Today we visited Sibo Chocolate, Riverside Pizzeria and Gastropub, and La Universidad de Latina to learn about medical devices.  During our time at Sibo Chocolate we sampled lots of rich chocolates while learning about the history of it and where it came from.  Lots of stuff we learned was super interesting and I heard lots of things I wasn’t expecting to hear.  The thing that surprised me the most was when our tour guide said the reason that M&Ms were invented was so that during WW1 soldiers would have chocolate that wouldn’t melt which led to Forrest Mars Sr creating M&Ms.  He then went in to talk about how businesses like M&Ms, Hershey, and Nestle would rely on the mass production of chocolate which made it lose its quality.  This point made me realize it is very difficult to fulfill the Triple Bottom Line.

One statement that really stuck out to me from our tour guide was, “we wanted our business to be a model of sustainability for other businesses”.  He then talked about the way Sibo makes their chocolate with a comparison to his grandmas cooking.  His family was born in France, and he was saying that his grandma would make pasta for their family and take 8 whole hours to make the sauce.  He compared this to pasta that he makes in 15 minutes and how it is nowhere near as good as his grandmas. The chocolate that Sibo makes doesn’t come from any ordinary Cacao, they buy the best Cacao in all of Costa Rica.  Then they have a very long natural/old school process which ensures that the chocolate has a great taste.            

My experience at Sibo Chocolate made me realize, hitting all points of the triple bottom line is very difficult.  Sibo Chocolate clearly values the people by giving them some of the best tasting chocolate out there.  They value the planet by the slow and sustainable process they have.  They don’t rely on large industrial machines which is good for the environment.  The thing that they lack on is the profit side of things.  During our tour, our guide said, “It is impossible to have quality and quantity, and we value quality more here”.  He knows they won’t be a top chocolate producer in the world, he just wants people to enjoy high quality chocolate.  Comparing this to a place like Hershey, they do value profit very high, but their rapid industrial process makes it bad for the environment and the taste is not as rich as Sibo.  All in all, I had an unforgettable experience at Sibo Chocolate, but it made me understand reaching the Triple Bottom Line is near impossible