Today we visited the coffee plantation and were able to see all the steps that make Costa Rican coffee so great. First, we got to see the plants and learned how they matured from a bean or seed to a full-grown plant. We then were taken through the picking process and learned about the workers. We learned that usually each worker picks around 7 baskets on average per day at about 28 pounds each during peak season. The one thing that surprised me the most about this part was how little the workers were paid. The average pay per basket was about $2-$5 and during peak growing season it would be on the lower end of this spectrum. At this rate, pickers would only be paid around $14 to $35 a day which is an extremely small amount of money to support a family or even one person.
After that, we visited the mill where we were able to see the process where they used water to separate the good beans from the bad ones. The good beans would sink to the bottom of the tank of water and be sucked out to the next room to be processed while the bad beans would float out and be processed in a separate grinder and tub in the next room. After they were put through the grinder in the next room the beans would be sent into the fermentation to sit and microorganisms would break down the sugars and acids in the fruit. When this process is done the beans are then put out to either dry outside for 4-5 days or depending on the weather they would be dried inside by a huge dryer that is powered by a furnace, fueled by old coffee plants being burned. The last step in the process is to pack the beans in bags of about 46 kg or 100 pounds each. These bags are measured in a unit of measure called a fanegas. According to Doka, each fanega was about $195 on average but since Costa Rican coffee is of higher quality these prices could be much higher around 300 dollars per fanega. We also learned that per hectare around 20.4 fanegas are produced on average but at Doka, this number is higher at around 35 fanegas per hectare.
Overall it surprised me about the technology that was used in this process and how little automation there is. Another thing that surprised me was how old the mill was because I figured that would have updated it more recently but they have been using the same mill and process since the early 20th century. As a person who does not drink a lot of coffee, I felt that coffee lived up to the hype and was definitely much better than the average American coffee. I also loved how Doka seemed to be a very sustainable company and used each part of the plant whether it was for coffee, fuel, or future compost for the other plants.
