A Trip to a Coffee Plantation

Yesterday was filled with caffeine and hiking. We had the opportunity to go to a coffee plantation three hours away. While I can count the number of times on one hand I have seen Robert drink coffee, we thought that this could be an interesting and educational experience. So, off we went.

A three hour drive sounds like a drive sounds like a long drive to go on a coffee plantation tour (and it is), but most coffee grown in Panama is from an area called Boquete up by Costa Rica, which is over 5.5 hours away. We took a drive which required us to drive in 4 wheel drive for over an hour on a dirt road in order to get to the plantation. 

The steep hills were a foreshadow of what we would be hiking. The drive was beautiful and in some respects, reminded me of some of the drives we took with Robert's Jeep in Arizona. 

The group we went with took a total of three cars. When we arrived we were greeted with panoramic views of a very rural community. 

The building on the left is the school,
which was less than a 5 minute walk for us

See the house on the left?

We were also introduced to some of the machines and the process in coffee production. This is what happens after the coffee bean is harvested:

The coffee is stripped and cleaned

The beans go through a canal to help determine the grade of the bean. The ones that stay closest to the entrance of the canal are considered to be the highest grade. 

The beans are then dried

 Then the beans are roasted...

 and finally packaged.

After learning about the production of coffee, it was time to visit the plants. The hike was a grueling 45 minute walk almost entirely up hill, with the exception of a few "flatter" spots for respite. Along the way we saw some coffee plants and got to see an example of how they flower. Did you know that coffee plants are shrubs? Prior to the tour, neither did we!

This was a great way to see the flowers,
although the plant itself is overgrown. 

We eventually got to the closest coffee plot (there were others, but that would have added another hour of walking). It was full of foliage. They had three different types of coffee plants in this particular area, including plants that make some of the best types of coffee, Geisha. 

The buds near the leaf will eventually become a bean!

According to our guide, it takes 5 years for a plant to grow from a seedling to a producing plant. In general, coffee workers are paid around $2/hour to pick and carry bags, usually weighing 100 pounds, back to the processing plant. Our guide/partial owner stated that their company has a mule carry the bags and pay their workers a little more than the going rate. 

After the walk back it was time to learn how to "cup coffee" or "cupping", which is another term for coffee tasting. Before we started the process we got to watch the beans get roasted in a homemade roaster. The owner stated they have three roasters, one was a homemade, another is a popcorn machine, and the other is used for larger production when he is not cupping. The process of roasting coffee beans is interestingly enough, very similar to popcorn; you roast it until the beans start to pop. 

Beans that need to be roasted

Roasting the beans with a homemade contraption

Cooling the roasted beans

After the beans were ground we got to start the cupping process. 

First you smell the different types of coffees. You notice whether one may smell like citrus, chocolate, roses, or wine. 

The second step is called "breaking the crust". Coffee grounds are put into cups with hot water. The coffee forms a crust. You take a spoon and break the crust and smell the coffee. You do this with each cup of coffee, even though there are generally two cups for each variety of coffee.

Then comes the tasting part. You take your spoon, put some coffee into and slurp it up, let it sit on your tongue and then spit it out. The owner let us pick the majority favorite and we got to enjoy a nice cup of coffee. Robert and I are normally not coffee drinkers but we both needed this after our poor choice of packing cookies as "our lunch" (we did not realize we would need more than a snack). Alas, it was time to go back down the hill. 

Our guide and his partner

The day ended with us getting Chinese takeout and watching a movie. Robert and I had a great day and learned a lot more about coffee than we thought we would. One thing is for sure, we both gained a whole new appreciation for coffee.