Cafe #4

Just this April Daisy Rodriguez's coffee plantation was named the best coffee in Costa Rica. I have found some newspaper articles about it, but unfortunately everything is in Spanish and therefore not of much help to me. 

When I am in the United States everything is about Starbucks. Sure there are plenty of other coffee companies out there but Starbucks is by far the biggest and most well-known. Here in Costa Rica the Starbucks equivalent is Cafe Britt, another large corporate coffee company. Although these are the major producers in their respective countries, they do not necessarily have the best product on the market. I find it to be quite interesting that a relatively small farm such as CafeTal was the winner of the best quality coffee over its bigger competitors. Daisy's farm was nothing like that of Cafe Britt. There were no organized tours, no restaurant and no gift shop. It was just a simple coffee plantation that happens to make wonderful coffee. I do not drink coffee so I do not know a whole lot about the coffee industry in the United States, but I am sure that it is pretty similar in the States. Many people probably prefer coffee from smaller companies that may make a better product than Starbucks. Starbucks seems like a good enough company who tries to do right by the world and even pays among the highest prices for sustainably produced coffee, but again that does not mean that they have the best coffee products. 

The next time I go to a small cafe I will pay more attention to where the coffee comes from, what types are offered and how much people seem to like it. I can do the same thing when I wander through any grocery store. There is usually a pretty large section dedicated to coffee ranging from the simple Folgers instant coffee to the higher end gourmet and international products.  I will definitely notice what country the coffee comes from, how much it costs, and how well it seems to sell. The coffee industry is an interesting business especially with all the recent trends in organic and sustainable products. I think that if I did drink coffee on a regular basis I would notice the difference between the corporate suppliers and the more home-grown feel coffee. And even though I did enjoy the visit to Cafe Britt and I have nothing against Starbucks, I think I would have to choose the smaller companies just as some sort of rebellion against big corporate companies.