Coffee Tour
Overview
Coffee has long been the pride of Costa Rica, deeply rooted in its history and culture. The most prized coffees are found close to the equator and need an elevation equivalent to that of Monteverde to produce the best balance of flavor and acidity. The coffee tour at Don Juan’s coffee farm will give you a hands-on experience from picking to drinking coffee as you discover the secrets of growing this tantalizing elixir. An added bonus includes an interactive cacao and sugar cane processing demonstration with more opportunities to overload your senses through touch, smell and tasting these powerful aphrodisiacs.
As the popularity of coffee grew worldwide in the 1800s, the Costa Rican government granted land to farmers who would be willing to grow coffee. From these small farms flourished the wealth of a country as coffee farmers transformed into prominent members of society creating a more populist government. The first railroads were built to transport coffee to ports and the construction of the famed National Theater is attributed to the financial success of coffee production (and consumption!).
You’ll sip coffee as the tour starts with an introduction to the coffee plant, its life cycle and the stories of the workers who grow and pick the coffee cherries. During harvest season (November to February) you will be invited to pick coffee from the low bushy trees growing in rich volcanic soil as you leisurely stroll along a paved walkway through the plantation’s rolling hills.
From the field you will go to a covered area to view a demonstration of the traditional process for washing and removing the pulp from the bean. Next you will visit the Drying Patio and help spread the beans to dry in the sun. Then it’s off to the warehouse to see how the beans are stored in breathable sacks to complete their aging process before being roasted. You will have the option of riding in a typical oxcart the way farmers traveled in the past bringing their coffee to market. The oxen are pretty amazing.
Now that you know all about coffee, you’ll go on a 30 minute cacao tour, seeing the cacao growing right off the trunks of the trees, tasting the fruit and participating in the process of making chocolate. Following the rich aroma you’ll work your way from sampling the nutritious nibs to the decadence of chocolate confectionaries. You can choose a variety of options to mix in your chocolate tasting experience such as raisins, nuts and the ever popular hot chili pepper.
But your tour is not over yet! This Costa Rican cultural experience would not be complete without learning how sugar, a major world export, is processed from sugar cane. You will assist your guide running raw sugarcane through a mill called a trapiche to extract the juice in the way it was done in the olden days. You’ll learn how to make raw cane juice, an ever popular dietary staple, and flavor it with ginger or lemon or both. And, of course, you’ll be sampling your creations.
This is truly more than a “coffee tour” providing a hands-on approach to demonstrate how farmers have produced coffee, sugar and chocolate from raw resources in the traditional way. You may even meet Don Juan himself adding even more authenticity to your experience. This tour has been given the Certification for Sustainable Tourism award for being a model of natural, cultural and social sustainability. Admission, snacks, samples and bilingual guide are included in this 3 hour educational tour.
Transportation is included only from Hotels located in MTV downtown. Extra charge might apply for hotels out of the town and surroundings.What to Bring
- Insect Repellent
- Camera
- Sturdy Shoes
- And Rain Gear
Tour Times
- 8:00am
- 10:00am
- 1:00pm
- 3:00pm
Tour Type
- Nature
- Learning Family
- Culture
Cancellation Policy
Recommended Ages
All Ages
Location
Latitude: N 10° 19' 23.01"
Longitude: W 84° 50' 6.16"
Reviews
- Overall 94.4% (196 Guest Ratings)
- Experience: 93.7%
- Expectations: 93.8%
- Guides: 96.2%
- Logistics: 94.1%
- Value: 93.4%
08/19/2023
My daughter and I learned a lot. Loved that it was interactive!
08/01/2023
Learned a lot about coffee and chocolate. Would recommend. Our guide was very knowledgeable and interacted well with our group.
06/22/2023
Fun, fun, fun. Loved it.
06/17/2023
Very fun, interactive, and informative!
06/05/2023
Rolo, our guide was informative, engaging and enthusiastic. I learned a lot about the process of cocoa, sugar and coffee production. Lots of tasting opportunities. Drank too much coffee because it was included and soooo good!
01/21/2023
Excellent tour and guide. He was very passionate and educated us well.
12/16/2022
Great guide. Very informative and made the tour alot of fun.
12/02/2022
Another above average guide (though honestly were all great). A lot of fun. Great coffee
07/18/2022
Guide was absolutely a gem. Very yummy tour.
07/10/2022
I learned much about the process of growing & preparing coffee. Our guide was knowledgeable and effective with visitors.
04/27/2022
Our guide was very entertaining and the tour was really fun. Glad we added this on at the last minute.
02/21/2022
The tour was fun, and quite informative. We very much enjoyed tasting the fresh-squeezed sugar cane, cocoa beans, and seeing how it's all produced.
11/22/2021
Amazing tour, great guide.
11/08/2021
Wonderful guide who knew everything about the coffee process!
08/13/2021
Don Juan Tour--Highly enjoyable and informative and we would highly recommend to others. Nice that they incorporated not only coffee, but also chocolate and sugar cane!
08/07/2021
best tour on trip. guide was at ease, very open, relaxed . did not feel rushed with time. for first time saw sloth close up. was informative and good experience.
06/03/2021
Loved the sugar cane part …
01/17/2021
Wonderful tour, informative with hands on demonstrations, plus great coffee and chocolate. Excellent covid precautions throughout the tour.
02/16/2020
Wasn't exactly a coffee tour....it was part coffee tour, part chocolate tour and part sugarcane tour. Would have liked it more if it was a straight coffee tour. Learning about the coffee was fun as we already had a chocolate tour earlier in our trip.
01/11/2020
Amazing time!
12/30/2019
We very much enjoyed this
12/29/2019
Guide was fabulous and the entire experience was wonderful. Even the kids thoroughly enjoyed.
12/22/2019
We loved the coffee tour!! Staff so friendly and welcoming, so informative, delivering concise information in an engaging way, and we loved that the tour was hands-on and interactive. Great great great!
11/24/2019
Overall a good tour with info on how each food item is made. The gift shop prices were a bit high.
11/23/2019
Cool and funny guide, more than a 10
11/04/2019
Our guide was awesome!
10/10/2019
GREAT GUIDE. EXPLAINED EVERYTHING AND LET US SAMPLE EVERYTHING.
08/10/2019
This was a great tour. We learned so much and got to taste everything including coffee, berries, bananas, cocoa drinks and chocolate. Yumm!
07/05/2019
The coffee tour was very fun and informative. The tour guide was excellent and we liked that it included volunteers to participate and that there were samples to try. And the tour also included chocolate and sugarcane farming and production.
07/04/2019
Coffee Tour was awesome as my kids got involved and participated in it too.
06/16/2019
This was a bucket list of ours and were so thankful that Alex was our guide. He made it funny and enjoyable. We learned a lot about coffee.
06/04/2019
The Don Juan coffee tour was great. Our guide Grevin (sp?) was fantastic. He was very funny and knowledgeable on the coffee and chocolate processes. We got to see each step of the process from the planting of the seed to the roasting and making of the coffee. This also was a beautiful place. We learned so much as well.
05/28/2019
since this was a coffee, sugar cane and chocolate in one, it was a bit repetitive from the earlier tours, but still good!
04/19/2019
Tour was excellent and very interesting.
02/19/2019
Really delightfully surprised by this tour and have no negatives, except the sardine packed van. Nice shop for souvenirs and gifts, especially the coffee and chocolate. The driver was willing to drop us off at a different location than our hotel, where we could explore a little on our own. We had a great lunch and enjoyed visiting CASEM and supporting the local artists.
01/25/2019
The Don Juan coffee, sugar cane, and cocoa tour was informative and delicious. The guide was very knowledgeable. I had, perhaps, the best coffee I’ve ever tasted!
01/18/2019
Chocolate was delicious. Very knowledgeable and entertaining guide!!
12/27/2018
My mother-in-law did not go on the tours that involved at lot of walking but she was well able to do the chocolate, coffee and spice tours and I know she enjoyed them very much.
11/17/2018
My wife and I were the only people booked this morning, so we got a personal tour. The tour guide, Valerie, did an excellent job of explaining the process for making coffee, cocoa and sugar cane. She spoke excellent English.
09/17/2018
Thought this was going to be the boring activity -- get a quick tour then a lot of sampling while they tried to sell their product. NOT the case. Very good guide (Allison) and it turned out to be on par with the zip line and spelunking.
09/05/2017
Alex did a great job with the tour and information. The coffee was amazing too!
08/23/2017
Excellent tour and great coffee
05/09/2017
Would have been better during coffee harvesting season, but learned a lot regarding coffee, chocolate, and sugar cane.
04/13/2017
The guide spoke to fast, rattled off the info in a memorized, mechanical way and did not engage us.
Info and samples was great!
Thought we would actually get to see coffee fields not just the after picking process.
04/02/2017
I thought it included a visit to working coffee plantation, but the guide was super funny, overall good experience.
03/06/2017
Very informative.
03/05/2017
Very unique and worth the time.
02/24/2017
Guide explained and demonstrated the coffee, sugar cane and chocolate process very well
02/19/2017
We were fortunate to have both a fun and knowledgeable guide combined with a fun and interesting tour group. Our most enjoyable tour.
01/25/2017
Even though slatted as a coffee, chocolate and sugar cane tour, this tour was more focused on the coffee aspect. Did the chocolate tour at Arenal and was glad we'd done both.
01/18/2017
Very very nice experience.
11/21/2016
Very knowledgeable and friendly guide. Loved the tour!
10/22/2016
This was one of my favorite tours. Very knowledgeable staff. Lots of snacks along the way and we got to meet Don Juan
07/12/2016
"Kristal" did a top notch job with our tour. We all loved her...she engaged everyone! Loved meeting Señor Juan.
05/23/2016
Great info and guide. Learned a lot about coffee and coco. Beautiful place as well.
03/25/2016
Very fun and a good change of pace.
03/17/2016
We loved the coffee tour (also toured the sugar cane and chocolate sections). Again, it was just us and the tour guide. The guide was amazing, very informative, energetic, and very interactive, but this may have been because there were only 2 of us. I would definitely recommend doing this tour earlier rather than later in the day.
02/13/2016
This tour was absolutely fabulous and I would recommend it highly. We had the tour guide to ourselves and he was very knowledgable and had a great sense of humor. I learned so much about coffee and chocolate and sugar cane!!!
02/12/2016
Chocolate we also included in this tour. Would be good to include this in your promotional materials. As usual, the guide was fantastic - very knowledgeable.
01/29/2016
Enjoyed it greatly!
01/21/2016
We really enjoyed this tour. Our guide was great and knowledgeable. We loved it!
01/10/2016
Great tour and we got to meet 'Don Juan'!
12/22/2015
Tour guide was excellent . Knowledgeable, great sense of humor. Tour exceeded my expectation.
11/23/2015
love that it is a small plantation, not a huge corporation and completely organic - should be advertised more this way!
03/16/2015
Excellent!
02/25/2015
Way exceeded expectations. Simply outstanding. Our guide Hairo was great!
12/23/2014
Fun tour. Great coffee.
12/19/2014
Special Thanks to this tour Guide:)