Going to Doka thought me a lot about coffee and the making process. I was very surprised to learn that it took 3 and a half years to make a single bag of coffee. It really showed me that this is a very long process that starts with workers harvesting the coffee berries. I was not only very shocked to hear that the majority of workers are Venezuelan’s but even more shocked to hear the working perks to working with Doka. Not only do they get paid 30 dollars per day (which is a significant amount considering the cost of living in Venezuela), but they get lodging, day care, food, electricity, and even full medical coverage. To us Americans this may not sound like much but to me it really gave the impression that Doka do not only care about producing coffee, or how much they export that month, or even how much money they made, but they also care about their workers, keeping them safe, and happy.

I was also very shocked to see that Doka still uses older methods that were created years ago. They even still have machines that were built over 100 years ago. Although these methods obviously work very well it will be interesting to see the different newer methods being used at Coffee Brit tomorrow. The smartest things I would have never thought of is how they plant mango and eucalyptus trees to distract birds and insect from the and to provide shade for the coffee plants.

Overall, the tour of Doka was very beautiful and informational at the same time.