Day 2: College of Nursing student Alyssa Bubel writes about Doka Coffee Farm

Today we went to a volcano first and then on a coffee tour on our way to Las Juntas. It started with a sample of their coffee and the tour guide took us to see what coffee trees look like and then showed us the process.

The trees are usually kept there for 25 years (even though they can last around 100 years) in order to keep the best quality coffee. They harvest for 5 months starting in October.

The beans are green originally but turn red when they are ready to be picked. The beans are picked by hand for the best quality. They are put into a canasto which weighs about 28 pounds. This measuring unit of the coffee is called a cajuela.

The workers are only paid $2 for every basket (of 28 lbs). However, the 28 pounds ends up only being about 7 pounds once everything is removed and once they are roasted, the beans expand but they end up weighing less (about 6 lbs).

This system works because most of the workers come from Nicaragua for the harvesting season and the workers are provided with free housing, healthcare, water, etc. All they pay for during this time is their food so they end up making more in Costa Rica during harvesting season. They only have two chances to pick a good basket and if there is too much green beans or leaves then they will be fired.

During the process of making coffee, the good beans will sink in water and the bad quality will float on top. The quality usually relies on the density of the beans. After the coffee goes through all the machines, the beans are laid outside to dry for 5 days and they are raked every 45 minutes. Most of the coffee (85%) is high quality, 10% is medium and 5% is not good but they don’t waste anything produced there. After the tour, we went to another hospital and then to Las Juntas for the night!

One thought on “Day 2: College of Nursing student Alyssa Bubel writes about Doka Coffee Farm”

  1. Hiking up and along a volcano is very exciting! What an awesome opportunity. And such a great tour. I learned a lot about coffee reading your report (while I am actually a cup of drinking coffee!). Thanks for such a beautifully written description of your adventures!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *