Costa Rica Guide

travel information and maps

  • Vacation Planning
  • Best Trips Ever>>
  • More Fun Than Humanly Possible
  • Costa Rica
    • Top Ten
    • Best Time to Visit Costa Rica
    • Things To Do in Costa Rica
    • Maps
    • Transportation
      • Rental Cars
        • Advantages of Driving
        • Disadvantages Driving
        • Code of the Road
        • Navigation & Drive Time
        • Rental Insurance Explained
        • Can’t Get There
      • Airports
        • Flights Worth Taking
        • LIR or SJO
        • Airfare Deals
        • Domestic Airlines
        • Domestic Air Tips
      • Taxis
      • Bus Schedule
    • Food
      • Typical Menu
      • Batidos & Refrescos
      • Gallo Pinto
      • Tamales
      • Ceviche
      • Ensalada Palmito
      • Sopa Negra
      • Vinagre Chilera
    • Weather
      • Seasons in Costa Rica
      • Current Storms in Costa Rica
    • Regions
  • Nature & Wildlife
    • National Parks
    • Wildlife Refuges
    • Ecozones
    • Best Places to See Wildlife in Costa Rica
  • Practical Info
    • Health & Safety
      • Health Tips
        • Altitude Sickness
        • Chikungunya
        • Natural Disasters
      • Crime
        • Cons & Rip-offs
        • Corruption
        • Violent Crime
    • Will My Phone Work?
    • Packing List
    • Passports & Docs
    • Money – How To?
    • How Much Does it Cost?
    • Travel Tips
  • Stories
    • Photos
    • Trek Across Costa Rica
    • Sendero de Oro
    • Quebrada Gata
    • Bicycle Touring
    • About Us
  • Move to Costa Rica
  • Free Travel Pack
no obligation custom trip plan & price quote

1-866-816-0197

· Copyright © 2023 ·

Coffee Growing & Picking Photos

We’re fortunate to have become friends with two families who have coffee farms in Costa Rica.  The Rodriguez’s small farm above Heredia was our introduction in 1993 to how coffee was grown and picked in Costa Rica and more recently in 2007, and 2015 we’ve spent a few days on our friend Jim Alafaro’s estate at Río Jorcó in the hills of Tarrazu – the most famous and revered of Costa Rica’s coffee producing regions. Anyone who’s interested can visit a farm to see the harvest and processing on a coffee tour in Costa Rica.

Picking coffee
Picking coffee

Coffee farming is labor intensive.  The rough, steep and variable terrain of the volcanic mountain slopes where the highest quality coffee thrives makes it very difficult to operate machinery so hand tools are still used.

Nearly every coffee farm in Costa Rica was established as a family operation and many like the Rodriguez’s and Río Jorcó Estates can trace their roots back to grandparents or great-grandparents who homesteaded and pioneered the land in the 1800’s.  Clearing the rain forest by hand, cutting roads with shovels and teams of oxen, terracing the hillsides and planting coffee for export to the growing European market.

Jim’s family has absorbed other small farms as their owners saw their children head off to jobs in the city.  They have also started initiatives to help the remaining farmers break into the world of exclusive premium sourced roasts that command higher prices because of not only the region they come from but the specific growing conditions encountered on tiny plots that may only produce a few fanegas (a uniquely Central American measure of coffee cherries that equals 250 kilos).

Each plot is kept separate from growing through picking, processing and roasting all the way to the cup in the coffee shop in Amsterdam, Paris or New York.

Below are a few of our photos from a couple of decades of visits to these two coffee farms showing the first part of the coffee process – growing and picking.   Each of the photos links to a detailed description if you’d like to learn more.

See also the photo albums for processing the coffee from red ripe cherries to green beans and the ritual that is cupping (or tasting) coffee.

Río Jorco bag
Río Jorco bag – Río Jorco estate coffee for 100 years
Tree house Rio Jorco
Tree house Rio Jorco – Jim lives in a tree house in a forested valley below the villa and coffee fields. It almost looks like it’s sitting on the ground but it’s actually about 30 feet up the trunk of at tree.
Guest villa Rio Jorco
Río Jorco Estates guest house – villa Cavita
Planting coffee
Planting coffee
Recently transplanted coffee plants
Recently transplanted coffee
coffee planting
James Alfaro owner of Río Jorco Tarrazu Estate Coffee talking to some of the workers about the coffee they’re planting
One year old coffee plant
Yearling coffee – Newly transplanted one year old coffee trees will grow for another two to three years before producing enough coffee to pick
Fruit shade trees on coffee plantation
Fruit shade trees – Tossing lemons. Fruit trees are often planted for shade on coffee plantations
Flowering shade trees on coffee planatation
Flowering trees like this guapote attracting hummingbirds are also popular shade trees over the coffee
Coffee or Vineyard?
Coffee or Vineyard? – At first glance I thought that I’d mixed in some photos from the terraced vineyards in the Valle de Duero Spain but these are coffee plants on the hills above Nacientes Palmichal de Acosta
Ripe Coffee
Ripe Coffee
Coffee with cedar
Coffee with cedar forest in the background on Finca Alfaro Jorcó
coffee flowers
Coffee flowers
The coffee cherries are getting close to harvest in Tarrazu
The coffee cherries are getting close to harvest in Tarrazu
View over Jorcó valley from Casa Finca Rio Jorco
View over Jorcó valley from Casa Finca Rio Jorco
Steep hillside on the coffee Finca Rio Jorcó
Steep hillside
Coffee fruit
Coffee fruit
Young coffee plants in the foreground and Jorcó in the background
Young coffee plants in the foreground and Jorcó in the background
Coffee cherries ripe for picking
Coffee cherries ripe for picking
Quick hands strip the red cherries leaving the green to ripen and the buds for next years crop intact
Quick hands strip the red cherries leaving the green to ripen and the buds for next years crop intact
Picking coffee
Picking coffee
Immigrant picker
Immigrant picker – Most coffee pickers are migrant workers. While we were riding back into town later in the afternoon Alonzo told us he was from Panama and came to Costa Rica to work illegally for two to three months every year during the coffee harvest. He sent the money back to his mom and sister in Panama
Listening to futbol
Listening to the futbol match on the radio surrounded by the day’s harvest
waiting
This little girl was waiting with her grandfather while her parents, brothers and sisters picked coffee
Sorting cherries
Sorting coffee in the field. After picking all day the workers spend time sorting out any defective, dry or green fruits
Hand sorting - picking out the green coffee cherries
Hand sorting – picking out the green coffee cherries
rejects composted
The reject coffee fruits will go into the compost pile to become fertilizer for next year’s crop
Paying coffee pickers
Paying the pickers at the end of the day. Back in 1993 the going rate per cajuela (a special basket with a volume of 17 liters) was ¢125 which was equal to $1. Now the rate is ¢550 which is equal to $1. A quick picker can fill ten baskets in a day.
girl waiting
girl waiting
picking coffee
Picking coffee is one of the most common jobs for illegal migrant workers
loading coffee truck
Loading a truck with coffee at the measuring station to transport to the processing cooperative
quality check coffee
Quality check – The coffee pours out of the truck into the red box at their feet, when it’s full they open a trap door on the bottom and count another box full. The guy on the right is measuring out one liter of beans for quality control. They count the number of red beans (higher quality) and number of green beans (lower quality) to determine the quality. They add them together to get a total that indicates size. The price paid is based on the size and ratio of red to green.
Filling the truck
Filling the truck
Río Jorcó
Río Jorcó
Sunset over coffee
Sunset over the coffee fields
Coffee cherries
Coffee cherries

Ray & Sue

Cost · ToDo · Plan·Costa Rica Guide logo animated·Top10 · Best Time · Contact


toll free Costa Rica travel desk!
1-866-816-0197

CONTACT US

Photos
  • Tortuguero Beach – National Park & Sea Turtles Nesting
  • Tortuguero Village & Canals Photos
  • Guayabo National Monument
  • San Gerardo de Dota National Park
  • Karen Mogensen Nature Reserve
  • Lower Savegre & Rafiki
  • Savegre National Park
  • Pacuare River Rafting Overnight
  • Portalón Estero Rey National Wildlife Refuge
  • Hacienda Barú National Wildlife Refuge Photos
  • Rainmaker Biological Reserve Photos
  • Hills of Portalón Wildlife Refuge
  • Funny, Quirky, Weird – Costa Rica Humor
  • Bahía Junquillal National Wildlife Refuge Photos
  • Playa Hermosa-Punta Mala National Wildlife Refuge Photos
  • La Cangreja National Park Photos
  • Pacuare Gilligan’s Island
  • Rincón de la Vieja – Hacienda Guachipelín Photos
  • Quirky, Weird, Funny – Costa Rica Humor
  • Lankester Botanical Gardens Photos



Costa Rica Guide on facebook
Costa Rica Guide on Facebook