Thursday, February 28, 2013

Coffee Beans

In the Dominican Republic, coffee is practically the National Drink.  Originally brought from Africa, it is grown from Aribica Coffee "cherries". You can see the coffee beans hang on the branch like cherries. 
There are small local coffee plantations through out the island and you can see them drying and turning the coffee beans on tarps and cement pads.
After drying the beans are roasted and ground. 

It is served in small portions, is sweet and strong.  Avid tea drinkers ourselves we had a short glass of coffee as it would really have been quite rude not to as coffee in the Dominican is a source of National pride.  The coffee we had was full-bodied and flavorful.

4 comments:

Marilyn Miller said...

Good for you for trying it. What a lovely experience to see and savor. I can just imagine the fragrance. I do love the fragrance of coffee, though no so much the flavor.

La Tea Dah said...

The coffee cherries are pretty. I enjoyed learning about roasting and making coffee. I especially enjoyed the simplicity of the process (no large machinery, etc.). I imagine such fresh coffee, right from the source, was quite tasty!

GardenOfDaisies said...

What an amazing place to visit. Something you will never forget. Yes, the situation called for a taste, even if it's not a favorite drink. Several of my daughter's friends spent a college semester in the DR. The program immersed them into the community on day one with service-learning. I loved seeing the pictures when they returned.

Angela McRae said...

Glad you were not rude and kindly drank the coffee. Don't need reports of "ugly Americans" abroad. Good girl!