Costa Rica is known for having great quality coffee.  We went to Café Britt and took a tour around the facilities. The tour was very entertaining and informative. The guides were theatrical and hilarious, which had us laughing from beginning to end. During the tour we learned about the history of coffee, the growing cycle of coffee, the coffee fruit life-cycle, the wet milling process, and the roasting process. The production of coffee is much more complicated than I imagined. If you miss a step, you’re pretty much guaranteed a crappy cup of coffee. We learned how to properly taste test coffee and determine if your coffee is good or bad.

After the tour, we shopped around in the Britt Shop. Customers can choose coffee from Fair Trade, Poas Volcano, Shade Grown Organic amongst others, which come from different regions of Costa Rica. The shop also offered free samples of Britt espresso and other Britt products for purchase. Considering that I am not a coffee person, the espresso was pretty good. Very bitter…but good. Not only is Britt famous for its coffee, it has gourmet chocolate! Chocolate covered macadamia nuts, coffee beans, guava, pineapple as well as brittle and cookies. Heaven on a shelf.

We ended the tour with food of course! Some of the best food I’ve had so far here in Costa Rica. Most times when you go to a buffet, it’s quantity over quality. But here…it was asombroso (awesome)! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the tour, the food, and the good company.