Coffee In the Mist

I don't know if coffee is a sacred drink in any culture, but it does have its fair share of reverent devotees, a group to which I can wholeheartedly say I belong. My mornings would not be the same without it. My day begins with the sound of grinding and the kettle being plopped down on our little alcohol stove. The aroma of brewing gets my brain functions set to go and my first sip is almost always accompanied by an “ahhhh.”

So when Chris and I wanted to take a few days off of the boat to explore inland Costa Rica, we decided to go into the mountains and check out Monteverde. The region is known as a cloud forest, a high altitude rainforest featuring dense, moss and bromeliad covered trees and lots of wildlife. And, most importantly, it's where coffee grows, nestled in the steep valleys.

Having most recently hailed from near the famous wine-producing region of the Napa, Sonoma and Alexander valleys, it seemed natural to want to head out to the source of a favorite beverage, learn about it's peculiarities and taste the fruit of the labor that goes into it. Coffee, like wine grapes, grows in particular regions. It thrives only in the tropics and at specific altitude. Monteverde has these desired traits, and thus coffee is it's main agricultural commodity. We opted first for the eponymous Monteverde coffee tour, and we made arrangements for the tour as soon as we got into town.

We were picked up at the tourist center in Santa Elena and driven a little way down into the valley to the farm of a gentleman named Don Juan. The tour had only four people, myself, Chris and two young women, plus our tour guide, Alex. Don Juan showed us his processing area where he removed the husks of the coffee cherries, soaked and dried them before transporting the beans to the co-op to which he and many of the other farmers belong. He had a hand cranked machine that popped the beans out from the fruit and he could do a couple of kilos in a few minutes. Then he showed us around his property. Along with coffee, he grew bananas, tomatoes, herbs and some other fruits. It is harvest season, so we picked a few cherries that were ripe on the coffee bushes. I think between the four of us we picked almost enough to make one cup of coffee. We finished up at his little house nestled among beautiful flowering plants for a cup of coffee and delicious fresh baked banana bread.

After the farm, we went to the Monteverde store and coffee shop where Alex showed us their roaster and we sampled the different roasts. We chatted with him a little about Costa Rican history, Fair Trade and the co-op and bought some coffee on the way out.

After bopping around town for a day or so, getting rained on and looking for wildlife, we stopped off at a coffeeshop called the Common Cup. Or rather, I should say we walked into a revolution. The three owners there are starting a farm-to-cup business, and their excitement is infectious. They're coffee farmers that decided to buck the co-op system to grow, process, roast and sell their coffee themselves, without middlemen. The Common Cup is their roasting space and you get a great cup of coffee there, but most of all it serves as a way to meet their potential long-term customers. They are shipping directly to anyone in the U.S., and with competitive prices. So the model is: you go to Costa Rica, visit this great coffee house, and want to take a piece of it home with you. Buy some coffee, love the coffee, and order it online when you get home. It's a way for the farmers to make a better living and for customers to get great coffee because the farmer/roaster/seller has more of a stake in making his product excellent. Chris and I were so taken with their whole shebang that we signed up for their tour the next morning, and stayed for an hour or so that evening to watch the roasting process.

The farm tour the next day was amazing. We drove down into the San Rafael area, about 20 kilometers from Santa Elena, to visit the Santa Marta farm. It's an incredible place. Using many sustainable practices, the farm grows coffee, sugar cane, a few other crops and has pigs, horses and chickens. The pigs' waste and fermented coffee skins produce methane that the home uses for cooking. Hardly any water is wasted during the coffee processing, as the washing water is recycled for further use. Greenhouses are used to dry the coffee, and to produce some hydroponic crops. The coffee plants themselves were lush and beautiful, planted on shaded hillsides in tidy rows. Our guide was both knowledgeable and inspiring, talking about how the coffee industry has influenced Costa Rica over time. Again, we were invited into the owner's home and given coffee and baked goods. In the humble kitchen there was a spirit of love and dedication that was nearly palpable, and we felt lucky to witness it.