Today we got to visit Doka Coffee. They are one of the largest coffee producers in Costa Rica. We were able to see the whole process starting from growing the plant, all the way to the final coffee bean. This may seem like a simple task at the surface level, but there are many nuances that go into the process of making coffee.

Let’s start at the beginning. First we need to plant the coffee beans to grow a coffee plant. Once this plant matures to about 1 year old, it can be put into the field to start producing coffee beans. At this age, the stock of the plant will be strong enough to survive weather and other conditions. (Coffee plants are only used until they are about 25 years old. At 25, they yield less product and grow too tall, and are replaced by the young plants. However, these old plants are built of really dense wood, making them very good for biofuel. They are recycled to fuel other various tasks!)

Lets get down to the picking of the cherries! Wait, cherries? No, that’s not a typo… coffee beans start out as cherries! Now not any cherries will do. In Costa Rica, cherries are hand picked by workers when they are red, meaning they are ripe. The hand picking ensures that the cherries are ready to go and creates little waste compared to a machine picking them. After this we can start turning these cherries into the beans we all know and love.

Cherries are put into a basin with water to test if they are of premium quality. The dense beans will sink, indicating that they are high quality, while the bad beans float. (These bad beans can still be turned into coffee, but they are not of the best quality). The best beans move on to have the pulp and skin removed, and are sorted by size. After this step, the beans are dried out in the sun, but if need be, can be placed into a furnace to dry out. After the beans have been dried, the shell/skin of the coffee bean can be removed by a machine, giving us our final product, a green coffee bean!

Wait… I thought that coffee beans were a dark brown color. What is all this talk about green? They will eventually be that desired coffee color, but this occurs after roasting the beans. The type of roast depends on how long they are under heat. A darker roast is more time under heat (up to about 20 minutes), while a light roast is less time (only about 8 minutes). Many coffee producers such as Doka won’t roast their beans, but will ship them to companies so they can roast them.

I think the thing that suprised me most about this process is that all of the picking is by hand. In places like Brazil, this is a machine automated process. However, this hand picking sets Costa Rica apart because they look for quality over quantity. This is the only way they can compete with places such as Brazil. The technology they used was very interesting, and on a surface level, seems like a very efficient process.

I had the chance to taste some of this premium coffee, and I am sad to inform you that I did not enjoy it. However, I have no basis to compare it to as I do not drink coffee, and don’t like ANY coffee. Because this was not a fair evaluation by me, it seems like you will have to come to Doka and try out some of their coffee for yourselves!