Coffee factory Monte Alto or how coffee is produced: from the plant to the cup

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[12/02/17] Jarabacoa is a little town in the Dominican mountains. It is notable for two main reasons - the mountains that surround it and coffee, that is being grown on their emerald slopes.

Even though I didn't immerse myself in the natural attractions of the region, such as rafting and hiking to the highest mountain of the country - Pico Duarte, I made sure to immerse myself in coffee.
Well, not literally, of course.

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In the end I learned a few new for me methods of brewing the aforementioned drink and paid a visit to a coffee factory nearby to have a look at how it's grown and prepared.

They showed me the entire process from seed to drink, so to say.
For mere 2$ they provided me with a guide that was showing me around, describing and demonstrating different parts of the work that's being done there.
Though, she was only speaking spanish, the knowledge of which I lack, so I might have missed some points or gotten it a bit wrong.

First, they harvest the fruitage:

^{From this unremarkable tree}

Then the harvest is culled:

After that the beans are extracted and separated from the pulp. Back in the day it was done by this kind of mechanisms:

Nowadays they use big machines capable of processing much bigger volumes much more efficiently.

Then the green beans are dried in vast hangars like this:

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And by machine drying as well:

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Here they sort it by weight and size:

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And here we have the roasting process after which the beans acquire their aroma that nearly everyone knows so well:

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After that the coffee is basically ready. Part of it goes to grinder, before packing the final product.

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But oh, wait! There's the quality control, too. These guys are getting to drink coffee all day not only for free, they are paid for that! Any coffee-junkie's dream came true.

^{Look at all those cups}

Finally, they have a shop on-site where everyone can try the brewed coffee and buy some.

^{This table represents the processing of coffee bean}

Some unrelated photos of Jarabacoa and surroundings:

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^{Salto Jimenoa again}

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^{The view from the hostel roof I appreciated much, especially in the morning}

To be continued...

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Check out my travel blog:
Dominican Republic: 26, 27
Turkey: 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
Iran: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20