Costa Rica

Costa Rican coffee is known for its excellent quality and robust flavor.  The Central Valley’s rich volcanic soil provides the perfect environment for gourmet coffee production and Costa Ricans have found a way to integrate their agricultural way of life into the tourism industry.  Coffee plantations throughout Costa Rica have opened their doors to the public to offer educational, interactive coffee tours. 

Tours include a walk through the coffee fields where visitors learn about the history of coffee and how it grows, from seed to mature fruiting plant.  Visitors are often permitted to pick coffee fruits for a few minutes if it is the harvest season.

The processing mill or “beneficio” where the coffee is removed from its husk is next, followed by the drying process and roasting mill.  Finally, the reward. A fresh cup of recently roasted coffee.

Doka Estate’s award winning Café Tres Generaciones is cultivated on the slopes of Poás Volcano. Visitors can learn the coffee production stages and sample this popular brand on a tour of the Doka Estate in Sabanilla de Alajuela.

The Café Britt coffee plantation, Costa Rica’s largest producer of export-quality coffee, offers informative tours in the Central Valley. Located near Heredia, 1 kilometer north of Barva, Café Britt produces several tasty varieties, including an organic, shade-grown coffee. Doka and Café Britt coffees can be purchased in local Tico grocery stores and ordered online.

Read our Travel Blogs about the Doka Estate Coffee Tour (scroll down to May 9th) and the Don Juan Coffee Tour (scroll down to June 18th)

History of Coffee in Costa Rica:

Coffee was first brought to 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.

Coffee is the second largest commodity traded on the international market, second to petroleum.  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 found throughout much of Costa Rica lends itself to coffee production.