Costa Rica, Part Two

Day two of my awesome origin trip in Costa Rica began with a visit to Coffee Source Inc. coffee exporters.  Arnoldo Leiva, longtime friend of Portland Roasting Coffee, picked us up and brought us to his office.  He is the General Manager at Coffee Source, owned by the Vargas family.  The Vargas family also owns coffee farms in the area, including the La Hilda Estate where we buy coffee.  At the office we were able to cup some coffees from the area.  We got to try different grades from the same farm, tasting some beans that are not high enough quality for export (these are saved for local consumption) as well as coffees similar to what we buy.  Since most high quality coffees don’t stay in countries of origin, the coffee at the cupping was the best coffee I tasted on this trip.

It is a little sad to be at the source of great coffee, but not able to enjoy it except at home.  I heard that some quality coffee has begun to stay in-country at higher-end restaurants and resorts as more tourists are savvy about good coffee.

Coffee Source cupping room(notice a Portland Roasting bag on the top shelf!)

After the cupping we drove back into the mountains outside San Jose to the coffee growing area, this time to Vargas-owned farms.  At a small coffee and gift shop, Cafe Luisa, I tasted a coffee overlooking coffee trees interspersed with banana for some shade.  Not amazing coffee, but so enjoyable in this setting!

Cafe Luisa

We climbed higher up the hills and entered the La Hilda Estate.  Here, like at La Minita the previous day, trees are being fully stripped of beans at the end of harvest.  This process is still done by hand, and the migrant workers doing the picking are primarily from Nicaragua.  We heard that in Nicaragua there are migrant workers from Panama picking coffee cherries.  Sounds strange to me, but it is normal for them.

stripping all the remaining fruit prepares the plant for next season

Arnoldo in the background with migrant worker

The workers we encountered were all very happy and energetic.  Some of the workers had their kids with them, and the kids played and ran around through the coffee trees.

awwww....

The trucks drive through the fields at the end of the day and pay each worker for all they have picked.  Then the trucks take the coffee cherries to the mill for processing.  There are many year-round workers from Costa Rica that care for the trees and run the mill.  There is housing and a school for the workers’ children on the Estate property.

Chris and I in front of the school. Unfortunately for us it was a holiday week while we were there.

The Vargas-owned mill is a huge operation.  There is a chapel and the patriarch’s original home, as well as offices on the grounds where the processing facilities are.  Coffee wood from prunings and parchment are used in the furnaces that power the dryers.

unloading coffee cherries from the trucks at the mill

furnace!

huge dryers bring the beans to the right moisture level

After hulling, fermenting, washing and drying, beans are stored with the parchment still attached in big square bags.

It was very exciting for me to witness coffee growing and processing first-hand.  I have been fascinated with coffee and had numerous coffee jobs over the last several years and always wondered what it would be like to travel to origin.  The intricacies and the huge scale of the entire operation is staggering.  It is amazing that this one plant could spur such loyalty and dedication.  Our collective human obsession with coffee has created an astounding infrastructure to feed our desire.  I know that most Costa Rican coffee farmers are much better off than their counterparts in other countries.  There are many people struggling to survive on the low prices they receive for the beans they grow.  However, it is heartening to know that the way we choose to purchase coffee considers the lives of the farmers and their greater communities.  End users that are willing to pay a little more for a quality cup of coffee help ensure that the producers are receiving a decent wage.

The rest of my trip was truly a vacation.  I feel a little guilty talking about it because I got to spend three days at resorts.  We drove from San Jose to the Arenal Volcano and got to relax in hot springs that are heated by the lava flows.  The area was blanketed in clouds so we couldn’t see the volcano itself even though we were just below it, but who cares when you are sitting in hot springs surrounded by tropical plants?

toucan sam!

Don’t hate me, but the final two days of the trip were spent at the beach.  It was sunny and warm in Playa Tamarindo on the Pacific Coast.  Okay, you can hate me, it was incredible.  Thanks to Mark for the opportunity to go on this trip, and thanks to Chris Carter from FSA who was on the trip with us.  He was a great travel companion who was inquisitve, generous and all-around easy to get along with.  All I have left to say is…

Cheers!