The most special and memorable part of travel is, without a doubt, discovering and enjoying new experiences and the unique charms of each destination. Returning home with a heart full of new experiences and a suitcase full of souvenirs that weren’t there on the outbound trip, gives us a feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction.
One of the most beautiful and biologically diverse areas on the planet just waiting for you to explore is Costa Rica. From the rainforest-covered mountains to the miles of beaches below, this country offers innumerable opportunities to immerse yourself in the natural environment and local culture at your leisure.
Monteverde, known worldwide for its cloud forest and diversity of protected flora and fauna, is the ideal place to discover Costa Rica’s richness. Distinctive features of this area include the fertile fields that produce coffee. Follow the whole process, from planting to harvesting, right through to roasting the world’s most precious seed of the fruit of the coffee plant — the coffee cherry.
The Trapiche Tour
This tour is a must if you spend a few days in this corner of Costa Rica. Explore a long-running family business that was created with the aim of showing the traveler a representative part of the purest of Costa Rican culture.
The two-hour guided tour takes you step by step through all the stages of coffee production.
It begins with a walkthrough the farm where you will see sugar, coffee, and cocoa plantations, as well as a small, wilder forested area. On this first part of the tour, the guide explains the entire coffee process, from the planting to the subsequent process of crushing, peeling, sorting, and roasting.
For those who want to enjoy the most complete experience, this tour through the plantations ends with a ride on an ox cart which takes you to a location where the cocoa process is explained. Discover its different stages: starting with how the tree develops, how it is pollinated, how the fruit is obtained, the fermentation of the seeds, the drying, roasting and grinding of the cocoa, along with a brief explanation of how chocolate is made, followed by a chocolate tasting.
The tour also includes a visit to the sugar processing mills — the manual mill, the water wheel mill, and the oxen mill — as well as a demonstration of how to cook sugar cane juice until a thick syrup is obtained.
At the end of the tour, you will have the opportunity to sample the typical gallo de picadillo de arracacheaccompanied by an exquisite cup of coffee from our farm, or a refreshing lemonade.