Today we journeyed to Doka Coffee Estate up on the side of the Poas Volcano! The bus ride there was over an hour long with many curves, hills, and beautiful views of Heredia and Alajuela. When we arrived, we were met with delicious samples of coffee and our tour guide Adriana. Although I rarely drink coffee, I could tell that the coffee I tasted was of high quality because of how much work is put into the process of producing the coffee. We got to see said process when we were taken through all the steps of growing, harvesting, filtering, drying, and finally, roasting the coffee beans. We learned about how Doka Estate hires workers from Niceragua to pick the coffee cherries and how they are not paid by hour, but by basket. Most of the labor is manual, which can be problematic if for example, there is a pandemic and it is difficult to find workers. I found it interesting that Doka provides housing on the estate and social security to all the migrant workers. 

A surprising part of the coffee producing process at Doka Estate is how the mill is run completely by water, so there is no electricity. The cherries are sorted by quality by seeing if they float or not. The cherries that float are deemed less desirable and those that sink are of higher quality. However, no coffee cherry goes to waste, the less desirable ones are just sold at a lower price! During the drying process, beans are either placed outside on the sun patios or in a large dryer, depending on the weather. Also, it was really cool to see that they have been using the same dryer since 1920. After the tour, we had the opportunity to listen to a Doka manager, Don Mario, present about the coffee industry in Costa Rica. I enjoyed learning about the coffee market overall and how the price of a pound of coffee is determined by the New York Stock Exchange, which can fluctuate daily. I also found it interesting that 79.5% of the profits from coffee sales goes back to the producers. This shows that Costa Rica really values the hard work of coffee plantations. 

After the coffee tour, we went to a local restaurant and I ate arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) and had a refreshing strawberry juice to drink. One of my favorite parts of the day was visiting the garden next to the restaurant because it was very peaceful. We then drove to la Universidad Latina de Costa Rica to have a survival Spanish lesson. I loved learning all the tico slang such as “chinche” which loosely translates to thingamajig. Additionally, I had a fun time testing my Spanish knowledge by coming up with a sentence to add to the story we made up as a class. Later, we ventured to the mall and eventually went back to our host families to eat dinner and end the day.