Today, we visited Cafe Britt, a coffee brand started by someone from the Netherlands. Now, it is a large multinational company that focuses on selling Costa Rican coffee, chocolate, baked goods and souvenirs. It can be found in most Latin American airports and tourist attractions. As we walked through the plantation and sat for a marketing lecture, we learned how Costa Rican culture is ingrained into Cafe Britt’s identity.

After hearing the presentation on marketing, I believe that Cafe Britt is a blend of uplifting Costa Rican culture while also packaging it to make profit. For example, all of the coffee is packaged is bags with national parks or animals. Furthermore, every employee treated us with the famous warm Costa Rican hospitality. However, there was one thing that seemed to water down the experience’s authenticity, and that was large amount of other souvenirs that specifically. Most were not traditional Costa Rican items, they were keychains, special rocks, or clothing. It felt like a target towards tourists who might not care about having a traditional souvenir. However, I still believe that Cafe Britt represents the uplifting of Costa Rican culture because of their dedication to supporting the country with exports and donations to local philanthropic organizations.