Coffee Culture in the Dominican Republic: From Bean to Cup, a Sensory Experience
Morning light filters through the canopy of shade-grown coffee trees in the Cordillera Central, where the air sits cool at elevations between 3,000 and 5,000 feet and pickers work the hillsides by hand. That scene, unfolding across the Dominican Republic’s mountainous interior, produces the Arabica beans that fuel a coffee culture dating back to around 1735, when Spanish settlers first planted seeds in the fertile soils near Barahona. What follows is a look at the four main growing regions, the bean-to-cup process that turns cherry into brew, and how to taste the difference yourself. Dominican coffee exports exceeded US$30