If you are like me and have packed your suitcase with 6 packs of Imperial beer on your way out of Costa Rica, or cherished your last few cans of Bamboo (the ingenious canned combination of coke and rum) at an airport bar, your days of overweight luggage fees and drunken flights are over!

Imperial and Bamboo, among other iconic Tico beverages, are now being exported to U.S. cities with large populations of Costa Ricans and returning American tourists in seven U.S. states, where loyalty to the brand is the highest.

As a test run, the Costa Rican company Florida Ice & Farm Company (Fifco), which owns the Imperial brand, began the distribution of Imperial to San Diego, California in 2004. Three years later, the beverage is now being sold in New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts and Florida.

Fifco currently sells Imperial to 11 countries in Latin America, the United States and Australia, and also exports other all-Costa Rican beverage products including Kaiser, Bamboo, Tropical fruit drinks, Maxi Malta and Kern’s nectars. They claim to have been exporting about 100 containers of these beverages monthly.

The top distribution points in Latin America include Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and
Panama. Distribution to Australia began last March to target the country’s surfer population.

While foreign markets may reject Imperial as being an average beer, low in alcohol content, those of us who know, know. It is more than a beer. It is a representation of everything pura vida, and can finally be cherished in the hearts and stomachs of nostalgic Costa Rica aficionados beyond the shores of this beautiful country.

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Filed under: Business on October 17th, 2007