Our guide, Mr. Wicmar Gonzales, met our group to discuss the coffee research at the station. Coffee is an important commodity in Puerto Rico. However due to various reasons, such as weather, plant disease, and the global economy, coffee production has declined. For example, before Hurricane George, Puerto Rico produced 250 thousand hundred weights of coffee. Now Puerto Rico produces only 80 thousand hundredweights. However, despite the decline, the experimental station continues to do coffee related research and production. One area of research that is taking place at the station is coffee compost. Coffee compost is high in Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus. Furthermore, coffee compost must be aerated and wood chips are added to maintain proper moisture levels. Research is also being done on how different soils from different parts of Puerto Rico react to the coffee compost.
After touring the coffee compost and soil research, Mr. Gonsaez gave us a tour of the nursery. Some plants we saw are the Cleopatra Mandarin, which is preferred for root stocks because of uniform growth, lack of spines, and growth tends to be straight. As we learned earlier on this trip asexual reproduction and grafting is preferred for consistency and disease resistance.Next we saw how compost is actually made. With this we saw Licenia worms aka California Redworms in action.
Finally we observed how coffee is processed, dried, roasted, and brewed. The process they do at the experiment station was very similar to the one we saw in Maracao. The only diffence was that in Maracao that farmer seemed to be producing commercially while here at the experiment station it is done for research. Also here we were actually able to see the coffee being roasted. We learned of how its done and when it was finished we were able to see the final product. The roasted bean smelt amazing. Once the beans cooled down we put them in the coffee grinder and grinded them down. The smell became even more stronger and I really enjoyed it. Then came the best part: tasting the fresh coffee that had been roasted and grinded less than ten minutes.This was the first time I tried coffee from freshly roasted beans. Black coffee with no milk just sugar. I was amazed! Usually I hate black coffee but this was something different. Definitely the best cup of black coffee I ever had. To top it off I was able to take some home to make for the last few days we would be here :D ¡salud!
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