On Tuesday we took a tour of Don Juan's coffee farm. His farm is one of 10 in the San Louis Valley, which is located minutes from Monteverde. Don Juan makes his coffee based on tradition that was passed down from his father. This was one of the aspects I really liked about his process. Don Juan will pick the beans, process them, let them ferment for a day, dry for eight days, and then the beans will be shipped to a mill to sit in a sack for three months in a dark room, then it is finally time to roast the beans to complete the process. He does almost all of this work himself on his farm, working eight to ten hours a day. This farm is part of cooperative organization that produces the brand Café Monteverde. They try to remain as organic as possible throughout their processing. Something I found interesting was this company is part of the Fair Trade organization. I didn't know exactly what this meant at first, but I was surprised that it doesn't only mean there is no middleman in the selling. It also means the producer must be fair to the environment, fair to the people around them, and they will be checked that their children are in school and not working the coffee fields. I thought it was good to see this organization concerned about more than just the selling of coffee. Our group got to see these coffee plants at a very interesting time. Some of these plants are already flowering, but they are not meant to flower until April. The flowers are blooming with the early rain from the pacific as Costa Rica is experiencing a change in climate. This then effects when the bees are able to pollinate the flowers, which will cause the coffee beans to grow. It was really interesting to see first hand how climate is affecting these local coffee farmers. It seems like we always hear about the climate changing but sometimes it's hard to believe until you see it first hand.
Morgan Mickley
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