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Don Juan Coffee Tour
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Click for Printable Version
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Don Juan Coffee Tour
At Don Juan Coffee Tour you can experience the age-old coffee tradition through a unique tour of our coffee farms.
Our specialized guides will point out the most important aspects of coffee, its harvest and processing. They’ll take you through the history of this crop from its beginnings in the Arab African countries and Ethiopia. The tour will highlight the importance of the “golden bean” (grano de oro) on social, cultural and economic development of Costa Rica.
At our traditional house, you’ll enjoy a friendly atmosphere and the delicious, seductive aroma of one of the best coffees in the world. Along with your exquisite cup of coffee, you can try one of our typical snacks. Finally, you can purchase a wide variety of fresh roasted and packaged coffee.
The Don Juan Coffee Tour is located in Monteverde - a cloud forest. One of Costa Rica's most important legacies, Monteverde is an integral part of one of the most established traditions of our country. It produces some of the best coffees in the world. Of African origin, coffee made its way around the world and onto the beautiful Costa Rican mountains in the early 19th century.
Many people might think of enormous coffee plantations…in Brazil, for example. Even so, more than 70% of Costa Rican coffee is grown on family-run faros averaging 5 to 10 hectares. Additionally, Costa Rica’s coffee production, one of the largest in the world, is in the hands of between 230,000 and 300,000 farmers and 3,000,000 other related workers including areas of production maintenance. All together, coffee from seed to harvest to preparation, reaches its final state.
In this same way, Don Juan Coffee Tour proudly takes you through our family-run farm in Monteverde, Puntarenas, where this exotic beverage has been an integral part of our lives for the past 250 years.
Don Juan Coffee Tour: Coffee Culture and Tradition.
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Key Features
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Coffee Tour in the mountains of Monteverde
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Guided Tour
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Fresh Roasted Coffee and Souvenir Shop
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Free Transportation to and from your Hotel
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Free Transportation from Santa Elena
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Traditional Coffee House and Snacks
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Coffee History and Culture
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Learn about Coffee Taxonomy
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The History of Don Juan Coffee Tour
The history of Don Juan is the history of Monteverde, of hard and honest work, and the connection to the earth and respect for nature. Son of Saturnino Cruz Villalobos and Antonio Jimenez, Don Juan is one of 20 siblings that grew up in this area. The family originally came from Santa Rosa of Guacimal, later moving to San Luis where the family picked coffee on many farms belonging to the Leitón family. From an early age, Don Juan worked on the farms and on other aspects related to coffee farming.
In 1949, several Quaker families arrived from the U.S. They acquired land and coined the name “Monteverde.” They also developed a successful dairy business, planted the seed of nature conservancy in the area’s people, and began to develop what is now one of the most important wildlife corridors in the country.
Don Juan married on June 21, 1956 at age 19 and had 9 children. For his wedding, he asked to borrow 500 colones (less than $1 US) from Don Manuel Cambronero and pay it back by working on his coffee farm. With this small loan, he bought his and his wife’s wedding apparrel. Then, he had to work to fill 500 barrels of coffee. Today, just 1 barrel of coffee is worth the 500 colones.
“I was a coffee farm worker for 37 years,” he remembers. “I worked [on a Quaker farm with] Fermin Arguedas. I earned 4 colones per day for a 10 hour work day.
Later, Don Juan owned the first vegetable store across from the church, and then a small convenience store at the same place called “El Cinco Menos.” Don Juan says that there was a tree on the patio that was always full of “esperanzas” (a kind of grasshopper) in the mornings, so he changed the name to “Supermercado La Esperanza.” Today, Supermercado La Esperanza is a pulse of the community of Santa Elena, Monteverde.
It is from this Monteverde family’s coffee background that the Don Juan Coffee Tour tourism project was born. This project aims to share with visitors and younger generations one of the most traditional activities not only of our community but of our country.
On the Don Juan Coffee Tour you’ll enjoy this long-standing tradition on our farms. We’ll show you the most important features of the plant, harvest and processing of this marvelous fruit, as well as the history and importance of the “golden seed” in the social, cultural and economic development of the country.
At our welcoming traditional house you can enjoy the delicious, seductive aroma of one of the best coffees in the world, enjoy its exquisite quality, and buy a variety of packaged coffee.
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