Today we got to visit two different farms in the high altitudes of Costa Rica’s Alajuela and Heredia provinces. We ascended the Poás Volcano for about an hour to reach the Doka Estate which sits at an altitude of about 1,300 meters (which is around 4200 feet). We were greeted with a small cup of the most delicious coffee I’ve ever had that tasted like a vanilla latte, and I don’t even like coffee. Once we took in the view from the estate we began our immersion in the coffee making process. I didn’t realize how truly complicated the process was until I got to see it firsthand. In short, it is a very selective process. Baby coffee trees are grown and the ones that survive are given a pair to continue growing with then spend a year in a greenhouse. These trees are then planted on the plots and won’t begin growing cherries for at least two years. However, we learned at the strawberry farm that we visited afterwards that baby strawberry plants are actually imported from Chile as opposed to being grown locally like the coffee trees, even though they are native to Africa.

Once on the plot, coffee trees have an expected productive lifespan of about 35 years whereas the strawberry plants only produce quality strawberries for about 2 years. However, they also produce strawberries all year round unlike the coffee trees. We learned that the coffee trees have a harvesting season lasting between October and February, which is considered the dry season in Costa Rica. It’s hard to say whether strawberry or coffee trees are ultimately more productive or cost efficient, but these two agricultural products seem to share a common strength on which they compete; quality. The coffee growing, picking, peeling, fermenting, drying, and packaging process is highly selective. This highly selective process can only be achieved through hand-picking each and every coffee cherry followed by several quality screening processes. While more recently they have upgraded the automation used in the process to be more sustainable, most of the steps are still also performed by employees along with the machinery. 

It is also important to note that both strawberries and coffee can be affected by things like insects and fungus. This is controlled through pesticides at the strawberry farm as well as native birds that eat insects on the coffee farm. With strawberries, the production process ends with picking and packaging the strawberries, whereas coffee undergoes a series of complex steps that ends with the green beans being packaged. Green beans are the innermost layer of coffee cherries and can only be reached after peeling the skin away, washing away the mucilage, drying the beans, and then finally after 3 or 4 months peeling away the parchment. Costa Rica only exports green beans in order to ensure consistent quality across different strains and hybrids while also giving countries they export to the opportunity to apply their own roasting processes.

Unfortunately the coffee industry is facing difficulty in Costa Rica because while the quality of their coffee is still considered high, other producers are pricing their crops at similar prices as Costa Rica due to a low yield season. There isn’t much they can do to combat this environmental influences, however if they continue to maintain their reputation of high quality coffee, then at the very least they should be able to retain the contracts they have currently. In order to appeal to new markets and companies, it is essential for Costa Rica to raise the brand of “Costa Rica coffee” as one of the best around, which I would be happy to confirm any day!