Don Juan's Coffee Tour

  
We're heading back to the states in a couple of days, so my next blog post will be from the beautiful and exotic Upper Peninsula of Michigan. But I do have one more fun touristy thing to share with you before we go. We finally went on a coffee tour like we'd planned the first week we were in Costa Rica. There are many to choose from depending on where you are in the country. We went to Don Juan's Coffee Tour, and it was amazing! It was also a chocolate and sugar cane tour as well, so it was 3-in-1. Needless to say we had caffeine/sugar buzz for the rest of the day. It was awesome! Did I say that already?! Can I use more exclamation points!?!

We got to see the whole process of coffee growing from seed to mature plant, harvest, peeling, drying, roasting, and brewing. At the end we got to drink as much coffee as we wanted, and got to try two different roasts; a light and a dark roast. Did you know that lighter roasts have more caffeine in them? Very interesting.

Chocolate is fascinating (and delicious) as well. The cocoa beans grow in large pods. When they are harvested they first need to ferment for three days, then they get roasted, peeled, crushed, and the cocoa powder is separated from the cocoa butter. We got to taste a plain roasted cocoa bean, and then pure cocoa with a little dried sugar cane juice, then a standard chocolate truffle and chocolate-covered-coffee beans. Yuuuuuummm. I need my own chocolate plant. 

I also tasted raw sugar cane for the first time on this tour. After you cut into the cane you can chew small pieces like bubble gum and spit out the fiber. It's sweet and grassy at the same time. We pressed juice out of the cane, and our tour guide made lemonade with a mandarino that he picked moments before. What?! Apparently I also need to grow sugar cane. 

One more interesting fact about coffee: the leaves of the coffee plant contain more caffeine than the bean. It is possible to make tea out of these leaves. The tea may cause headaches and heart palpitations, but for some reason I really want to try it. Yep, need to get myself a coffee plant too. I'm going to need a bigger yard. 

Just in case you weren't hungry before, here's a pic of the chocolate samples: dark, white, and dark chocolate covered coffee beans. Heh. My work here is done! Enjoy your day!

Disclaimer: Don Juan's Coffee Tour did not pay me for writing this, nor compensate me in any way. It was just a great tour and I wanted to share it with you!