Caffeine and I do not mix well. Copious amounts of caffeine and I mix even more poorly. I had a LOT of caffeine.
Any person who knows caffeine has an adverse effect on them would avoid coffee at all costs. But Costa Rican coffee has what I like to call an “after one more” effect. At the beginning of the tour, when the taste of the chocolate coffee con leche was described, there was no force in caelum et in terra capable of tearing down my rationalization, which was, “I will be fine if I drink no more coffee… after one more.” When we made it to the sample station, the coffee containers were sirens and I was Odysseus, except here there were no ropes to hold me down. Mini-cup after mini-cup, chocolate/coffee bean ball after chocolate/coffee bean ball, I was rapidly drowning my sanity in pure energy. After that tour, I was mentally exhausted and overwhelmed with information. But my body could have taken the wheel and driven me through a marathon or five. If it was not obvious by my insatiable gluttony for every Costa-Rican-caffeinated-substance, I really really liked the coffee.
But one can like a good and not its production. After all, do we not spend half our days on our phones yet also recognize the incredibly unethical ways they were built?
The statement above is a little too strong for the gripes that will follow. The complaints I have with production are not in the realm of morality: I do not have the facts on the ethics of the payment of the migrant workers**, nor am I going to complain about the mildly dangerous machinery. All of my frustration (with the exception of the part reserved for being shown processes that aren’t in mainstream use) is guided towards inefficiency. For one, there is no way even a hundred years ago raking was the most efficient method of letting sun hit the beans. No, I can’t think of any other methods achievable with the lesser technology of yesteryear but STILL it is frustrating that a considerable amount of manual labor went into something so easily done by a machine now. I am very glad the job is done by incubators nowadays. Another thing that upsets me is variety of equal options in the shop. Now, I know you are reading that thinking, “What?” But hear me out. *Disclaimer, this part is theory based on opinions provided by three people: me, myself, and I*
Costa Rica sells by image and rarity. People seek after Costa Rican coffee because of its rarity and image, and this leads companies to supply from Costa Rica as part of their marketing. So, sell a specific bag as being better than the rest. “Sure, French Roast is nice and Peaberry is sweet, but the House Blend always wins.” Over time, sales in other roasts drop lightly but having an “objectively better” option, the House Blend, will cause sales from indecisives (most people in the store) to SKYROCKET. Spread the opinion of the house roast being amazing using some media, and boom now companies have caught on to the public opinion and will buy house roast too.
A space to make this giant paragraph look less ugly.
The lack of tourists surprised me a lot. I believe it is possible that there is more of a focus in marketing on trying to grab attention by having sloths on coffee bags than there is on trying to market the touristic appeal of the Doka Estate. I believe that getting tourists to believe the Doka Estate is a must see should be a top priority of the marketing team. Getting the Doka Estate to have more traffic would increase interest in Costa Rica’s brand as a whole, and the world would follow. I was also surprised by how underrated the coffee was in general. I really do think the marketing team is doing a lot of fumbling here, because if people tried this coffee they would go nuts for it. As a final thought of this paragraph, maybe they should try to sell more bags to supermarkets for a higher price rather than exporting to companies.
Extra bullets
- I could not tell that the machines on the tour were the ones from a hundred years ago. I am shocked they are still in use, but my philosophy is that if it works, it works. The machines seemed incredibly efficient as well, only needing mild oversight between other tasks, as our guide said.
- I would die if left in a room with a lethal amount of chocolate wrapped coffee beans. Even given the knowledge that eating that many would cause my stomach to explode, I would most likely consider my stomach a worthy sacrifice.
- Every opinion I started to argue here would require extreme amounts of in-depth intelligence and research to flesh out to the point where they might be considered valid, but I still think bringing them up is worth it and also fun (I will die on any hill, even ill-informed ones).
- The system of picking cahuelas and putting them in tractors to deliver to mills seems very prudent. There was no surprise in hearing how migrant workers would come in, be housed nearby, pick beans, and be paid according to the amount they gathered. I did not write about that system because there was nothing to pick at, no pun intended, which means it is no fun to write about it.
- It was hard to comment on how I felt about production when we did not actually see what regular production looks like. I hope there are modern day plants and mills open for tourists. I asked out guide if that was the case, and she said yes.
- Messing around with ai generated images is probably the greatest decision of my life.
- I got a little carried away writing this blog, but as no one says, “A passionless wind lifts wax wings towards the sun, but a passionate wind lifts an injured bird free from its prison.”
“A passionless wind lifts wax wings towards the sun, but a passionate wind lifts an injured bird free from its prison.”
Definitely Ghandi
**Expanding on not having the facts on the ethics of the payments of the migrant workers
I have no idea what the average salary is in Costa Rica, nor do I know the average amount of compensation a migrant receives in South America. Honestly, when the amount of money paid by cahuela was mentioned, I had no idea if it was a good or bad number. My opinion is always that you can not judge a book by its cover. Reading over some other entries, it seems like people either thought the amount was way too low or very high, and I believe this is evidence that more information is required to pass down a final verdict.
The same also goes for the lack of safety around the machines. It is possible that these machines are incredibly safe compared to machines of other companies in and around Costa Rica, or the exact opposite. I would need way more knowledge to condemn or approve the safety level of these machines.