Brewing my roots: a Cuban woman's love for coffee.
By Indira Marron - Café Lux owner
Freshly brewed, pure and piping hot, that is how we Cubans drink coffee.
Coffee for me is not just a drink, it is a ritual. It represents moments of pause and peace in my life. It is a moment where preparing and/or drinking it gives me warmth and comfort. My first coffee in the morning is a special, almost sacred moment that I like to share with my husband. We both share the same taste for coffee and we enjoy a couple of cups each early in the morning. The peace of getting up very early when it is still dark and quiet, for me feels like an extension of that magic of pleasant lethargy of awakening your body and your senses, little by little, giving thanks for a new day of life and pampering our body and palate with the softness and warm velvet embrace of hot coffee. Coffee represents my source of energy, my passion for life and the determination to face each day with vigor and enthusiasm. A reminder to take some time alone or in the company of those who love me well.
I was born and raised in Cuba. When I talk about Cuba, most people identify it as the country of tobacco, rum and coffee. Coffee is one of those elements that gives color to Cuban culture. An essential drink for Cubans, coffee is not only a source of delight for the palate, it has great social importance as an element of our history, culture and traditions. Just as in countries like Turkey, drinking coffee is more than just ingesting the daily dose of caffeine.
We Cubans have a great passion for coffee because of its roots in our culture and tradition, and for the role it plays in hospitality. It is not just any drink, it is our drink. With it we get up in the morning, we work and we even fall in love because many of our first dates have had this drink as a pretext. It is part of Cuban hospitality to invite a visitor to have a cup of coffee. Cubans don't have an hour for coffee, like in England they have five o'clock tea.We drink coffee at all hours. For us, one of the best things about coffee is sharing it with someone, which is the justification for a conversation, and believe me when i say we Cubans love to talk.
Putting a coffee pot on the fire is a reflection of the Cuban character, social by nature. We like to share our coffee with visitors, it is a way of showing hospitality and politeness, whether with family and neighbors or with complete strangers. And we cannot stand the madness of ordering "coffee to go" while running from one place to another because for a Cuban, enjoying coffee requires time and dedication. Around the small steaming cups, news, gossip and rumors are shared, secrets are confessed and confidences are made. Friends meet again surrounded by the aroma of freshly roasted beans and there is always a space in the day to share coffee with loved ones. No matter the circumstances, daily problems or the time of day, it is always a good time to socialize over a cup of coffee.
As passionate about this infusion as we are, coffee in Cuba is generally enjoyed short and black, with a lot of body and aroma, sweetened with sugar but rarely with more added ingredients. Almost always in a small cup, like an Italian espresso, and although it may seem contradictory despite the humid heat that usually exists in Cuba, my first encounter with cold coffee was here in the United States.
I have loved coffee since I was little. Coffee brings back pleasant memories of my childhood in Cuba and the people in my family who loved me. It reminds me of my grandmother Cuca who was the best at roasting coffee, she knew the exact point of perfection, and my father was in charge of grinding it in a cast iron manual grinder. I remember in the mornings when I didn't want to get up to go to school, the only thing that made me move was the delicious smell of the coffee that Grandma was brewing in the kitchen very early in the morning, the smell flooded the hallway reaching the bedroom filling the whole house with the sweet aroma. Only the warm embrace of the morning coffee could conquer me and make me get out of bed.
In Cuba we usually prepare coffee in two ways, the most common is using the typical Italian coffee maker (moka pot) and the other way is with a strainer. A slightly more rustic ornament consisting of a handmade coffee strainer (usually a wooden arm holding a reusable cloth filter for pour-over coffee) used mostly in the eastern part of the country (Holguín, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Granma where my family is from). The first brew is so strong, as my grandmother used to say - "It can bring the dead back to life" and is only for adults , the second brew is a lighter coffee, which can be compared to a version of what we know as "American coffee" which is usually given to the children for breakfast before going to school.
We Cubans prefer our coffee strong. Cuban coffee is distinguished by its preparation, which varies notably from other styles of coffee in the world. "Cuban coffee" or "Cuban espresso" is known for its strong flavor and sweet character. The preparation of coffee in Cuba is almost a ritual: dark roast coffee is generally used, and it is mixed with sugar in the extraction process. This technique, known as "foam", consists of beating a bit of freshly brewed coffee with sugar before mixing it with the rest of the coffee. The result is a foamy and dense drink that not only awakens the senses, but also symbolizes Cuban hospitality.
Cuban coffee has low acidity, body, medium intensity and citrus fragrances. The main coffee varieties grown by Cuban producers are all Arabica coffees, the most popular being the Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai and Catimor.
As in other South American countries, the origin of coffee growing in Cuba can be found in the stories of European settlers who, for very different reasons - religious, military, commercial, political... - crossed the Atlantic and opted for this product as a life project, aware of the growing value of coffee in the Old Continent.
In the Cuban case, the first coffee trees arrived on the island in 1748 from the Dominican Republic. But it was not until 1827 that coffee cultivation on the island would reach sufficient volumes to be considered a commercial good, driven by French settlers who settled with their slaves in the mountains of the east, after fleeing the Haitian revolution of 1791, and brought to Cuba their knowledge of coffee growing and modern cultivation and processing techniques that gave rise to some two thousand plantations with more than 100,000 people working on them.
Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, it is quite flat, although it has areas with sufficient elevation to produce coffee. Cuba's three main coffee-growing regions are divided into three mountain ranges: the "Sierra del Escambray", where some of the island's best coffee is produced; the "Sierra del Rosario", Cuba's first Biosphere Reserve; and the "Sierra Maestra", the country's largest coffee-producing area. There, coffee plantations grow in the shade of century-old trees, on permeable soils with a high content of organic matter and clay that allow water to be easily absorbed. In these mountain areas, the climate and topography are well suited to cultivation, resulting in coffees with their own personality, grown in the shade of banana trees and other non-fruit trees.
Between 1827 and 1850, coffee production experienced a golden age in Cuba. In 1960, the last year of capitalism on the island, Cuba produced 60,000 tons of coffee, but since the Sovietization of the economy by Fidel Castro, the Cuban coffee industry collapsed.
Today, Cuba has the largest number of ruins of coffee plantations in the world. Most of them are archaeological remains in an excellent state of preservation and an exceptional testimony to the use of pioneering agricultural techniques in difficult terrain. So much so that in 2000, UNESCO declared those located in the eastern part of the country a World Heritage Site, as an important example of the development of coffee in the Caribbean. They are considered a monument to road and hydraulic engineering and shed light on important aspects of the economic, social and technological history of this part of the world.
In Sierra Maestra there are 171 agricultural emporiums and vestiges of plantations founded, mostly, by European landowners in the 19th century. Farms such as “El cafetal de Sitges”, “La Fraternidad”, “Tres Arroyos”, “La Isabelica”, “La Iberia”, “Kentucky”, “Santa Sofía” The western region of the island is also home to important ruins such as those of the “La Unión” coffee plantation or those of the “Buena Vista” farm and the “Angerona” coffee plantation are some of the nearly 60 historic coffee plantations today in ruins surrounded by unique stories and legends.
Inside or outside the island, no matter where in the world we are, the tradition of sharing a coffee is fundamental in Cuban life. Inviting a friend or family member to have coffee is a way of strengthening ties, of maintaining social connection. This act of sharing goes beyond the drink; it is a way of life that reflects the resilience and warmth of the Cuban people. Every sip evokes deep traditions, close-knit communities and a rich history marked by struggle and resilience, and its place in our hearts makes it a legacy that will continue to be celebrated for generations.
My Cuban heritage and deep passion for coffee have been the driving forces behind my journey into the world of specialty coffee. Inspired by the rich coffee traditions of my homeland, I embarked on a path of studying, learning, and curating the finest coffee beans from around the globe in a unique coffee collection for our store.
Café Lux is a tribute to my roots, and a celebration of the diversity, flavors and stories that each coffee bean carries and the exquisite blend of tradition and innovation of the art of exceptional coffee.
