Costa Rica Traditions & Culinary Delights

Discover the complexities of growing, harvesting and roasting coffee at Café Britt, an esteemed plantation where you will sample coffees with different characteristics.

After departing from the pier, you will settle in for a meandering drive inland to Barva, a city established in the fertile land that lies in the shadow of Barva Volcano. Here, you will visit Café Britt, which became Costa Rica’s first gourmet coffee roaster when it opened in 1985.

As you will soon discover during a behind-the-scenes tour, the people at Café Britt are passionate about coffee. Their experts will explain how they select, collect, roast and package their beans for export. It is a fascinating process and thoroughly enjoyable when described in detail as the aroma of freshly roasted coffee wafts through the air.

Café Britt grows organic coffee using sustainable agricultural techniques that reduce the impact on the ecosystem. They also produce Fair Trade coffee that ensures that fair prices are paid to the local workers.

Costa Rica’s unique climate and diverse landscapes produce different coffee characteristics. Through “cupping,” the term for tasting coffee, you will learn to identify and grade the characteristics that qualify the coffees as gourmet. You will also discover firsthand how delicious Café Britt’s coffee are.

Following the tasting, you will enjoy lunch at a restaurant in the Central Valley and watch the local band Mascarades and Cimarrona perform traditional music.