Cafe Britt is an example of a company that markets a Costa Rican culture and shapes it for foreigners and tourists during the same time. The company shows people Costa Rica’s coffee traditions, the agriculture, and its cultural identity. The tour and how they promoted the story all focus on Costa Rican pride and help show…
May 13: Grounds for a Marketing Lesson
After visiting Café Britt today, I honestly think the company does a really good job of celebrating Costa Rican culture while also turning it into a really successful business and tourist experience. Throughout the tour, it was obvious how intentionally they market not just the coffee, but Costa Rica itself. Everything from the storytelling and…
The Power of Primary Care (May 12)
This morning we arrived at the Tigre river for a boat tour. We visited a primary care clinic in the rural Tigre area. The clinic was hard to get to, and we traveled by boat. The most interesting thing here was the mobile clinic which was in a boat. The boat was stocked with medicines…
Costa Rica Blog Post 5 – 05/13
Café Britt made me think about how a company can has to identify their strengths. In the tour our guide mentioned how they cannot compete with Columbia or other large coffee exporters, but they can compete in quality. That is their strength and their hot climate further strengthens it. The company was founded in 1985…
Adios Otavalo
The past three days in Ecuador have felt nonstop, but in the best way. Monday was essentially a full day dedicated to chocolate. The day started with a chocolate tasting at Yumbos, where we learned about the chocolate making process from start to finish. Here, I learned about how many different forms and flavors you…
Chocolate, Markets, and More (money)
Monday was another early morning, getting used to it now. We had our usual morning breakfast at the hotel, then hit the town to go on a chocolate experience by Yumbos, trying different flavors and learning about the history of chocolate and how they make it. We then explored Quito, getting lunch at a traditional…
Day 3: Bright day with Dein Quang
Before the visit, Prof Minh’s lecture set the tone for the entire day. He shared insights on how companies need to pivot during crises including points of multiple manufacturing countries. Manufacturing in one country is a strategic vulnerability, and I noticed Dien Quang thought about this too as they are expanding to South America and…
Coffee and Dancing
Today we toured Café Britt, a coffee roasting plant in the middle of Heredia, aswell as learned how to dance in Salsa and Bachata. The coffee plant was awesome; we got to try around 10 different beans and blends while learning about what goes in to picking and roasting coffee. Our guide explained how the…
Day 3: Some Electric Lectures
Once again, we started off the day with a morning lecture from Professor Minh. I wish he became a professor at Pitt; I really love his lectures. I learned more about what makes Vietnam so attractive for business despite neighboring countries like Cambodia and Laos having even cheaper labor. This is actually something I had…
Britt-erally obsessed with Costa Rican Coffee
Today, we had the pleasure of attending an informational lecture about Café Britt, a Costa Rica based coffee and chocolate company, and taking a tour of each step in the coffee production process. Throughout the tour, we were able to taste test several types of coffee, from light to dark roast, and their various different…
Day 3: Production of Products at Dien Quang
The aspect of the facility that interested me the most was the showroom, where they were able to display their products, and show how they operate. I was really interested in this part of the facility because it explained the function of the products that we were watching being made, so it was nice to…
Day 3: Sweating Through the Factory Floor
Today we took our site visit to Dien Quang. Being able to hear and see from employees of the company about what they do and see how they do it gave a different perspective about what it takes to manufacture tangible goods. One thing from the site visit which was my favorite to see was…
Postcards from Morocco: Cafes & Cooperatives
Day 5’s itinerary moved us from the historical past into the vibrant, innovative future of Morocco. We spent the day of classes exploring the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and modern entrepreneurship, focusing on two main themes: a deep dive into the Anou Cooperative and a lecture on Morocco’s rapidly developing startup ecosystem. Learning about the…
Day 5: Profit Margins and The People Behind Them
Today we learned about the Anou cooperative, a women artisan cooperative here in Morocco, and I will be honest it was one of the more eye opening business talks I have sat through. The model is really simple but in the best way possible. 80% of the profits go directly back to the artisans themselves,…
Café With a Side of Salsa – 05/13
¡Ey! ¿Qué tal? Today we got to wear shorts again, thank god! For breakfast our host mom gave us fruit and pancakes, honestly I could probably eat that everyday. Moving on… The events today were café with a side of salsa. In the morning, we had the opportunity to go on a coffee tour at…
Weaving It All Together
Today was a busy day. We had two very different speakers: a women’s artisan cooperative called Anou and a lecture on the development of Morocco’s startup ecosystem. They don’t seem related on the surface, but by the end of the day, I kept finding myself making connections between the two. Anou immediately caught my attention….
Rugs and Riches
Today’s conversation about the women artisan cooperative was very intriguing. Before this lesson, I was unsure how elegant Moroccan mugs are crafted and where they originate from. I assumed most would be made in-house in a major city or Medina. To my surprise, most rugs originate from rural areas and are crafted by women who…
30, Demasiado, 20, Deal
Welcome back, travellers, So much has happened in the last few days. I turned into Willy Wonka for a few hours, learned how to negotiate in Spanish, and woke up to some of the best views in the city. We are currently in Otavalo, a small town two hours north of Quito, where walking around…
Days 2/3 – Keeping busy
Day 2 – Chocolate tours at yumbo in the Quito market square, tasted raw cacao beans with the flesh still on, tried many different flavors and bought 3 bars and a sample kit, another tour at bios later that night after being in the bus for 30 mins, presentation and chocolate tasting for quite a…
Rabatica
Today felt like I was back in the American again. My day started off pretty normal to my current morning routine, wake up, eat some mslooqs (hard-boiled eggs), and navigate the streets to the CCCL. I take a new path everyday. After class a couple of my friends and I went and bought a basketball…