Word of the day – Coffee. Defined by the Webster Dictionary as “a hot drink made from the roasted and ground seeds of a tropical shrub.” It’s meaning to the billions of those who drink it worldwide is so much more though. It represents productivity, that ‘pick me up’ on a long day, and the golden bean as Costa Ricans like to say. Today we had the opportunity to visit one of the oldest coffee plantations in the world who use same of the same practices from nearly 100 years ago, the Doka plantation. Nearly every step of the process to harvest coffee was different than what I imagined. Starting with the picking of the coffee beans, I never could have guessed that there were Nicaraguans picking up to 15 massive bushels of coffee beans a day. The entire tour of the plantation opened my eyes to how complex and efficient the production of coffee really is. My appreciation for a quick cup of joe is certainly more than ever before.

One of the most interesting pieces of the process our tour guide shared was that plantations purposefully grow other plants and fruit such as bananas, mangos, eucalyptus, etc to avoid wild animals eating the coffee beans. It simple pieces of the process like that that reveal how long developed and adapted the plantation companies have grown. On top of that, an employee of the Doka company was explaining how the different coffee plantations in Costa Rica all work together rather than compete. He expressed that since the only competitive edge Costa Rica has in the global coffee market is quality, they established institutions and groups that set price levels and quality standards for everyone in the country. It’s amazing to see all of the plantations come together rather than try to undercut and outsell each other. Especially coming from America, most of my experiences with large businesses have been them screaming through advertisements that their product is the best with no regard for each other. I think the coffee market could be considered a microcosm for the nature of Costa Rican people overall, as our very insightful speaker today said, “we’re all just trying to survive.”

I found that the machinery used in the coffee plantation was nowhere near high tech or extremely complicated. More so, it was traditional systems that have been through the test of time continuously producing the highest quality of products. I respect and admire the lack of chemicals (aside from a few pesticides) and complications of Doka, why alter a process that has been pleasing customers for so long. I was also surprised to find that much of the coffee business is done through contracts years ahead of an actual harvest. Our speaker mentioned that most times their coffee is already sold of the next 3 years or so. It’s interesting because it’s some what a gamble, if coffee demand raises and prices rise they may have sold at less than market price or vice versa if they decline. I didn’t expect the coffee bean business to be so traditional or collaborative, I have a lot to share with my fellow caffeine enthusiasts when I get home.