Coffee dos

So we visited 2 coffee plantations this week. One was a small family-operated (by Daisy Rodriguez) plantation in a remote area on the side of a mountain. Our bus, which could not make the trip all the way to the plantation due to the road condition, dropped us at a point on the road where we continued the rest by foot, on a rocky unpaved road lined with flowers and greenery, including some coffee plants. There Daisy produces her brand "Del Cafe... Tal" (which I am happy to say I purchased a bag of) which just won the best cup of coffee in Costa Rica award, a very prestigious honor. Since winning this award Daisy can now sell her coffee for much higher prices and she said how much more enthusiastic and committed her employees were to their work on the plantation because of the award. The operation there is small, but Daisy harvests, processes, packages, and markets and sells the coffee herself, without any intermediaries which would greatly take away from her profits. It was very interesting to hear her talking about the process she goes through to make the coffee. She told us how she used to make organic coffee for a couple of years, but because of the costs and lack of profitable business in the industry she was forced to stop and go back to producing inorganically (which then won her the best coffee award). It is unfortunate that there are not greater incentives, especially for small producers like Daisy to make their coffee farms organic. Though Daisy admitted to being slightly flustered and surprised by our large group and such short notice of our visit, she was very friendly and genuine and gladly welcomed us into her farm.

In a completely different experience, we visited Cafe Britt coffee yesterday. Cafe Britt is less of a farming operation and more of a buying and processing plant for coffee. They are one of the main brands of coffee in Costa Rica as you soon find out after seeing their brand almost everywhere we go. This visit could not have been any different than the visit to Daisy´s quaint farm. We were quickly ushered from the easily accessible parking lot, along a paved sidewalk through the coffee plants, and through a "tour" that seemed more like a show at an amusement park complete with actors and silly costumes (though they did give us a lot of information about the origin of coffee and techniques that are used in making it). We were then lead to the fully-stocked gift shop and into a restaurant on-site for lunch. Though it was interesting to see everything Cafe Britt does, the visit was definitely geared at tourists and did not feel as genuine or sincere as the visit with Daisy earlier that week.

The contrasts between the two visits are endless. Daisy uses smaller, simpler machinery and technigues while Cafe Britt has a large manufacturing facility. Daisy is directly involved in her coffee every step of the way and takes great pride in her product. Cafe Britt buys most of the coffee they produce from smaller farmers. The list goes on and on. It is no wonder that Daisy talked about times of struggling with her coffee production and sales when a large corporation like Cafe Britt controls so much of the market.

Some of Daisy's Equipment (left)