Today we toured Doka Coffee Estate! We drove through a beautiful landscape with valleys, trees, rivers, and even volcanos. The estate itself is elevated up the slope of a volcano because this is a more ideal climate for its growth. Upon arrival we tasted some iced coffee and even though I’m not a huge coffee fan, it was very tasty. We then learned about how the estate functions.

A coffee plant takes about a year to grow before it is ready to be planted in a field. After 3 years, the plant will produce fruit and after 20 it will no longer produce and is replaced. April and May are the rainy season and this is when the plants flowers bloom. Later, these flowers develop into a cherry. Once ripe, cherries are hand picked into baskets and the quality cherries are transported to the mill. Doka uses the oldest wet mill in the country. This mill runs on only water and separates the high quality cherries from the lesser quality ones. All the cherries are then peeled, fermented, dried, and aged separately. The higher quality cherries are usually exported, while the lesser quality ones are consumed in country.

I was very surprised by the lack of traditional electricity used by the estate. Hydropower fuels most of the processes, and the others are fueled by plants that no longer produce. I think that these methods are very intriguing and should potentially be looked into, before resorting to more traditional modern options, since clearly, they hold up. I also think it is interesting that all of the cherries are hand picked. This is creates a very high labor demand that cannot necessarily be met with younger generations. I am surprised there is not yet technology that can pick cherries to the quality expected, and I believe a development of such a technology could help to sustain the industry. Additionally, I was interested in the marketing strategy of “Cup of Excellence”, which is essentially a coffee competition and auction. I hope to explore this concept further in our field project.

I am looking forwards to learning about Cafe Brit tomorrow!