Texas Style Smokehouse in Costa Rica Introducing Beef Jerky to Ticos
We just built our new smokehouse in Costa Rica because our Beef Jerky business is really taking off. Our competition BBQ pit does a great job at smoking meat, but it can not handle the volume we need to produce lately with 30+ stores and growing. Matt and I discussed plans for the future and we have decided that the only thing more awesome than moving our family to Costa Rica last year is moving our family to Costa Rica to build a smokehouse to sell authentic Texas Beef Jerky to a country where beef jerky does not exist.
Matt sketched the plans which were a mix of something he found on the internet and his own ingenuity. We spent several weeks going back and forth, but luckily, due to the shape of the land at our house, we successfully built a cement brick smokehouse that houses enough room for us to sell our beef jerky to the entire country. We were also lucky enough to live across the street from a brick layer and all round handy man, welder, construction artist named Alex. He also happens to be the father of our son, Maxs best friends. So, as if life couldnt get much better, our build was underway.
Alex and his team of workers were 5 minutes early every day. At first we were surprised because we have heard so many rumors about "Tico Time" and how Ticos are always late. But after a few days of construction work in the rainy season, we totally understood why they were so eager to get started early every day. We live behind the Po�s Volcano and right next to a cloud forest, so for us, the rain comes around Noon every day. The guys worked very hard while they were here for their 6 hour day, as long as I kept the homemade fresca drinks (limons from our lime tree mixed with sugar water) coming and the music loud. Matt and Alex raided a local scrap yard and really lucked out by finding a smoke stack. We also learned a few things in the process, like how to mix concrete in Costa Rica and how to properly use an extension cord:)
All joking aside, the smokehouse turned out great! There was precision and workmanship involved at a different level, but as we say all the time, different is not better or worse, just different. Alex and the guys even painted the door to the smokehouse clay-pot red, making me very happy, so I painted the door to the kitchen to match.
We couldnt be happier with the results. She holds a great temperature and the smoke from the coffee wood floods the air inside keeping the same flavors in our meat as our BBQ smoker we brought from Texas. We are truly living the dream and we might have sold almost everything to get here, but we have added a new smokehouse to our short list of necessities. Looks like we are here to stay! Pura Vida!