Visit to Cafe Britt

On Thursday, we took a visit to Cafe Britt. Cafe Britt is a corporation based in CR that handles all levels of the production process of coffee. Considered a gourmet brand of coffee, Cafe Britt produces both non-organic and organic coffee with their product reaching stores all over the world. The visit included a very informative presentation of how coffee beans or "cherries" are harvested and processed (dried, roasted, and bagged), how to make coffee correctly, and a great buffet lunch.

Some new interesting facts that I picked up while Cafe Britt inlcude, 80 lbs. of pick coffee fruit result in just 3.5 lbs. of ground coffee to be sold. Coffee plants take at least one year of careful nurturing before it is ready to be placed in the field. After a plant makes it to the field, its will produce ¨cherries¨ for approxiamately 40 years. The decafination process can be performed many ways, but Cafe Britt believes that Germany is the best. To decafinate coffee it is soaked in hot water and steam before being roasted. Though I am not completely sure of the steps it takes to decafinate coffee, I do know that it results in 99.9% of caffiene being extracted. This extracted caffiene is then sold to companies such as Coke and Pepsi where they use the caffiene in their products. The last intersesting fact that I learned while at Cafe Britt, is that the coffee in CR got started through what I consider a government program. After recieving Indepence from Spain, the new Costa Rican government was willing to give land and resources to people willing to begin farming coffee. This government encouragement is what led to coffee being such a big player in the Costa Rican economy.

Cafe Britt also was very educational in how to brew and serve a perfect cup of coffee. In brewing, Cafe Britt always recomended brown filters because white filters contain chlorine which can distort the real flavor of the bean. Spring water is also recomended for the same reason of keeping chemicals found in tap water from affecting the taste. While a glass of coffee has a lifespan of 20 minutes, Cafe Britt also said never to reheat coffee or to use grounds more than once. Reheating and reusing results in loss of flavors from the original oils of the coffee bean. In regards to tasting, Cafe Britt said there is a correct way to test the taste of your coffee. This process included testing the aroma, the weight of your coffee grounds, and the way you actually drink coffee. All these little recomendations should result according to Cafe Britt in the perfect cup of coffee where the drinker is totally satisfied.

In comparison to Del Cafe Tal coffee, I found that Cafe Britt´s product did not taste as good. Lunch was provided and was delicious. Seeing Cafe Britt really allowed me to understand coffee production and its benefits and restrictions as far as sustainability. Examining the difference between organic and nonorganic and a small private coffee plantation and a large corporate coffee plantation really helped in my understanding of what is needed for the coffee industry to move forward in CR.