Doka Estate Costa Rica Coffee Tour & Plantation
Isai Urrita
Doka coffee plantation is an eco-friendly coffee plantation with an eco-friendly manufacturing and high work ethics. Established around the 1960’s, the coffee plantation has been improving their mechanisms with technology while still maintaining the non-carbon manufacturing system. The hydro-powered energy consumption is efficient to its eco-pulpers and the mechanical coffee dryers are fueled by coffee parchment.
I had a pleasant experience in the coffee farm. I've always had an interest in helping the environment and nature. The eco-friendly machines fascinated me by the mechanism they work by. They don't require fuel and don't require intoxicating amounts of electricity. I started the experience by eating breakfast. We were given a variety of food options and samples of their manufactured organic coffee. We later had enough time to shop at their gift shop where they had different types of apparel, souvenirs, and coffee! Outside they had a marimba musician performing for the facility guest. I had the chance to play the marimbas before our tour started. After my little session with the marimbas, we started the tour.
The Doka coffee manufacturer is like most coffee manufactures and plantations. But something about this coffee brand is that they provide benefits and free assistance to their workers. With their provided medical insurance and their safe work environment they can provide enough worth to pick as many “canastas” as they can. The coffee cherry takes approximately 9 months to grow after the plant has grown to a 4 year maturity level. When it’s picking season (around late September to early March), the pickers are sent to get the cherries.A cherry has multiple layers, and they only use 25% of the cherry for coffee. SHOCKING! The company sells the other layers to other company’s for their source of resources.
Our tour guide gave us information about the company goals and how the coffee making process occurs. The process of growing coffee to have it in your daily cup of coffee in the morning is actually a longer process than expected. The facility still uses some of the equipment from when they first started.
The machines used to produce the coffee at Doka are powered by water. The coffee cherries are first put into an artificial (man made) pit that is filled with water. Then they will later be consumed by a straw-like pipe and will lead the coffee cherries to the machines where the cherries will be separated by layers. After the separation they will be placed into another pit for drying. They do this to take all of the sugar out of the cherry. The drying process will take around 2-3 weeks depending on the weather and storage unit. After drying they are placed outside for another drying process. They lay them flat outside and use their tools to sift through them after every approximate 45 minutes. After the drying they are put into another type of storage unit where they will later be put into a machine and roasted to be made into the coffee we all love today.
To me this was more of an educational experience. I learned so much about the coffee making process and it really does make me appreciate my coffee a little more, even when it’s not native Costa Rican coffee. This experience isn’t about just making the coffee itself but how the workers migrated to work in these environments, how the coffee plant is expected to grow by the year prior, and how they manage to manufacture in an eco-friendly manner. All which is something you don’t see everyday.
