Today, we toured Hacienda Doka and learned about the coffee making process, which surprisingly has many steps. After the ripe coffee cherries are picked, they are placed in water. The cherries are then separated by those that sink, for “premium coffee,” and those that float, for “affordable coffee.” From there, the cherries are peeled, sorted by size, and left to ferment. Next, the cherries are left in the sun for 4-5 days, which is shown in the image below. Finally, after 4-5 more months, the husk is removed. One thing that I love about Doka is that they do not like to waste any of their resources. We learned that coffee plants decline in production after 25 years. Instead of throwing away their old plants, Doka burns them to use as fuel to mechanically dry the coffee cherries. In addition, the cherry peels are used as compost for the plants.

As an engineer, I am always thinking of ways add new technology. Currently at Doka, most of the work is done by human labor. This includes picking the coffee cherries, checking the quality of the coffee cherries that were picked, and turning the coffee beans while they dry in the sun. There are machines that can dry the coffee beans, however this is actually less efficient than drying them in the sun, as the machine can only take a small capacity.

During our tour, we learned that the pandemic had a large effect on Doka and their coffee process. Most of the workers at Doka come from neighboring countries. Since the borders were closed during Covid, many coffee plantations, including Doka, did not have nearly the supply of labor as they normally do. This made them realize that using more technology is a must in the future. To begin this process, Doka has expanded the width between rows of coffee plants in order to allow tractors to drive through and prune the plants as needed. While this is a great start, more technology will need to be implemented in the future, such as using automation to pick the ripe coffee cherries off of the plants.

I am an avid coffee drinker, so I was interested to see how the coffee here compared to the coffee I drink at home. After tasting Doka’s peaberry coffee, I am happy to say that Costa Rican coffee (and chocolate) is definitely all that it is hyped up to be!