Black as Night

To end my blogging on coffee, I feel like I would provide some general information on the coffee industry globally and in the United States, as well as my experiences with it personally here in Costa Rica.

Coffee was initially discovered by monks in Ethiopia around 800AD, which from there has expanded into one of the largest drinks in the world (focused in both North America and Europe).  There are several types of beans in the world, but the majority that are grown are called arabica, which primarily grown in Latin America.  Coffee started its growth in shaded areas but farmers soon moved to more of a sun grown method because it produces faster growth of the coffee fruit and the plants could be planted in rows, allowing for a greater yield.

What we have learned from our trips to coffee plantations, is that this method is the most commonly used system of growth, but it is also the most damaging environmentally.  This method requires the cutting down of forests and removal of diversity.  If a shaded method were to be maintained, more diversity and sustainability could be achieved.  The problem is this takes longer and is not as profitable.  Because sun growing is the norm now, it needs numerous pesticides to grow because coffee in many sunny environments cannot grow normally.

There is a group in the United States, American Birding Association, which pushes for a more original type of growing (shaded) to encourage a more organic and sustainable method of growing to be adopted.  This is a novel idea, but what was said at Del Cafe Tal, unless a company is large enough to implement these methods, it does not lead to a profitable business model of the global markets.  Cafe Britt which caries at least an organic shaded coffee is only a small aspect of their sales globally, which its normal sun grown coffee is the primary 

Coffea Arabica

Following the required post for coffee, last week the second coffee plantation we visited was Café Britt. This was a large scale corperation who actually does not grow the majority of their own coffee but buys it from smaller growers in specific regions, all over Costa Rica. This differs from the other plantation that we visited because of its sheer size and the fact that it does not grow the majority of its own coffee.

When we visited, the tour that was given was of an organic field or section, which is the ideal item now on the market. What is meant to be organic, is the lack of pesticides used in the growing. The coffee is allowed to grow into its natural ripening stages and is picked then dried like standard coffee. Like it was mentioned in the Devils Blend post, this type of growing is very expensive and generally cannot be the primary product for a company smaller than a corperation (caffee britts focal is still chemically grown coffee, but they have the resources to support this growing)

The tour itself felt more along the lines of a Disney tour of the Small World ride. Our guides would often make jokes and elementary run downs of the process for which coffee is made, showing that at the end product, that only 20% of the origional fruit remains (the whole time dressing in costumes of certain countries). It was noticable that a prime differnce in the production of each plantations coffee, Britt would often dry thier coffee in machines to save time and money, while Del Cafe Tal primarily used drying tables which used the power of the sun to do the work. More than often, I felt that the primary goal of our tourguides was to draw attention to them and provide vague facts which would deter questions about their big business practices.
Overall the tour was intrigueing because it did take us around the headquarters of the company. It is very clean and the tour entertaining if you have children along or happen to be on certain types of drugs (which I dont condone). It does provide some interesting information and a glimps into an industrialized approach to packaging coffee for shipment around the world. Some of the basic coffee smelling practices are shown to enhance a coffee tasting experience (you need suck a sip of fresh coffee in in quickly with a lot of air) and thankfully they ended the tour with a stop at a gift shop which could be mistaken for a high end gift shop in San Jose (included are many trinkets and shirts not conducive coffee drinking, though I dont drink coffee so Im not sure).

Caffine High

Today we went to Café Brit, which is a large coffee corporation. The general feeling of the place was that of Disney World´s Small World ride. Everything was scripted for the crowd’s enjoyment, while general knowledge about the business was avoided unless asked. I have to say it was funny how blunt the presenters are on cultural stereotypes, which you can see in these pictures.

Tomorrow will be my last post till Monday because we are heading to Monte Verde to visit hot springs, horseback riding, hiking to waterfalls, volcano walks, canopy tours (zip lining), and evening and morning jungle walks. It should be pretty sweet. As for now I am going to attempt to run in the pouring rain to rehab my ailing knee and catch up on some sleep.
Information on Café Brit will become available next week (pertinent business info on the coffee industry, not its show that was given today). Also I will hopefully give information on the trip to some world renowned surfing that will be occurring on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. Buenos Noches.

Song of the afternoon: Disney´s Small World mixed with Big Business Assembly Line music

Devil's Blend

Today we went on a visit of a local coffee plantation called Del Cafe Tal, owned and operated by Daisy Rodriguez.  This coffee plantation, with seven year round employees and 70 seasonal, is the number one coffee in taste from Costa Rica and number 2 in Latin America.  The tour went through the vast area of growing which this quality coffee is produced.  Started ten years ago, it has gone through changes, starting with the growth and success, then to the attempts at organic growing.  This change brought problems though because of the small production and corruption which is associated with organic growers.  It can be commonly found that natural growers will often cheat or not be completely in line with a true "organic" grower.  

Though this was short lived, the move back to normal grower has proved successful because a month ago, this plantation was awarded the best tasting coffee in Costa Rica.  Its products are sold in Japan, Europe and the United States.  Costa Rica is not a primary market due to the high price demanded which normal citizens are unwilling to pay.  

The general information provided about the coffee during the tour is:

• The harvest season is December, which 70 harvesters (from Nicaragua) are brought in to complete
• The average lifespan of a coffee plant is about 5 years, where it takes three years to mature and grow the coffee fruit.
• It takes two to three months for the coffee to go from the plant to be drinkable.
• The prime time to pick the coffee bean is when the skin is a dark red, or the taste will be bitter.

As for general information about my happenings:  last night we went out to Sultans bar which was pretty good.  The beer cost about 50 cents for any bottled Costa Rican beer (hazardous but sweet).  It was a dangerous idea to get a hooka, which was very smooth (for my third time doing it).  We continue to have trouble with the cabies trying to rip us off for being stupid Americans, but we work it out.  Tomorrow we are visiting Caffee grit, a large coffee company.  So peace for now homies.  The quote of the day is from our tour guide "Costa Ricans are lazy, waiting for the last moment to get things done".  That is for my mom who says I'm the only one who does that.

Song of the day:  Jump On It by Sir Mix a Lot