Today, we drove to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens to enjoy the beautiful views of the falls and see the wildlife we may have missed on the trip so far. This program has enlightened me in many ways and helped me learn about the making process of the supply chain and how it relates to the various steps of the agricultural process.

Naturally, much of the making process happens on the farm. The process starts with the trees planted in a greenhouse for one year, brought to the farm to grow for two years, and producing yield for the next seven years. Throughout the plant’s life, quality and efficiency are stringently emphasized when farming for coffee. Even the quality of the soil is emphasized; we learned from Life Monteverde and Hacienda Doka that coffee farms include varied plant life to create a diverse soil for the coffee to thrive in. The diverse plant life also keeps bugs and birds off the coffee, reducing the need for harmful pesticides. Similarly, the banana farm we visited used bees and differed from other banana farms by not using plastic and pesticides within the banana farm. Past the soil, coffee farming becomes quite a bit more complex than banana farming. Pickers only select the big, bright red cherries to ensure a rich coffee yield. After picking the cherries, they are filled into cajuelas, and these cherries are put into wells full of water to sort quality by weight, with the heavy, high-quality cherries sinking to the bottom.

In terms of processing, the steps continue to the peeling of the skin through large peeling machines. In these machines, not only is the skin peeled, but the cherries are also quality sorted by their size, and the sizes are sorted into large tanks. The mucilage is washed off the seeds. Next, the peeled seeds are dried in the sun for about 5 days. Finally, the resulting seeds are weighed and are prepared to be roasted.

The particular roasting process must be just as precise as the farming process. The roast must be timed carefully to ensure the quality, desired roast, and to ensure the coffee does not burn. The temperature also must be meticulously monitored throughout the roasting process.

Even in shops and with customers, making a cup of coffee requires careful precision in temperature and making technique to ensure high quality.

This has been a phenomenal trip, and I am thankful to all of the companies and everyone who made this opportunity possible.