This has been hands down one of the greatest experiences of my college career. I’m never really been that great at putting my thoughts in to words, so I’m going to break this up into the 5 highlights of the trip.
- Black Coffee. On our first night of class we were going to watch the movie “Black Coffee”. Due to technical difficulties and moving rooms three times we were not able to watch more than the intro of the movie. The song that played in the intro said, “Black Coffee” in a high-pitched voice multiple times. Needless to say we memorized the song and it became the catch phrase for the trip.
- The Farmer. Being able to walk through the rows of coffee trees that all the workers do every year to collect the cherries was incredibly eye opening. We had the opportunity to actually pick the cherries, take them to processing, and see how much we earned. It’s hard to believe that some workers get paid so little for so much work. Costa Rica, however, has a lot of farmers that are cutting out the middle man and processing the coffee themselves, so that everyone is being rewarded well for their work.
- Puma Check. I spoke about this in my previous post, but the adventures never stopped. From morning/night hikes to finding critters in your cabin to zip-lining when you’re scared of heights, we did Costa Rica in the best way possible. I’m still on a rush from all the travels.
- Cupping. I had a good understanding of various cupping, brewing, and processing methods of coffee previous to this trip. One thing that I really enjoyed was how a farmer could grow a coffee tree the same as his/her neighbor, but the cup of coffee you have at the end of the day will be completely different. That really put it in perspective about how the passion the farmer has for their coffee, truly shows in the final product.
- Friends. I never expected that our entire group of 19 would get along so well together. We all clicked right away and I think a lot of that had to do with the atmosphere that UGA provided us during our time in Costa Rica. I’ve never felt more at home in a foreign country. To the faculty and my fellow peers, thank you. Thank you for giving me the best week in the greatest place on Earth. Cheers to officially being coffee snobs.
