Navigating the Dominican origins on coffee
In the coffee world, coffee is in constant evolution & development, with innovation being the main engine of the industry in a bottoms-up scheme. One igniting conception that has turned coffee into a refined and diversified good is its origins, Why? well, coffee itself has a world of its own; Navigating it in its entirety in a single post sounds like a nearly impossible task, which is why we decided to bring in a series of posts explicating both what origins are, how they might influence coffee production, and then going further into the Dominican origins and its characteristics.
Worldwide, there are more than 70 coffee-producing countries around the world, meanwhile the traditions, geography, growing methods & coffee culture vary by country and all contribute to different coffees and experiences involving the latter. These countries are scattered wide in these 3 regions: Latin America, Africa, and Asia / Pacific between the tropics of both Cancer & Capricorn, these specific area is known as the Coffee Belt. Nonetheless, each one of these regions has unique things to offer in the matter of coffee, from the bean to processing methods, to roasting profiles, to brewing methods, and so on. Origins have a bigger impact on the quality and experience to-develop of the coffee bean, which will later be the determining factor of a good coffee cup.
Coffee plants, shot by Hector Encarnación
In addition, we must say that the coffee’s origins are being taken more into account as it’s becoming more of a fine/ craft experience, and less of a commodity/convenience good. Although this is all for the benefit of the different parties taking action into the coffee world, the D.R. is still lacking into becoming part of this new wave of coffee as a global craft/premium good, for the industry has been long lost to a variety of things such as the lack of integral support from the government as well as the industry’s culture damaged by the monopolies one-sided interests and so on… Yet a few handfuls of daring coffee aficionados have begun to change the paradigm in matters of coffee and the relation of the industry with its forsaken product.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be hopes on letting the world know about what’s being brewed here in the Dominican Republic and the potential for growth that we present. In the D.R. we have unique geography, which also allows the country to develop micro-weather conditions, this is why in our half of an island we can find so many different areas with entirely different characteristics, and this is great news for us coffee enthusiasts, since this means we get to develop coffee at different processing levels, roasting profiles, and a whole universe of unending possibilities in matters of the coffee being made here in the D.R., There are various geographical micro-regions where the coffee industry is brewing, for a variety of factors such as weather conditions or how industrialized are they, and the quality of their processing methods, these regions (from which we will go into further detail in future parts of this post) are:
• Barahona
• Valdesia
• Jarabacoa
• Bahoruco
• El Valle
• Elias Piña
• Cibao Noreste
• San Juan de la Magüana
