Doka Estates Coffee Tour

Doka Estates was a fantastic tour. Our ride was here a half an hour early (who says Costa Rican's are always late?) and the hour drive up the mountain was beautiful. I was a little worried that Oscar and Callym would find this tour dull and boring, after all it was a walking tour all about coffee.... They always seem to surprise us though. The moment we arrived a wonderful lady named Cindy introduced herself and we were on our way. We came at a great time, the four of us were the only ones on the tour, we felt special.

Cindy first brought us to the samples and tasting area, espresso, french roast, pea-berry, house blend (french and mixed), breakfast blend (french, pea-berry and mixed), and decaffeinated. Seeing as we were on a coffee tour, and we wanted the boys to have fun, we let them try some coffee (decaf, don't worry!). They loved it, and I was starting to think that this tour would be ok for them. I have to put in here as well, Cindy loved our kids. From the time we arrived, to the last second she was with us, she was playing with the boys, teasing them, tickling them, asking them questions, and more. She has 3 kids of her own, and you could tell she loved kids. Everyone also commented on Callym's hair. It's gotten so light here in the sun, and people just come up to him and touch it, it's pretty cute.

So, we're off now walking through Doka estates. This place is 450 acres big, and the oldest plantation in Costa Rica. It was started by a German man. There are over 1500 pickers in the harvesting season, and they average about 20 baskets a day (1$ per basket). All of the pickers are Nicaraguan, they come with there families, and all but the youngest children help with the picking. Doka Estates gives the pickers little homes to stay in for free that way all the money they make can be saved for their families.

We saw how the coffee plants start out, and how big they get when they are 6 months, 1 and 3 years. You can't plant them into the earth until they are 3 years old, and the plants will only produce for around 20 years. Here they prune them every 3 years so that the beans stay fresh and healthy. Cindy showed us the green and yellow and red beans. You only pick the red beans, and she asked the boys if they wanted to try to fill a basket with red ripe coffee beans. In a flash they were searching the bushes for anything red. Is this red, what about this one? The were grabbing handfuls of red beans and throwing them in the bucket. How much fun can you have picking beans? We may just have an idea of how to stay in Costa Rica and make money..... pick coffee beans....

Inside the ripe red beans the actual bean is covered in a gel like substance, this is the sugar. Doka estates takes this and uses it to make it's coffee liquor. Did you know that the coffee bean is actually a fruit?

Cindy then took us to the fermenting, sorting drying and packaging areas. Station 1 is where the pickers bring in their baskets for the day and they are weigh, then they are dumped into water and the sorting begins. All the 1st class beans sink to the bottom, and the 3rd class beans float. Here is a sad little fact. Costa Rica exports 100% of their first class coffee crop. Wanna know who gets to drink the best coffee beans made in C.R? Well, 75% goes straight to Starbucks!!! 20% goes to Germany, and 5% (the 3rd class coffee) stay here in Costa Rica for the people. Sad, but Cindy says that here people can't afford 5$ for a bag of coffee. The first class is sold for around 5$ a bag, and the 3rd class is sold for 1$ a bag. Kinda makes you wonder why Starbucks charges over 10 for their coffee?!?

After the beans are sorted they are run through a machine that takes the outer layer of skin off (or the shell). This shell is saved for later. You will see that Doka doesn't waste anything here. This machine also extracts the sugar for using later in liquor's. From there they are put out to ferment. So far all of these processes are done either by hand (the picking) or by water (the machines and sorting are all powered by the streams near by. This is how they did it over a 100 years ago, and it is the way it is still done. Fermenting takes around 20 hours, and is done without chemicals. From there the beans are put out in the sun to dry. Actually, the first class are put out to dry naturally in the sun, the 3rd class is put in a heavy machine and dried that way. This machine isn't powered by water, but heated using the husk and tree clipping of the coffee plant. See, no waste.

The drying process is really cool. Just huge areas of cement covered in beans. The workers need to come every 15 minutes to rake the beans in order to have a complete and even dry. This is where the boys had even more fun. Cindy handed them both a rake and let them go at it.

Cindy took us to the storage area where, after they are dried, the coffee beans are put in burlap sacks. They are stored with the protective husks still on for protection, and stay here for 3 months. Kind of like letting them age, like wine. After 3 months, the husks are taken off, brought to the drying machine for burning, and the beans are either packaged for export roasted or not. (starbucks roasts their own, so for them it's not done here).

Cindy also showed us where they use the shells of the beans. They have there own compost area where they use worms (imported from California - seems the worms in C.R. are lazy). She said that California worms compost the dirt 3 times faster than the worms here. No waste.

Cindy loved our kids so much that she brought us by the children's area here at Doka. They have sort of a day care here for all the young kids to stay safe and fed while their parents, grandparents, and older siblings are out picking beans. The kids had a little fun playing with the other kids, and then we left for lunch. A great lunch, and then we hit the gift shop. Hmm, what did we buy. Well, 4 bags of coffee, some chocolate covered beans, a really cool grinder, some liquors, and coffee soap. Yumm.

The boys were smiling ear to ear the entire day, and both Chris and I were pleasantly surprised. How could 2 little boys have so much fun with coffee. Not sure, but they said it was one of their favorite parts of Costa Rica.