North Fields Cafe: Craft Specialty Coffee and Chocolate Tour
Hotel pickupTastingsMax 15
From $46 per person
What to Expect on a La Fortuna Coffee Tour
A La Fortuna farm morning has a shape, and it is much the same shape on all of them. Arrive, walk, watch the processing, sit down and taste, then the shop. What changes is how long each part runs and how much of it you do yourself.
Knowing that shape in advance is most of what people want before booking La Fortuna coffee farm tours. It holds whether you paid thirty dollars or a hundred.
The first fifteen minutes
You either arrive at a gate or you are collected from your hotel. At the gate there is usually a rancho: an open-sided timber shelter with a long table. The group gathers there, the guide introduces himself and the farm, and somebody hands round a first drink. Nothing is rushed and nobody takes a headcount twice.
If you booked the pickup, the van does a short circuit of the hotels within about ten minutes of town and the fifteen minutes happens on the road instead.
The walk through the planting
Twenty to forty minutes, on level or gently sloping ground, with frequent stops. This is where the cacao flowers on the trunk get pointed out and a pod comes off and is opened in front of you. It is where the coffee rows get explained. On the covered farm all of it is under a roof on cement paths; everywhere else you are in the open with a hat or an umbrella.
It is also where the wildlife appears. Sloths, toucans, frogs, coatis and armadillos all turn up in the farms' own photographs and, regularly, in front of the group.
The processing yard
The working part: the pulping mill, the fermentation boxes, the drying beds, the roaster and the grinder. Expect to turn a handle, crack a roasted bean, blow husk off nibs and grind something on a stone. This is the section that separates a farm morning from a cafe visit, and the guides give it the most time.
Timings taken from the durations and itineraries the operators publish.
| Part of the morning | Roughly how long | How hands-on |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival and introduction | 10 to 15 minutes | Not at all |
| The walk through the planting | 20 to 40 minutes | Tasting, handling |
| The processing yard | 30 to 45 minutes | Very |
| The tasting table | 20 to 30 minutes | Very |
| Chocolate moulding, where offered | 15 to 20 minutes | Entirely yours |
| The shop | As long as you like | Optional |
The tasting table
Everything comes together here, in stages rather than all at once. Coffee brewed through a cloth chorreador, chocolate from raw pulp through to a finished bar, cane juice on three of them, honey on one. On two farms you mould your own bonbons with spices and toppings you pick. What is on the table tour by tour is set out on the tastings page.
The shop, and whether you have to buy
Almost every farm finishes at a small shop selling its own roast, bars and honey. It is a genuine last stop rather than the point of the morning, and nobody is put under pressure. The coffee has the shortest provenance you will find in Costa Rica. Bring cash, because small farms take it more happily than cards.
Group size, and what it changes
Four of these farms cap a tour at fifteen travellers and one at thirty; the rest do not publish a number. In practice mornings are small. A quiet slot can leave you with the guide to yourselves, which changes the tour completely: the whole thing becomes a conversation.
The one number worth checking before you book is the minimum. One farm needs two travellers confirmed before it will run, and refunds in full if that is not met. The rest of the practical detail is on visiting, and every tour above is listed on La Fortuna Coffee Tours.
Tours shaped exactly like this
