Bad Coffee=Bad Business

Good coffee is nearly impossible to find in Chile. I still have no proof that it exists. For the most part, everyone drinks NesCafe. At home, it's instant coffee that you add to hot water. Anywhere else, it comes from a machine that dispenses the same stuff, but also offers it in latte, cappuccino, or mokachino form. Each just as bad as the last. This seems to be for a variety of reasons. One is that Chileans just aren't crazy about coffee like we are. There is no gourmet café/Starbucks culture pushing for better coffee. For the most part, they drink tea and coffee when the mood strikes.

But this also appears to be symptom of a much bigger problem: a lack of competition for many companies. Nestle not only dominates the coffee market, but seems to be the most popular choice, if not only for lots of other foods. The most popular candy bar Super 8, which is terrible and will show up in a later post, is made by Nestle as well. The same thing exists with Coca-Cola. They have Pepsi in Chile, but you won't see it anywhere. When you're making your piscola, it's always with Coke. Coke advertising is everywhere too, but seems pointless because there really is no competition.

Cristal, the Chilean equivalent of Budweiser (mass-produced, cheap, bad beer), sponsors at least three soccer clubs. It doesn't have the same Coors-Bud-Miller rivalry, if you're looking for beer of this quality and price-range, it's your only choice.

I'm not sure how this affects the Chilean economy, but it can't be good. The companies have virtual monopolies on business and, what is probably worse, are all foreign (with the exception of Cristal, but beer doesn't seem to quite as big of a business here as in the US). It's a symptom of what many consider a major economic problem in Latin America, which is dependency on foreign companies not only for goods, but work as well. These companies are just a few examples I've noticed or that friends have pointed out, but I'm sure there are more. I'll be on the lookout for more and can hopefully learn a little more about how the whole thing works so I can explain it better later.