How to Make Coffee, Part 1: The Fields
While in Costa Rica, we took an utterly fascinating tour of an organic coffee farm called Hacienda Real. Our Tico guide (and expert coffee taster) Tyrone picked us up in Turrialba and drove us over some muddy, hueco -ridden and largely unpaved backroads to his farm. On the way we shared (in Spanish!) our love of 80s tunes and movies (especially Footloose ), but things got even more interesting once he started talking about farming. Before stepping out into the coffee fields, we passed through a really beautiful tropical garden: I'm not certain what any of these plants are, though I'm sure Tyrone could have told me. But once he started talking coffee beans, it was hard to think about anything else. This is an Arabica coffee plant: There are actually several plants here. The coffee plant in in the center, with the dark green, oblong leaves branching out of a single woody stem. To the left is verbena, which smells lemony like it does at home, but h...