Costa Rica is a Central American country that is almost the same size as Estonia in terms of area, but has four times the population. While the crops ideally suited to the Estonian climate are carrot, beet and turnips, in Costa Rica it’s bananas, melons and coffee. In this blog post I discuss how coffee is grown in Costa Rica and what I saw and experienced on my travels.
It is mid-January and it's snowing in the Sahara, but there is still no sight of snow in Helsinki. Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, it's supposed to be dry season and summer at its best, but in recent days the country has been hit by heavy rains and cold winds. Rainfall has caused the coffee trees to bloom for several months too early, which has a negative effect on the coming crop.
Paulig's Sourcing Manager for coffee Anna Vänskä is taking a year to travel around countries of origin. In Costa Rica, she sips on chorreador-brewed coffee while tropical rain is falling on the coffee trees.
