and passion are not put into the plant from the minute it germinates. It is the responsibility of all the hands who touch the coffee cherries to maintain that quality - the picker hand selecting cherries of the perfect ripeness, plant management and pruning, proper processing, resting and packaging, transporting to our roasting plants and being delivered to our stores. Hundreds of hands take unbelieveable care in protecting the quality of our coffee through each step, and we have a responsibility to ensure that during the "last 10 feet" at our stores, we do everything possible to honour all of the work that has gone into getting the coffee to us, and as partners, we need to hold ourselves accountable to ensuring that every cup of brewed coffee, every hand crafted espresso beverage is perfect for our customers. Honour the standards and enjoy the coffee.

Adios,

Cindy GH