I finally did it, visited the coffee farmers on their farms and picked and tasted coffee berries off the shrub. 10 days in Costa Rica, 5 Coffee farms and a co-operative, with the most amazing group of people, couldn’t have wished for a better tour guild either.
So it really isn’t a case of popping over to the source of coffee, the fact that it only grows naturally in the tropics. My flight was about 10hrs, I must admit I was a little nervous on the lead up to my trip, going on my own from my little village of Burwarton. First to London with a very heavy backpack, I now know I didn’t need half the stuff and the couple in the group who are avid backpackers, taught me how to pack it properly. They thought it was hilarious how big an heavy it was, apparently someone could live happily with everything they needed forever with a backpack that size? 70litre! 23kg!
So that was my first learning curve for next time (yes I want to go again, maybe Ethiopia, the birth place of coffee. I will be much more prepared and perhaps a little less nervous?).
Costa Rica was definitely a great option for my first coffee farm trip, I felt so safe there, it was so clean and everyone so polite and friendly and it’s quite touristy, so even though I thought I was being hard core, traveling on my own to Costa Rica, it really wasn’t, although I did feel a little like Mr Bean on holiday a couple of times, especially the first day taking a wonder in to the city of San Jose, it was so busy! Cars and people everywhere! The fact that I can’t speak Spanish made me even more nervous and went into the chemist to buy sun cream and came out with hair clips.
It wasn’t long until I was to meet the group, there was 9 of us – A couple from the Netherlands, Fabian and Jessica, four girl friends from Germany, brought along by Nana the 2008 German barista championships – Babs and Babs and Sabina. Then two girls from Belgium, a mother and daughter Else and Yindra. Yindra is a uni student who was sent on this trip for her uni project, this is such a fantastic experience, with her next big project being a pop up coffee shop back in Antwerp ‘Buna coffee and travel’.
Hortensia was our tour guild, and wow we couldn’t have wished for better. Her company ‘Viaje con café’ The daughter of a coffee farmer from Dota, Costa Rica.
First day with the group was a coffee history walk around the city of San jose, breakfast coffee was a Costa Rican traditional coffee making device, using a cloth filter through a wooden stand, called a Chorreador, it was very nice to use and I enjoyed the local Costa Rican coffee very much.
When walking round San Jose we were taking in so much from the tour guild, one thing that sticks in my mind when walking round was the many beautiful different trees.
It also came to light how much this city and country relies on coffee. We stopped outside a building with a plaque showing that it used to be the first coffee plantation in Costa Rica (1758 – 1816)
We then visited the National Theatre Museum of Costa Rica in the centre of San Jose. Coffee growers were the ones who initiated the Theatre being built, they self-imposed taxes on there coffee sold, so they could house events and Arts in a beautiful venue of their own, as you can imagine this did not come easy, but with the help of funds from teachers, artists, artisans, merchants of different kinds as well as students and housewives this architectural dream come true. There was many wonderful stories while standing in this beautiful building, looking at statues and art and how so much related to coffee and how much the people rely on the income from it.
I have so much information from this trip that I think I am going to have to do smaller blogs on some of the sections, otherwise this is going to turn into a book!!
The first day was unbelievable after the National theatre, it was to one of the first coffee talks and tasters of three in San Jose, Kalu and Kiosco ‘Cafe Oteca’ As well as trying some beautiful coffee’s Geisha variety, Honey processed, all from local farms of course I had it through the Vandola coffee method, which I have never tried before, visually stunning. A clay jug, pre-Columbian pottery, used for the pour over brewing method.
Next Coffee shop was Franco, here we were trying cold brews and the most wonderful espressos. Then the third cafe was under ground brew cafe, this place gave me so many ideas for my training room, all day I had tried some fantastic coffees but my favourite of the day was here, this was also done through the Vandola method and the coffee was from farmer Max Salazar, Region and farm – Zarcero, Alajuela, valle Occidental. Geisha variety, Full black honey processed, grown 1600masl, 1st crop. Lots of complexity, Citrus lime acidity, grapefruit bitterness, nice florals, sweet and acidity balance. (These were my taste notes, from this brew.)
I could not believe how fantastic the first day had been and how much I had already learnt and experienced, the next day we were to be up at 5am for breakfast and take the 2hour trip to my very first coffee farm. La Pira de Dota, Micro-Mill.
After this first full day of site seeing and information and taking it all in we were ready for a lovely dinner and a glass of Argentinian wine (Costa Rica wine is mainly from Chile or Argentina).
To be continued…
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