Saturday, February 27,2015

Coffee Plantation tour
This morning we went on a Cafe Britt tour. It was very good tour and we had a wonderful lunch. The plantation is in Heredia which is near our base. The tour was very informative. Here is some facts;

coffee bushes grow up to 20 feet but are pruned yearly to produce more coffee
The ave yield of coffee from a mature bush is 25#!which yields 3# of roasted beans
 Coffee bushes can live for 100 years but only produce for 25 years
Coffee was first discovered by the goats in Ethopia which were growing by the paths and roads.
Then the coffee was transported to Saudia Arabia where they first used for a beverage, from their it,when to Italy and the first coffee shop opened. From there it transported to France, onto Brazil and finally made it to Costa Rica in 1765.
The bloom of the coffee bush is a member of the gardenia flower.
The bean grows from May to Dec during the rainy season.
Coffee is picked from Nov-Jan.
Once ripe (red in color) they are hand picked. The tree will be picked 5 times to get all the ripe beans.
The bean has three coatings that need to be removed before roasting.
The roasting process is up to 18 minutes for the dark roast which is the carmelization of the sugars.
The dark roast has less caffeine than lightly roasted.
The energy drinks contain the caffeine byproduct of decaffeination.
Coffee needs high attitudes, volcanic soil, lots of rain and sun.
The coffee here in Costa Rica gets up to 100 inches per year.
All  coffee is dryer for a week in the sun outside.
Each region coffee has a particular taste profile.
Most beans are stored dried ( up to a year) before roasting.
So there are some coffee trivia.
It was a beautiful day and fun to check out the area.
We were joined by Curtis our friend and teacher next week.

Curtis and Mike have busy busy working on the aquaponics project  and making of the grow beds. They were joined by others for the construction ....