Café Britt

Café Britt

Industry	Coffee roasting and chocolate manufacturing
Founded	1985
Founder	Steve Aronson
Headquarters	Heredia , Costa Rica
Products	Costa Rican, Colombian, and Peruvian coffees, chocolates, nuts, candies, and gourmet products
Services	Coffee tour
Parent	Grupo Arribada
Website	cafebritt.com

Café Britt is a Costa Rican company that produces and markets gourmet coffee, chocolate and other products. They create and sponsor coffee-related tourism and education in Costa Rica. Products are sold in retailers, online, in Britt Café • Bakery locations, and in Grupo Arribada-owned Morpho Travel Experience. The company currently employs around 400 people.^[1] Its coffee-roasting and chocolate-making operations are based in Costa Rica and Peru.^[2][3]

History

North American coffee broker Steve Aronson founded the company in 1985 to market roasted Costa Rican coffees to the domestic market.^[4] It was the first gourmet coffee roaster in the country;^[4] since at that time, most high-quality coffee was exported to foreign markets. Aronson decided to promote the idea that good quality should also be consumed locally.^[5] The name Britt is a tribute to Scandinavian countries, which are some of the largest consumers of coffee;^[5] Britt was chosen through a contest to pick a name.^[5]

The company expanded its operations with the introduction of chocolates in 2000, as well as opening its first store at Juan Santamaría Airport in 2001.^[4] In 2003 it added further stores at various hotels popular with tourists in Costa Rica.^[4] In 2005 new stores were opened in Perú, the Caribbean, and Chile. In 2009, after a successful transition, Philippe Aronson replaced his father and assumed the role of president.^[4]

In 2017, Grupo Arribada split into two different companies: Morpho Travel Experience and Café Britt.^[6] This allowed the company to focus on producing and commercializing gourmet products, operating cafés, and running the Britt Coffee Tour.^[6] Philippe Aronson is the CEO of Café Britt.^[7]

Products

Café Britt produces and sells gourmet products, with a focus on coffee and chocolate.^[6] Product lines includes Café Britt, Britt Chocolates, and Britt Cookies. The company offers capsules for espresso machines under the brand Britt Espresso, as well as related espresso machines.^[8]

In 2017, Café Britt opened the first location of its eponymous café, Britt Café & Bakery.^[6]

Tourism

In 1991, Café Britt founded Costa Rica's first coffee tour, the "Britt Coffee Tour," as a play staged in its own coffee plantation. Currently the tour offers an interactive journey through the coffee production cycle.^[5] Some 50,000 people take the Britt Coffee Tour each year,^[5] and more than half a million people have taken it since its founding.^[9] In addition to the general tour, technically oriented versions of the tour have been developed for visiting coffee experts or serious amateurs.^[5]

Environment

Café Britt has sold certified organic coffee since 1991.^[10] Currently, the company produces more than 200,000 bags of organic coffee a year, 80% of which is sold in Costa Rica.^[11]

The production of Café Britt coffee and chocolate in Costa Rica has been certified Carbon Neutral since 2013.^[12]

See also

• Coffee production in Costa Rica
• Economy of Costa Rica
• Tourism in Costa Rica
• List of coffee companies

External links

• Official site

References

1. Our Story Retrieved: 2018-10-31.
2. "Cafe Britt's Premium Gourmet Coffee Selection". Cafe Britt. Retrieved 2016-05-20.
3. "Café Britt se expande en Antigua, México, Chile y Perú". La Nación, Grupo Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-07-25.
4. Arce A., Sergio (2009-12-07). "Café Britt invertirá $8 millones en expansión durante el 2010". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 2016-10-13.
5. Cordero, Juan Fernando (2005-11-27). "El profeta del grano de oro". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 2016-10-13.
6. Grupo Arribada Retrieved: 2018-10-31.
7. "Grupo Britt se divide en dos empresas para fortalecer su expansión". La Nación (in Spanish). 2017-09-21. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
8. Britt Espresso Retrieved: 2019-16-01.
9. Mesalles, Nuria (2010-10-28). "Britt: 25 años de historia". Revista Apetito (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-10-31.
10. "Britt suma el sofisticado café orgánico cultivado bajo sombra a su oferta gourmet". Santiago Diferente (in Spanish). 2015-11-26. Retrieved 2019-04-30.
11. Fallas Villalobos, Cristina (2017-10-21). "Demanda de café orgánico motiva a negocios en Costa Rica". El Financiero (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-04-30.
12. Barquero, Marvin (2013-03-07). "Primeras siete empresas reciben sello de 'carbono neutral'". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-11-13.