This Starbucks Coffee Farm Is Officially Open To Tourists

The world's most admired food and beverage company is showing true dedication to educating the public on its main product. Just a few months after the international debut of Starbucks Reserve Roastery, a visitor center opened up on March 7 next to Starbuck's 600-acre Hacienda Alsacia coffee farm in Costa Rica, one of the best regions for coffee.

The coffee farm, purchased by the company in 2013, is located on the slopes of the Poás Volcano, about 45 minutes away from San Jose, and serves as a working coffee farm for Starbucks as well as a global research and development facility. Since then, it has played a huge part in the corporation's mission to understand the issues faced by small coffee farmers — such as climate change, crop disease, and rising production costs — and attempt to alleviate these issues by developing better farming practices and solutions and sharing them with other farmers.

Starbucks fans can now witness this endeavor and more with the opening of the 46,000-square-foot Hacienda Alsacia Visitor Center, which had been announced last year. Tickets, which are on sale for $25, grant visitors access to a 90-minute guided tour of the only coffee farm owned by Starbucks along with tastings of delicious Starbucks coffee.

The tour is meant to be an immersive experience, with a look at the types of coffee seeds used as well as a visit to the coffee fields, where guests can pick coffee cherries and witness the process at the wet mill, drying patio, coffee bodega, and greenhouse. The tour ends at a large café, where guests can enjoy coffee freshly brewed off the farm along with local breakfast and lunch options. For those interested in a Starbucks learning experience, check out our primer of 20 things you didn't know about the Seattle-based coffee chain.