Taking a coffee break at Doka Estates

In the United States, we don´t think much about a cup of coffee.  For most of us, it´s just another stop in the morning on the way to work, or our fuel to get through our 9am class.  But on our last visit for this trip, we learned how much work and expertise goes into that one cup of coffee.  Doka Estates, located in Alajuela, Costa Rica, welcomed us onto their coffee plantation and gave us the inside scoop on coffee.

When we arrived to the estate, we were served a delicious lunch, and also got a chance to sample some of Doka´s different roasts in sampling cups!

After lunch, our tour guide, Daniel, began to show us around the plantation.  To start off, he explained why the area where Doka is located in Costa Rica is the best environment for coffee.  The three main reasons are the higher elevation than other areas (about 4,500 ft above sea level), the volcanic soil, and the climate, which provides 6 months of rain and 6 months of sunlight.  These conditions allow café arabica, or Arabica bean coffee, to thrive.  Our tour guide informed us that in 1986, Costa Rica passed a law that stated that only Arabica coffee could be grown in the country, because of its high-quality characteristics.  Because Costa Rica does not have the ability to compete with countries like Colombia in the quantity of coffee produced, the country focuses on producing quality coffee.

After this background, Daniel showed us the full process of how the coffee beans are grown and processed.

First, experts come to the plantation to choose the best coffee seeds, which are then planted in tiny containers, like in the ones below.

After 10-12 weeks, they are put into larger plastic bags, and kept their until they are about 1 year old.  Finally, they are put into soil, and kept there for three years before they can fully produce the beans.  We were all amazed that these plants take 4 years before they fully mature and produce beans!  The coffee plants can live up to 50 years, but Doka only keeps each tree for about 25. 

When it came to picking the beans off of the trees, Olivia and Matt got to experience the life of a coffee bean picker for a few moments.  Daniel gave these two the challenge to figure out how they think pickers carry the baskets. They tried a couple odd ways...

But eventually they got the hang of it!

 The workers are paid about $2 for every basket that they fill with ripe, red beans.  Daniel estimated that an extremely good picker could fill about 25 baskets in a day, but that the average is abouit 8-10 a day.  However, if the worker picks too many green coffee beans, when they bring the beans to the trucks to sell them at the end of the day, they may receive less than $2 for the basket.

We got the chance to pop open up the red beans, to see the actual coffee beans inside!  In this photo, Jordan decided to make an appearance in the picture and make a funny face.

When Katie opened hers, she found a surprise: she only had one bean!  Daniel informed us that while most beans that are picked have two in them, rare ones only have one, and these ones make premium quality coffee, called peaberry coffee.  These are of a higher quality than others because 100% of the nutrients of the bean gets transferred to one bean.

After the beans are put into trucks, the trucks bring them to a wet mill.  The wet mill is where the beans are sorted, stripped of the outer skin, fermented, and dried.  A fun fact about Doka is that it has the oldest wet mill in all of Costa Rica and is over 100 years old!  The wet mill is only active for about 4 months out of a year, which is harvesting season.

The first step in the wet mill is recieving the coffee.  Ten crates of picked beans can be put into a metal box that measures how much is being received.  This is important information for Doka to record because it can show how much a certain area of the plantation is producing, and can be compared to the amount produced in previous years.  After, the beans are dumped into a huge tank filled with water that looks like the one below.

This tank does two important things. Firstly, it cleans the beans.  Second, it separates the beans initially; the good beans sink to the bottom because they are heavier, and the bad ones float.  These two categories are sent to two different areas in the next step of the mill.

In this section of the mill, the skins of the beans are removed.  These machines separate the beans further by weight and size, as they are sent through a system in rushing water.  After all of the separation, the beans can be categorized into three qualities, premium quality, second quality, and third quality.  When the beans end up in the vats shown below, each vat contains one quality of bean.

Daniel informed us that 55% of their beans are first quality.  These beans are kept and sold in Costa Rica.  The second and third quality beans are exported to the United States.  So maybe we should all think twice before saying that Starbucks has the best coffee...

In these vats, the beans go through a 30-hour fermentation process, where they lose the slimey coating that naturally forms around them.  After the fermentation process, the beans go through a drying process.  The tanks with first quality beans are filled with water, and the beans are pushed outside to a concrete area.  Workers take the beans and lay them out in the sun for four to five days in order to completely dry them.  These workers must check on the beans every 45 min and move them around, so that all the beans have an equal amount of time in the sun.  They wouldn´t want any beans to get awkward tan lines! 10% of the dried beans get put into a storage area.

The second and third quality beans are put into a large tank to dry, where they are dried through a heating process.  The coffee plants on the plantation that are removed after 25 years are burned in a furnace, and the heat created from this heats the large tank of second and third quality beans in order to dry them after fermentation.  Daniel was nice enough to give us a visual example of the types of quality beans!

The last step in the process before the beans can get packaged is roasting.  They roast the beans for different amounts of time in order to get different roasts and flavors.  For example, a dark roast would be roasted for 20 minutes, whereas a lighter roast, like peaberry, only gets 17 minutes.  

The workers there have a lot of work on their hands with the amount of beans produced per day.  One of the workers estimated that he had packaged 1,000 bags alone today.  Out of all the types of roasts, Daniel believed that the French roast, the peaberry roast, and the espresso roast were sold the most out of all of them.

Lastly, Daniel gave us a few helpful tips on how to check the quality of coffee beans when we´re in a store. Here were his three tips:

1) Buy whole beans- check them to see if they are relatively the same shape and size.  If they are, that means they´re good quality.

2) Bite the bean- If you can, bite the bean and see if it has a crunch to it.  If it does, that means it´s fresh.

3) If it´s ground, put it in water- When a small amount of quality, fresh ground coffee is put in water, the color of the water doesn´t change.  If the water gets murky, that means that something was added to the coffee, like sugar.

Once the tour was finished, Daniel brought us to the gift store where we got the chance to purchase some of their coffee or apparel!  Hopefully everyone will bring some home for their families to try!

I think it´s safe to say that we´ll all appreciate that cup of coffee every morning a little more when we go back home.  This was an amazing trip to end our SIE with, and makes everyone want to stay just a little longer.  I know we´re all extremely grateful for this fantastic, eye-opening adventure we´ve been on for the past two weeks in Panama and Costa Rica.  Thanks to our two amazing professors and our wonderful guide, Esteban, for everything!

We´ll see you soon, America!

Got Milk?

Many times, we tend to take things for granted without realizing all of the hard work that goes into them. Today, our group traveled to Dos Pinos Dairy Farm. Dos Pinos is a cooperative that was founded in 1947 which sits on 38 hectares of land. They work alongside 1,400 different producers, which is an extreme increase from the 25 producers working together during the early years of the company´s existence. This plant specifically handles 600 different products, but their main product is milk. As the company grows and expands, so does their amount of land. They recently purchased a plant in Panama, mainly because of the close proximity it has to Costa Rica, as well as the fact that Panamanians are very familiar with Dos Pinos products. This is an important decision for the company because it means that they are keeping up with the competition. According to our tour guides, their main global competitors include Nestle and Coca-Cola. Luckily for Dos Pinos, their annual sales of $672 million keep them competitive enough to take on these large retailers.

When we first drove onto the property, we were greeted by silos and tanks, which we later learned are responsible for holding milk, chocolate, and juice that are used in production. As we drove further, we learned about all of the different loading docks and the purposes of each one. The first set of doors are for the short-life products, such as sour cream and milk, the next set were for ice creams, and the final set of doors were for long-life products which can last anywhere between 6-8 months. After learning about long-life products, I think our group was shocked to hear that milk could sit on a store shelf and last for almost a year! This is a product that is seen rarely in the U.S. because it is such a strange concept for people to grasp, but it is becoming more popular and is much more profitable for the companies. These doors are a crucial part of business at Dos Pinos because they are the center of where packaging and products come together. Once trucks are finally loaded, the company is ready to send out their products to the 15 countries that they export to, with China being the most recent addition. The logistics of this company are handled very well and efficiently to ensure that their products reach the consumers in a timely fashion.

This is an example of a tank at the plant.

When we entered the actual facility, we began to learn about the products and what it takes to get from beginning to end. Dos Pinos works with approximately 1,600 different farms which is where they get their milk from. They milk the cows twice a day using an automatic process, which ensures that the most milk possible is being used. Once the milk is taken from the cows, the drivers of the trucks make sure an antibiotic test is done on it to ensure that the milk is safe; sometimes, cows may be sick so they are given antibiotics. In this case, they cannot be milked for at least two weeks until it is fully out of their system. After the milk is taken, it is stored in tanks which are kept at 4 degrees Celsius. From there, the trucks transport the milk to Dos Pinos where the truck is then washed and weighed. Smaller trucks can typically hold up to 12,500 liters whereas larger trucks are capable of holding 30,000 liters of milk. If there is ever an issue with the milk, the producer must pay a fine for the truck full of bad milk. This fine could be anywhere from $.70 to $1 per liter, which would not be easy to recover from for some of the farms that are using the larger capacity trucks! Mostly, the milk is of good quality so the producer is actually given a bonus. There are three different types of milk that are used; A (normal), E (excellent), and P (premium). The milk from Dos Pinos is 98.5% premium, which is a great achievement for them. 

This picture describes the process the milk takes to get to the consumer.

The trucks play a major role in the movement of the products. Trucks are washed out thoroughly from the inside everytime they empty their contents, and can be used for up to 10 years. This business is extremely demanding for these truck drivers, as they have to arrive to work at 3 a.m. each morning. The producers do not have much time for relaxation either, as they must have the milk ready at 2 a.m. each morning. (That makes me feel pretty guilty about complaining that my 8 a.m. classes are too early!) The reason for this is because the morning tends to have cooler temperatures and a fresher climate for the milk. At the plant, there are 8 tanks; 4 of those contain whole milk, and 4 contain pasteurized/homogenized milk. When the milk enters the plant, it goes through the process of pasteurization, which was created by Louis Pasteur and involves dramatically changing temperatures to remove any bacteria from the product, and homogenization, the mixing of the milk, before it is sent out. During the process, the cream is taken out of the milk, and fat is then added as it is packaged. Dos Pinos operates with three different levels of milk; they use 3.5% fat (whole milk), 2% fat, and 0% fat. To illustrate the severe temperature change, during the ultra-pasteurization process, the temperature changes from 138 degrees Celsius to 4 degrees Celsius in just 5 seconds.

This photo shows a test being done on a truck at the plant.

Dos Pinos is an impressive company that certainly opened all of our eyes to how much work goes into something that we simply pick off of a grocery store shelf on a regular basis. The 3,150 employees at this location, and the 50,000 total employees work very hard to provide people all over the world with a safe, high quality product. Their social projects which involve safer, more environmentally-friendly containers and products, as well as food banks, make Dos Pinos a company that will stay competitive for a long time with a very bright future. I think that everyone´s favorite part of the visit was getting to try some of their own ice cream, as well as the fact that we all got a stuffed animal cow bank of Dos Pinos´ mascot, Lula! Having the chance to see this impressive business operation first hand was a great way to end our amazing stay here in Costa Rica! 

Earth University

Today was the second to last day of our Latin American adventure,  we woke up bright and early at 530 am to make it on the road by 6 am for a 3 hour journey to one of the most unconventional four-year colleges in the world. Earth University, established in 1990, is an agricultural university in which students from around the world learn to manage and grow food with sustainable methods to improve current agricultural techniques and prepare themselves for their future agronomist positions. The goal is to teach students how to get better results from their crops while having to put minimal investment into the operations. The school was established with 60 students; today the university has over 400 students, 60% male and 40% female. The student body represents over 20 different countries from the Americas to Asia and everywhere in-between. School days at Earth University start at 6 am and go until about 4 or 5 pm. The University is a private nonprofit school which receives government grants and donations from companies around the world such as Coca-Cola and Dole. 80 % of students who attend the school have either a full scholarship or receive some type of financial aid. For the 20 % who do not receive any aid the University Costs $ 37,000 per year. The University looks for the best of the best. Recruiters from the school travel around the world and have about 2000 interviews with new potential students. Of the 2000, only 100 are picked to be in next year’s freshman class replacing the 100 students that graduate each year with bachelor’s degrees. The school does not offer masters or PHD programs but strongly encourages students to continue their studies. Professors keep tabs and ask for feedback as they keep in touch with their graduated students to make sure they are all headed in the right direction and ready to make a positive change in the world.

            The university’s curriculum is based on ecology but also has an entrepreneurial aspect to it as well. It starts off in the first year as students are introduced to not only the agricultural tools and machinery but to human core values as well. Students are in the farms 2 of the 7 days and in class the rest of them to gain a more hands-on experience. The second and third year the students are assigned an environmental project which focuses on devising sustainable crops at low costs often working symbiotically with local farmers. The schools grants the group of students $3,000 which is expected to be paid back at 23% interest after the project is done. If the project fails due to a change in climate, a disease, or a failing market for the product. Most products do succeed but there is a small chance that projects come out unsuccessful. After the third year, fourth-year students are required to have a 2-month internship and to be fluent in English and Spanish.

The school consists of over 8300 acres of land with 10 acres of buildings and the rest as farm land. The School remains self-sufficient as they sell many of the crops that that the students learn to grow. Bananas are the number one product that the university sells, producing about 1 million dollars in profit each year for the school. 90% of bananas from Earth University are sold to the super market Whole Foods, while the rest goes to Europe. The students are taught to grow foods without harmful chemicals and growth hormones. The focus of the school is to produce Sustainable and organic food rather than commercial/conventional food like the industrial farms in the US.

Climbing to the Top of Our Hearts

Everyone woke up with excitement for our first whole day in San Jose, which also happened to be our day of service to the community. Four years ago Bryant’s Latin America SIE program formed a relationship with The Holy Spirit Association of Costa Rica and has spent a day volunteering every trip since. Upon our arrival early in the AM, we were warmly greeted and given a tour of their organization. The organization is mostly focused on children with lesser opportunities. At no charge, The Holy Spirit Association runs a food court that feeds 72,000 people a month, in which 42,000 are children. The amount of children they feed is comparable to more than twice the population of Smithfield Rhode Island. Other services include education, health, homeless shelter, consultancy, human development, and entertainment. Needless to say, they do a lot for the community and boy did they put us to work!

Gabe getting a nice bicep and shoulder workout in

After the tour we were put into groups and began our work, which happened to be more like a workout! Los niños were filled will never ending energy and constantly asking for “caballitos” (piggy back rides). They seemed to love being carried and some of the more daring children even enjoyed “the helicopter” (where we spun them on our shoulder until they we got dizzy). Andreas even taught a dance to a large group of girls, who seemed to be all over him! Legos, jump roping, puzzles, playgrounds, and horseplay brought out the kids in all of us, even the professors.  Besides playing with the kids, the females went to an orphanage, while the men went to the kitchen...... and cleaned. We stopped briefly to refuel, and then went back to our services until 4 PM.

Even Professor Z participated in some jump roping

Concluding our day of service we presented the organization with a small monetary donation and school supplies that we had collected throughout the semester. The Priest, who also founded the organization 12 years ago, told us how thankful they were to have us and wished that we could have stayed. He also mentioned how much we have touched the kids and how we will always be in their hearts. But it seemed as if they have touched our hearts even more. They showed us that friends, smiles, and love, is all that we need, which not even a language barrier could impede. As James M. Barrie once said “Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.”

By Alex Smolenski and Krystin Sinclair

I Heard It Through The Zip Line

When people discover you’re going to Costa Rica, most will eagerly ask: “are you going zip lining!?” Well today was the day we’ve all been waiting for: zip lining in the beautiful rainforest canopies of Costa Rica! We left the hotel nice and early to drive from Fortuna toward the mountains, slightly tired but anticipating what was ahead.  One hour and many winding roads later, we unloaded from the bus in a slight drizzle and piled under the shelter of “Canopy Zip Lining Company”. As we began the process of signing the liability waiver and putting on harnesses and helmets, some students became nervous while others bounced around with unmatched excitement.
 

After a tutorial on the overall zip lining procedure of knees up, braking, and how to recover from getting stuck (otherwise known as the contingency plan), we began our journey up the mountain to the first of nine different stations. Our camaraderie shined while we all stood in line and cheered on those who tentatively approached the platform to go, the first being Nader. About halfway through the line, the first “WOOHOO!” of the day rang through the trees, setting the tone for what would be one of the most adventurous days of our SIE trip.

We started to approach each proceeding cable with more courage than the last both in technique and style, all of which became significantly longer and increasingly faster. By far though, the most pleasant surprise and favorite part of our excursion was the Tarzan swing—a gigantic, hanging cable in the middle of the rainforest that you swing back and forth on three times over. A trill of enthusiasm reverberated through our group, as we pulled out cameras and phones to take videos of each other experiencing this once in a lifetime opportunity. For most of us, the first swing was used to adjust to the new sensations of being a real-life Tarzan or Jane, while the following two swings consisted of striking poses and catch phrases being yelled out.

After the Tarzan swing, we continued down the zip line cables only to approach the grand finale, a 750 foot-long stretch back to solid ground. We all breathed in the fresh rainforest air, and took mental pictures of the most gorgeous views Costa Rica has to offer.  When the journey came to its conclusion, some traded breathing the fresh air for sighs of relief, and the others joined in chants of “let’s do it again!”

Regardless of the trepidations felt ahead of time, zip lining truly became the essence of Pura Vida—living the pure life. Which can only explain the content, sleeping faces on the bus ride afterward heading to San Jose that are looking forward to what else Costa Rica has in store.

 

Safari on the Rio Peñas Blancas and the Rio San Carlos

We finally made it to Costa Rica! We arrived at our hotel at 3 am with only 2 hours to sleep…NOT OKAY! Don’t let the fact that we are college students deceive you, we were literally walking zombies in the morning. After successfully arriving in Costa Rica and having the shortest amount of sleep possible, we woke up before the sun to get a good breakfast, then embarked on our first adventure in Costa Rica. Our first quest consisted of a guided safari on the Rio Peñas Blancas and the Rio San Carlos.  Our group of 23 divided into 4 rafts, each with a tour guide who would help us spot the wildlife. The views, foliage and wildlife we saw were unbelievable; it was evident we were not in Panama anymore.  Not only did our guides show us the nature of Costa Rica, they also shared very interesting facts about the sights.

The river was lined with 100s of different types of foliage. The guide on my boat, Edson, explained that all of the trees along the water have at least 500 different types of plants growing from the trees’ branches. Those that were most interesting were the strong, tall bamboo branches and the “Tourist Tree.” This tree is very tall and its branches are very white and clean. The tree gets its name because a few times a year, the trees’ bark turns a reddish color and then peels off, like a tourist with sunburn.  These trees are in the best position for their roots to receive the most amount of water in the Costa Rican heat. However, it was evident that on some areas of the shore line the root systems were suffering from erosion due to farmers and logging.

Not only do the branches hold over 500 plants, they also were perching areas for most of wildlife we came across like:

-          The “Piano Bird” is a waterfowl that gets its name from its appearance. When the bird opens its wings, the feathers are black and white stripped, like piano keys

-          The Hummingbirds were seen feasting off of bugs along the eroded shore line as opposed to consuming nectar as we usually see

-          Three Howler Monkeys perched high up in the tree eating breakfast

-          Two Spectacle Owls, which are the second largest owls in Costa Rica

-          Twisted tight around the branches was the King Oriel Snake. Although most of us are deathly afraid of snakes, this snake is our friend. It feasts on dangerous snakes as its body is resistant to the other snakes’ poisonous venom. It hangs from the branches when it is ready to attack, leaving its tail dangling and using it as a whip, sharp enough to cut through flesh of attacking predators

-          The Long Nose Bats (about 11) were sleeping soundly upside-down on the trunk of a tree. The bats were so small they literally look like bumps of a log. The bats come out at night and feast on thousands of mosquitos.

Needless to say, this safari was a great welcome to Costa Rica.

 

By: Olivia Rustic

Explosive Excitement

After an exciting adventure down the San Carlos y Peña’s Blancas River, our risk taking group hiked a path of volcanic rock in search of a close up view of the very active Arenal Volcano. Along our path we came across a plant known to the Costa Ricans as the “Planta Dormilona” aka the sleeping plant. This name comes from the crazy fact that if you swipe your fingers through the plant, it will close up and it will not spread open for many hours. This is a defense mechanism to trap prey such as small insects. Another interesting find was the Gurarumo plant. This plant is eaten by our lazy Costa Rican companions, the sloths. This plant produces toxins that give them a veerrrrrrryyyyyyyyy slooowwwwwwwwwwwwww sensation.

 

After about 45 minutes of hiking up volcanic remains, our group reached our designated observatory point. The view was astonishing. The volcano was so close we could almost touch it…JUST KIDDING!! Although, we did have the best seat in the house! Arenal is a breath taking, cone shaped volcano. Our destination was approximately 5000 feet above sea level! And the tip of the volcano is often covered by clouds. Good thing we called ahead so he could clear his cloudy schedule and show us his entire shape. The Arenal volcano is over 7,000 years old! And that’s fairly young! - In volcano years that is.

The volcanic material that has covered the land of Costa Rica has added the minerals necessary to produce the delicious coffee that most of us drink at our beloved Dunkin Donuts of Starbucks.

The volcano stopped lava activity about two years ago for an unexplained reason. Geologist have not been able to determine the cause of this phenomenon, although maybe it got tired of working for free and not getting paid by the local boat tours that would bring tourist into the Arenal Lake to witness the oozing of the lava down the side of the fire mountain. 

The last massive eruption by the Arenal volcano was in 1968, so there isn't one due for hundreds of years, but you never know!! It could be tomorrow.