{"id":16109,"date":"2024-04-20T11:27:32","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T17:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=16109"},"modified":"2024-04-18T11:32:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T17:32:13","slug":"from-coffee-bean-to-coffee-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=16109","title":{"rendered":"From Coffee Bean To Coffee Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Study abroad Aggies let newfound knowledge percolate in Costa Rica<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kias Simmons \u201926 looked out from the middle of a Costa Rican supermarket over half a dozen bags of coffee beans stacked high in his arms. The aisle in front of him was clear. All that remained was the high-wire act to get to the checkout line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cFor my family and friends,\u201d he said. \u201cI promised I would bring some back.\u201d
Simmons was part of the Texas A&M Costa Rica Specialty Coffee Value Chain field trip that offered students a faculty-led, firsthand look at the process of coffee development from bean to cup in Central America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cI really didn\u2019t know much about coffee before the trip,\u201d said Simmons, a double major in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Animal Science and Department of Agricultural Economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Simmons, who is working toward a Meat Science certification, was looking forward to the learning experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coffee professional\u2019s dream trip
<\/strong>Nadav Mer, a lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics and trip leader, was in his element.
\u201cIt\u2019s really my dream coffee trip as a coffee professional in Costa Rica \u2013 bringing students along to a very high-level experience within the coffee industry that generally is only sought out by coffee professionals,\u201d Mer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Mer said he owned several roasteries and a coffee shop in Ames, Iowa, over the course of 10 years.
\u201cCoffee brings people together in a way that other commodities or other product categories do not,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s unique in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students get rare insider view
<\/strong>The shared experience created something special for a small group of Aggies.
Six students from the College joined Mer on the trip through forests, mountains, active volcanoes and switchbacks. Lots of switchbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The students\u2019 experiences ran the gamut, from picking ripe, cherry red coffee fruit from the tree to plodding across a patio with a rake to dry beans, topped off with a private tasting session of locally grown products. Coopetarraz\u00fa, a coffee cooperative in Costa Rica, helped provide some of these fundamental experiences during the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cI have kind of a visualization of what the process is now from plant to cherry to beans all in one cup,\u201d Ayla Boyd \u201924 said. \u201cI have a face for the people who are involved in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Boyd is a senior graduating with a degree from the Department of Food Science and Technology and certificates in Viticulture and Enology and Food Diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


A tour of the football-field-sized outdoor composting center was included. Discarded coffee cherries, the fruit left over when the beans are removed, are composted to create fertilizer for the next generation of coffee plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cI think the composting process they have is very interesting,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cCoopetarraz\u00fa was really, really neat to see. Also, getting an understanding of the scale that they have and the methods that they use was special.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cCoffee brings people together in a way that other commodities or other product categories do not. It\u2019s unique in that way.\u201d Nadav Mer Lecturer and trip leader Department of Agricultural Economics<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The study abroad group toured Coopetarraz\u00fa, a coffee cooperative in Costa Rica, where they saw the inner workings of an active coffee producer. (Michael Miller\/Texas A&M AgriLife)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An educational perspective not found in the classroom
<\/strong>Mer is passionate about providing these new perspectives.
\u201cTo be able to visualize the journey from picking up a cup of coffee to understanding the steps involved in bringing it to you is a rare treat for anyone passionate about coffee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Eric Brenner, assistant director for the Texas A&M Center for Coffee Research and Education and trip co-leader, values the depth of education this study abroad experience provides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cIt gives the students a sense of understanding,\u201d he said. \u201cThey learn everything that goes on behind the scenes \u2013 the science, the mechanisms, all the way to the consumer.\u201d
Simmons, for one, left the co-op with a greater respect for the coffee bean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where if you grow your own food, it tastes better,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that I get to reflect back on this whole process, I think coffee is going to taste a lot better to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coopetarraz\u00fa uses leftover coffee cherries as compost. The active composting area rivals the size of a football field. (Michael Miller\/Texas A&M AgriLife)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Study abroad Aggies let newfound knowledge percolate in Costa Rica Kias Simmons \u201926 looked out from the middle of a Costa Rican supermarket over half a dozen bags of coffee beans stacked high in his arms. The aisle in front of him was clear. All that remained was the high-wire act to get to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1,13],"tags":[120,138],"class_list":["post-16109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-news","category-state","tag-news","tag-texas-am-agrilife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16128,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16109\/revisions\/16128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}