Day 3: Espiritu Santo Coffee Plantation

Today’s visit to Espiritu offered a very different point of view than our visit to Café Britt yesterday. Espiritu is situated on 630 fertile acres and is located in the Alajuela region (north-central Costa Rica).   Espiritu is part of a cooperative with over 2,500 farmers and exports the vast majority of their coffee to companies we are familiar with such as Caribou (nearly 95%).

The cherries on the coffee tree begin to grow in early March which conveniently coincides with the beginning of the rainy season and harvest begins in early October and lasts until early March. After two years of growth, the trees will begin to produce cherries and they will continue to produce cherries until they reach the age of 25, although overtime, their productivity will diminish.

During our visit we had the opportunity to prune a coffee tree. During this process, the coffee trees are cut down to their base which allows the tree to grow new cherries at a faster rate. After this we experienced the wet mill process and learned how a cherry is converted into a coffee bean. Following the wet mill process we had the opportunity to rake out coffee beans allowing them to dry. Finally, once the beans dried, they were transported to the roasting room, a large room filled with roasting equipment and a wonderful coffee aroma.

Sustainability Efforts

Sustainability was a clear theme throughout the entire farm. Some of their most impressive initiatives included:

• Sun drying beans instead of machine
• Natural pest control with removal of old cherries which serve as homes to the pestshttp://www.costaricaweb.cr/en/typical-oxcart-the-national-symbol-of-costa-rica-labor/
• Use of  pruned cherry trees as mulch
• Use of a chorreador which eliminated the need for an electric coffee maker

History Lesson

The oxcart is important to the Costa Rican coffee industry as it was the first means of transportation for the coffee industry. They would put 10 to 12 bags of coffee in the cart and use it to transport the coffee to different regions of Costa Rica. The present day saying “Get on the wagon” comes from the oxcart’s history. When coffee producers walked next to the ox while it pulled the cart they drank to pass the time. After drinking a little bit too much, they would get drunk and lay down on the wagon. To this day Costa Ricans still say “Get on the Wagon” when they want to go out to the bar and drink with friends and family.

We ended the day with a relaxing trip to the natural hot springs where we able to unwind and reflect upon a fantastic three days here in Costa Rica.

William Allen and Jordan Harris

Bryant University, Marketing 385

For more information about our trip follow us on twitter @BryantSusMKT385