Costa Rica -- The Coffee Farm Part 2

Coffee. It's the fuel that starts a morning for many people. The coffee farm, Finca Edgar Fernandez, was a beautiful place. After our lunch and walk and squeezing the sugar cane, we settled in to hear how the coffee is processed. The farm does it the old fashioned way to show how it was done in the old days. Their beans are shipped off site to a larger processing place but we were about to get a treat experiencing the process first hand.

The green coffee beans turn red and white  (depending on variety) here when they are ripe and ready to pick. The beans are actually like a soft fruit with a seed inside. In order to get to the seed, the part that we want for the coffee, you have to smash the softer part on the outside.

Hulled beans.

A large old mortar and pestle was the place where the beans are smashed and then separated from the pulp.







I wasn't quite clear on how the beans are separated out once the hulls are removed but eventually they are set in the fogon or stove and roasted.















Next came the part we were to participate in--the grinding. Beans that had been previously roasted were put in a hand grinder and we were all invited to give it a few turns. Not an easy exercise but worth the effort.


When there was enough ground coffee, hot water was brought out from the kitchen and was poured over a large bag of ground coffee that dripped into a carafe. Sort of a manual drip coffee maker.







And of course the best part was tasting the coffee. It was delicious.


I hated to see our time at the coffee farm come to an end. Edgar and his family had been so gracious and we had learned so much as well as enjoying a wonderful lunch. It was time for some more pickleball with our Pickleball Costa Rica tour.