Coffee is one of my favorite drinks, but I’ve never put much thought into how it gets into my cup or favorite Starbucks drink every morning. This trip has completely opened my eyes to the wonderful world of coffee production and I don’t think I’ve ever learned more about a type of beverage in my…
Tag: Sara D’Andrea
Cooperative Coffee
Today, we visited a new kind of coffee company. Coopedota is a coffee cooperative, meaning they have a pool of about 900 coffee farmers they get their coffee beans from. They get the beans from each farm, sort them by quantity, color, and size and then process, roast, and package the coffee to be sent…
Creating Better Coffee
To coffee farmers, one of the most important parts of the business is making sure their crop stays strong and healthy. Coffee plants are susceptible to pests that eat and damage the fruit and also fungi that can kill the plants. It is important to farmers to ensure the environment they are growing the plants…
Quakers in Costa Rica?
The first time I learned about Quakers was in elementary school. We talked about how the Quakers founded Pennsylvania and, it turns out, that Pennsylvania and Monteverde have a little bit in common. Although, the Quakers weren’t the first people to live in what was now Monteverde, they settled it substantially and founded it as…
Sustainable Farming in Monteverde
Life Monteverde is a small, family-run coffee plantation right in the mountainside of Monteverde. Although it was smaller than the two previous coffee plantations we visited, I found it to be the most impressive. Not only are the sustainability techniques incredibly cool, it seems as if the family is more connected to the environment and…
A Trip Into the Mountains
Today, we set off for the mountain community of Monteverde. The drive was beautiful but a little nerve-wracking as we had to drive up a windy mountain road without guardrails. However, the views were breathtaking as we could see all of the mountains and valleys from where we were driving. On our drive we passed…
Historia de San Jose
San Jose is a beautiful city full of life and rich with history. Today, our tour guide, Mario, took us through the city and showed us many historical places and monuments. We also went to two museums: El Museo Del Oro (The Gold Museum) and El Museo Nacional (The National Museum). They were both very…
BOOM Roasted!
Today was very eventful as we toured two different coffee plantations: Doka Estate and Café Britt. Doka was located high on a volcano and came with an incredible view. Café Britt had beautiful vegetation and pretty butterfly garden. Both make incredible coffee and come with many similarities and differences. A significant difference is that Doka…
Let’s Talk Politics
Today our group heard a lecture on Costa Rican economics and politics by Dr. Josè Diego Sanchez. The lecture was very informative and I learned a lot about the political and economic systems here that I had not known before. There were a few questions he answered in particular that I found interesting. 1. Is…
¡Bienvenido a Heredia!
When arriving in Costa Rica, I wanted to come in with no expectations, so I could take each experience in as it comes. It was night when we drove in from the airport in San Jose to ULatina in Heredia, where our host families awaited us. Even though it was dark out, I was still…
S is For Sustainability
Environmental sustainability is the ability to continue a certain behavior that benefits the environment for an indefinite period of time. This is very important to a country like Costa Rica because they put such a high value on their environment and much of their economy is dependent on ecotourism. One major initiative that Costa Rica…