During the trip I was most surprised by the beginning step of the coffee production process where the plantation used mostly Nicaraguan workers to collect the beans. In the United States, modern agricultural harvesting methods mostly rely on the use of heavy machinery to quickly to collect crops from a large amount of land. But on the Doka plantation they continue to use primarily humans in the harvesting process. I was surprised at the accommodations which were provided to the workers on the plantation including the local housing and day cares. I was also surprised at the plantation’s payment method for their employees’ work. They were paid according to the number of baskets of coffee which they had at the end of the day. For each basket they were given a certain amount of money. After weeks of work throughout the four-month harvesting season, workers, especially the Nicaraguan workers were able to return home with an even greater amount of money due to the differences in the strength of the Costa Rian and Nicaraguan currencies. The Doka plantation seemed to provide a great number of people with opportunities through their fair pay and accommodations and their use of human employees rather than larger machinery like in the United States.

I was very surprised at how simplistic, yet effective Doka plantation’s coffee preparation process was advertised and demonstrated to be during the tour. The beginning separation (of different qualities of coffee) techniques of the process relied on the differences of densities between higher- and lower-quality beans. Then the cherries were separated from the beans in spinning drums which was followed by the beans drying out in the sun. The whole process seemed very simplistic, however, with the plantation’s method they are able to handle a significant amount of coffee per day and a total amount per year which makes them one of the largest and oldest coffee producers in Costa Rica.

I have never been a coffee drinker. It was never out of a disliking for coffee but more out of a lack of interest. On the Doka plantation today, I tried two small cups of coffee: one of the house blend and a iced coffee. The were both very good. Although, I have not tried too many other coffees, so I have a limited knowledge, I would say Costa Rican coffee is just as good as they say it is.