Walking through the beautiful site of Cafe Britt with our passionate tour guide Appa was an incredibly insightful and enjoyable experience into seeing the process from bean to cup. At this point in the trip, we know that Costa Rica values being green and upholding community in its country. While the country does a great job of maintaining those values when it works with hotels, airports, and other places where they provide coffee in the nation, I think that their marketing may be stronger than their mission abroad in other countries. In their presentation they mentioned that they provide coffee to locations in China, Finland, Ukraine, among many other countries across the world. When asking about the initiatives that Café Britt has, they are able to cite their green certifications in Costa Rica, the programs such as their Habitat line to focus on biodiversity and partnership with Sifais to provide free education, but they are unable to dive into how they are upholding those values abroad.

While it is difficult to go against norms and practices in another country, I think that their marketing is oversaturated with being a green and community-centered company. Being a provider for a product in another country, there is likely only so much that they are able to do and they do have great initiatives such as recycling programs with hotels for the packaging among other things, but the international locations are definitely not as green as Costa Rica. I’m not sure if I would consider it so much false advertising as much as too much “in your face” advertising when those standards may not be upheld as strongly around the world. Café Britt’s coffee is delicious (as a non-coffee drinker myself) and I see why they are getting into more and more countries. From their coffee and chocolates to the other products they provide, Café Britt is breaking international markets and hopefully international standards for going green one coffee cup at a time.