Day 47 PART II: Coffee history and caffeine fix

Unshelled beans actually look like a peanuts - pre roasting process.

Matt picking coffee berries with our guide.
He's considering a career change.

Pounding the skins off the dried beans.

Enjoying the reward of his hard work.

Coffee berries on the trees.

Within the first five minutes of our tour, our guide Brendan, taught us something none of us ever knew – coffee beans begin as a berry. He brought us to lines of trees bloomed with berries that were similar to various shades of green and red grapes. These are the pods that hold the ever-so-precious bean that I’m shamelessly addicted to. One of these berries, just one, contains the same caffeine as four to five cups of coffee. Fortunately he told us that as it was touching Matt's lips and before he ingested it. The unique power of the bean was discovered when a farmer realized his goats became uncontrollable and hyperactive after eating the berries from the tree. He decided to try them out himself and after his energy skyrocketed, realized he struck gold. He decided to play around with various techniques until it became drinkable. That process is more complicated than we expected, but makes us appreciate even more the hard work that goes into that satisfying perfect cup.


Matt took an active role in the coffee process by trying his hand at coffee picking with a nice basket attached to his waste, shelling them, pounding the skins off the bean and creating sugar cane juice. We also learned that dark roast coffee (which we all enjoy more) has less caffeine than light roast since the beans are left in the roaster longer causing them to lose caffeine the longer they roast. Apparently, we all enjoy burnt coffee the best because that’s all dark roast is. He explained that Starbucks’ traditional coffee comes from various countries and the way they make it taste the same no matter where it’s from is by burning the beans. When they do that, the distinct flavors subside and the coffee all tastes the same – burnt (or bold as they like to call it). At the end of our trip we got to enjoy as much coffee as we wanted along with some traditional treats like arroz con leche (a type of rice pudding), chocolate covered coffee beans and a mini bean and cheese empanada.


When booking our coffee visit, we were also provided information on one of the best ziplining company; Extremo. Supposedly they have the longest ziplines in the area with some extras like rappelling, a Tarzan Swing, and the Superman line – a new method of ziplining where you’re strapped horizontally, belly down by two hooks on your back so you fly head first, arms out like Superman, to the next platform. I’ll pass. I’m pretty sure I’d be flying in the fetal position the entire way.

I don’t know why or how this happened, but we booked our ziplining flights for tomorrow morning, me included. We passed on the 8am adrenaline rush (I don't that's what I want to do first thing in the morning) and went for the 11am ride. Plus, I get to live a few hours longer.

If you’ve read this blog regularly, you’ve probably noticed I’ve been freaked out by many things: bugs, frogs, crabs, bats, waves, power outages, you name it. This is probably the most freaked out I’ve been, not just in Costa Rica, but in my life. And I have no one to blame but myself...