I’m Lucie Fink.
I’m a video producer at Refinery29 but every so often,
I like to try other people’s jobs.
So I flew down to Costa Rica and I’m gonna
see if I have what it takes to be a gourmet
coffee roaster.
This is Lucie for Hire.
It’s no secret that Costa Rica is known for its coffee
and Café Britt, or Britt Coffee,
was Costa Rica’s first-ever gourmet coffee roasting company.
I visited their plantation and roastery to
learn how a bean on a bush becomes a beverage.
Your first challenge is picking coffee beans.
So what are you holding?
Ah, this is high technology.
So let me show you.
You see the harvest in Costa Rica is in the
dry season from December up to February.
But in the same bush, not all the coffee berries
are ripe at the same time.
The red ones are the ones ready.
This is the best outfit ever!
Lucie, you can go shopping like this.
Yeah!
And you have hands free.
This is what they need at grocery stores.
First, we walked through the nursery
to gather our beans.
Alright, here I go.
This is for small people, I know.
And then you should pick the red ones only
and they will fall immediately in the basket.
You see?
There we go.
You have to pay very close attention and really
squat down there to find the best beans.
It’s like a full body workout.
You see the good selection of the red beans
is one of the most basic things to make a
gourmet coffee cup.
Right.
You see?
This one is very juicy.
Wow.
That is good.
Oh, those coffee beans are gorgeous.
Woohoo!
Ahh!
There's a spider web!
We should go the other way.
Well, this way!
And since there might only be a few ripe ones
per bush, we had to really get ourselves immersed
into the nursery.
We are just foraging for coffee beans right now.
You’re doing a very good selection here.
Thank you.
Alright, I’ve got a basket full of beans.
Yes you did.
So, now, once you have your coffee,
it’s time to roast it.
Let’s roast it.
Let’s roast it!
Your second challenge is roasting the coffee.
So these are ready for roasting.
Those are ready for roasting, exactly.
Let’s roast!
Very good.
We could do a light roast, a medium, a dark,
or an espresso roast.
I’m really tired so I’m gonna go with
espresso.
Very good, very good.
So that’s what we’re going to do right here.
The roasting process takes between eight to
twelve minutes, depending on the type of roast.
Move it a little bit.
We closely monitored the beans by checking,
and checking…
Not ready.
And checking again.
And finally, there were about 10 seconds left.
Diez,
nueve,
ocho,
siete,
seis,
cinco,
cuatro,
tres,
dos,
uno!
Alright, take these out.
Finito!
Very good.
Open, yes.
We’re gonna let the coffee right here
repose for at least eight hours, alright?
And then we can try the coffee.
So I’ll see you in eight hours.
Very good.
I’ll see you in eight hours.
Bye.
I didn’t actually leave for eight hours.
He had some espresso beans that were
already reposed and ready to go.
And then it was time for my third challenge:
coffee cupping.
First, we took beans from each type of roast
and ground them
and then we poured hot
water directly onto the grounds to brew them.
I thought it was weird at first,
that we weren’t using a filter,
but he explained to me why
we do this.
If you use a filter with paper or something like that,
that's gonna absorb every flavor
of the coffee so this is the right way to
make the cupping of the coffee.
Of course you cannot drink this, right?
So we’re gonna do this process.
Oh, so we remove the grounds?
Exactly.
Coffee cupping is the process of deeply sniffing—
Smells good.
—and then loudly slurping coffee to measure
the different aspects of its taste.
This allowed me to pull out all the different
flavor notes in each type of roast.
And after slurping,
you spit it into a spittoon.
Very dark.
My first cupping experience.
So your final challenge is gonna be making
the cappuccino, the three layer cappuccino.
And we’re gonna make it with this roast.
Alright?
Alright.
Very good.
Let’s do it!
Just add the flavor.
First, I chose to flavor my coffee with hazelnut.
There you go.
Wait, wait!
What are you doing?
Oh, I thought you meant…
No, no.
That’s gonna affect-
Oh, no!
So should we get a new cup?
Yeah.
And then, I blew it.
There you go, perfect.
Perfect.
And then we steamed the milk to get foam
and added the foam as our first layer,
followed by the liquid milk.
I’m not a very clean barista.
Next, we turned our espresso beans
into grounds.
Wow.
That’s silky smooth.
Pressed the coffee.
One!
And brewed an espresso.
And after carefully pouring it in...
There you go, keep going, keep going.
I touched the edge.
No worries, just don’t stop.
Okay...Not that carefully.
I had my brew-tiful, three layer cappuccino.
Wow, I did not know what to expect.
This is beautiful.
Damn!
Would you hire me?
I would hire you, yes.
Perfect.
It’s official.
Official, very good.
The newest employee of Britt.
As they say in the coffee business,
smell ya later!
Okay, they don’t actually say that.
Hey Youtube!
Thanks for watching my video at Britt Coffee.
Click here to watch another video
on Refinery29’s channel
and right here to subscribe to us on Youtube.
Pura vida!