Duration: Full Day · Price: From $200 USD per group of 1–4 · Difficulty: Easy
About this tour
There are coffee tours in Costa Rica, and then there is Hacienda Doka. The estate in Sabanilla de Alajuela has been producing single-origin arabica since 1929 — three generations before specialty coffee became a category. The land sits on the slopes above the Central Valley at an altitude that produces the brightness and floral complexity that distinguish a great Costa Rican coffee from a merely good one. When you walk the rows here during harvest, the cherries are ripe to the point of bursting, and the light filtering through the coffee canopy has a quality that photographs never quite capture.
The tour covers the full process from tree to cup: cherry picking, pulping, fermentation, washing, raised drying beds, mechanical dry milling, classification, and roasting. Hacienda Doka operates one of the few traditional beneficios still running at scale in the Central Valley, which means you see the actual industrial process — the machines are large, the fermentation tanks are fragrant, and the guides explain each stage with the fluency of people who have lived this process their entire lives. The tour ends in the cupping room, where several preparations are evaluated side by side: you taste the difference that elevation, fermentation time, and roast profile make to the same base bean.
The afternoon drives a few minutes down the road to Hacienda Alsacia — the working coffee farm and Reserve Store that Starbucks operates as its global agronomy research center and its most remarkable retail location anywhere in the world. The building was designed to sit within the farm rather than above it: the terrace looks directly over rows of the arabica varieties being developed for climate resilience in Starbucks' global supply chain. People call it the most beautiful Starbucks in the world, and the combination of architecture, setting, and the quality of the drinks prepared from beans grown meters away makes that claim hard to argue.
Coffee bags and drinks at Hacienda Alsacia are not included in the tour price — bring a budget for the coffee you will want to take home. This is one of those rare tours where the day ends better than it started.
What's included
- Round-trip private transportation from San José
- Bilingual naturalist guide
- Hacienda Doka guided farm tour with processing demonstration
- Coffee cherry picking experience
- Cupping session
- Bottled water
Not included
- Coffee bags and retail purchases at Hacienda Doka or Hacienda Alsacia
- Drinks and food at Starbucks Hacienda Alsacia
- Lunch
- Gratuities
- Personal travel insurance
Good to know
- Hacienda Doka is in Sabanilla, Alajuela — approximately 45 minutes from San José
- Hacienda Alsacia (Starbucks Reserve) is just minutes from Hacienda Doka
- Coffee cherry picking is best during harvest season (November–February); farm tour runs year-round
- Wear comfortable closed-toe shoes for farm terrain
- Bring a budget for coffee purchases at both stops
- Sabanilla is cooler than San José — a light layer is useful in the morning
- Free cancellation 48 hours prior