Coffee Plantation Tours in Costa Rica
Taste and Discover Central America´s World Class Coffee
Aug 8, 2008
Coffee plantations throughout Costa Rica have opened their doors to tourists offering informative, educative tours ending with a coffee tasting and sampling of delicious chocolate covered coffee beans.
Day tours from the capital of San Jose to the nearby coffee growing region of the Central Valley are easily arranged, otherwise tours are available throughout the country anywhere coffee is grown.
The Tour
Tours start with a walk around the plantation accompanied by a guide who explains the history of coffee production in Costa Rica and the life cycle of a coffee plant from seed to mature fruiting. The guide will explain the process where the coffee is removed from its husk, followed by the drying process and roasting mill. These processes are mechanized, however coffee is still picked by hand and collected in baskets strapped around the waist. Because of Costa Rica´s low unemployment pickers from neighbouring and poorer Nicaragua comprise this seasonal labour source.
Costa Rica´s Biggest Brands
Café Britt coffee plantation, Costa Rica’s largest coffee producer, offers tours in the Central Valley near Heredia, not far from San Jose. Other noted brands include Cafe Rey, Cafe Volio, Doka and many more. Tours of inorganic coffee plantations are also available.
Coffee in Costa Rica
Arabica is the only type of coffee produced in Costa Rica as mandated by an executive order, prohibiting the production of any other type of coffee. The rich soils and ideal climate lends itself to coffee production and it is in the cooler high altitudes of Costa Rica that the best coffee beans are grown such as in Tarrazu, Tres Rios, Herediá, Monteverde and Alajuela. Most coffee in Costa Rica comes from the caturra coffee varietal and is characterized as a bright and full bodied coffee.
Coffee History
Coffee was first grown in Costa Rica in 1798. It quickly became a major industry, surpassing coco and tobacco. Costa Rica was the first Central American country to establish coffee growing as an industry.
The economic growth that coffee production brought enabled Costa Rica to develop ports, roads and other infrastructure necessary for continued growth of the industry. Today, coffee is a sustainable economic and agricultural product in Costa Rica.
Buying Coffee
Costa Rica´s quality coffee is a popular souvenir and can be can be purchased at souvenir shops or local grocery stores. Once back home coffee can be purchased online direct from the coffee producer. For a list of Costa Rican coffee online sales see here.
Other Culinary Tours
- Monteverde Cheese Factory offers tours in which visitors learn the Quaker community’s history and learn about dairy farming in Costa Rica, the cheese making process and environmentally friendly waste disposal solutions, before sampling the cheeses and ice creams.
- Macadamia, Finca La Anita Tour in Miravalles, Guanacaste. An educative tour about the growing of macadamia nuts, ecology and other aspects of Costa Rica's nature, includes lunch and a canopy tour near Miravalles Volcano.
- Chocolate Plantation Tours by ChocoRart, an organic cacao farm in Playa Chiquita, just outside of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca on the southern Caribbean coast. The farm harvests, ferments and cooks cacao in the traditional Mayan way. Chocolate tasting is included.
- Tours of various banana and pineapple plantations are also available.
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