Today we got to go to Café Britt, which is one of the most well respected coffee producers in Costa Rica. Café Britt’s primary focus is on roasting, whereas Hacienda Doka, that we visited yesterday, focuses on producing the beans. While both fall upstream in the supply chain, Café Britt falls further downstream than Doka because Doka needs to produce the beans for Café Britt to roast. Both Doka and Café Britt sell their products to individual consumers, but Café Britt has a greater emphasis on selling directly to consumers.

Café Britt sells gourmet coffee, so their coffee does not appeal to the masses of middle class. Even though their coffee is expensive, they still are one of the top coffee suppliers in Costa Rica. Their sales are a testament to the quality of their coffee and their ability to market their coffee to consumers. Just last year Café Britt sold approximately $95 million in coffee and are working toward selling $100 million this year. Although Café Britt sells a lot of coffee, they also sell cookies, chocolate, and various souvenirs through their gift shop. With all of these products, coffee is not even their most popular product! As seen through our tour and getting to experience the gift shop for ourselves, Café Britt is extremely good at selling the experience of coffee. The tours allow people to see a more in depth process of coffee production and roasting. Throughout the tour there are samples and the gift shop at the end has samples for people to try the products. This strategy entices consumers to purchase their products. Additionally, they sell the experience of coffee by emphasizing the impact of the aroma and purpose. For each person, coffee has a purpose. Some people may drink coffee for the energy, the taste, the comfort, or a variety of reasons. This take highlights why people should consider spending their money on high quality coffee.

Ultimately, Café Britt has it figured out because they have no other competitors in Costa Rica. We learned from a Café Britt speaker that there are no other Costa Rican gourmet coffee sellers that can compete with Café Britt because Café Britt provides all of the machines and necessary equipment for the coffee. Therefore, no other company can compete with the quality and added value of Café Britt’s machines. It was extremely interesting to see how Café Britt goes about selling their product and helping people find the purpose within their coffee.