Today we switched gears from coffee to chocolate by visiting Sibö Chocolate. There, Julio Fernandez Amón, one of the owners of the company, told use the story about how he and his partner, George Soriano, quit their day jobs to create a chocolate business. We learned that, like with Costa Rican coffee, they chose to create quality chocolate rather than focusing on quantity. This relates to one of their biggest challenges, which is still being able to make a profit when not having a large quantity of product. Since they cannot make great amounts of chocolate, they have to be able to market themselves as quality chocolate so they can sell their products at a higher price. Additionally, Sibö utilizes sustainable practices, which sometimes leads to higher costs. For example, their packaging is made of 95% cacao shells and 5% recycled paper to ensure they are not wasting any resources. Another recent challenge that Sibö has faced is a rise in the cost of chocolate. This is a big issue because if the price is too high, other stores will not buy their products. In order to reduce this cost, Sibö has eliminate the intermediaries, including transportation and processing.

The process of making chocolate has some similarities to that of coffee. For example, after the cacao beans are separated from the fruit, they are left to ferment. Then, like coffee beans, the cacao beans are left out to dry for seven days before roasting them. After roasting, the shells are remove, the beans are ground, and the chocolate is melted.

After our chocolate tasting at Sibö, we headed to Riverside for lunch. Riverside is unique because of its farm-to-table program, where many of their food items have ingredients that were grown in their garden. While our food was being prepared, we were taken for a short tour of the garden, and we were told more about their composting system, which used the leftover food from their customers, as well. This experience taught me one thing: companies life Cafe Britt, Sibö, and Riverside are dedicated to helping the environment and giving back to the community. I am very happy to have been able to visit all of these places so far and support their businesses, and I cannot wait to continue on Monday!