Today we had a chocolate tasting tour, highlighted by the rich tastes and the funny historical lesson. It was far and away my favorite tour, partly because I loves facts and the history was all facts and partly because I spent an hour eating chocolate. Chocolate has a similar process of coffee as far as the supply chain. You have to harvest the fruit and work to extract the eventually golden bean. A risk for most chocolate supply chains is the price volatility of the chocolate itself, but Sibö eliminates this risk by paying the cocoa farmers a decent amount more than they would receive in the mainstream market. Cafe Britt and Sibö are similar where they don’t actually harvest the plant as their main source of income and instead source it from local farmers.

If I started a business exporting a Costa Rican tropical crop it would be very close between chocolate and pineapple. I would probably just spend all day eating the fresh pineapple and chocolate plants help grow a forest. The chocolate can also turn into a delicious treat, so for that reason I might choose the chocolate. Both were my two favorite tours and the two crops that peaked my interest the most.