Today we visited Sibö Chocolates and just got to sit back, relax, and enjoy a presentation. Two men, Julio and George, quit their jobs and became experts in chocolate to they could start this business. Julio was a historian and so he led us through the historical story of chocolate and when we reached a certain part of the story we got to try a piece of chocolate that went along with it.

Chocolate and coffee have similarities in regards to the process they have to go through in order to reach the final product. Also, how coffee can be roasted at different lengths to create different types of roasts, chocolate uses different portions of cacao beans, sugar, coco butter (or milk if its milk chocolate). Coffee and chocolate both use beans that are grown right here in Costa Rica. They are both also known as being gourmet. Also, the supply chain of coffee and chocolate can have some stops along the way. In comparing Sibö with Cafe Britt, they both get their chocolate from other places and then roast/make the final product themselves. They also both give tours to show the expertise the company has and how they achieve the gourmet status and taste of their products. Another similarity I noticed between the tours specifically at both Sibö and Cafe Britt is that they had the most entertaining tour. While its clear that they both knew what they were talking about when it came to coffee and chocolate and they knew how to produce quality, they took that extra step to make sure their tour/presentation was engaging and fun. Though their quality speaks for itself, I think this element is also extremely important to overall image of the company and its keep people coming back.

The chocolate industry however does face a lot of competition because more companies are starting to grow their cacao beans in Costa Rica instead of exporting them from another country. But this can actually be a good thing. The whole mission of Sibö was to grow and use more cacao beans that were grown in Costa Rica.