One begins to believe that Latino folks have a distinct edge over the
rest of us for flexibility and endurance. What great luck your friend
has for having you as a friend. I too have a Cuban friend who has
adopted me - and treats me to Cuban Coffee frequently. Hannah moved here
from Miami and simply blends into any group. Of course here we can drop
across the border and access most of the "contraband" from Cuba.
John - FINALLY sitting at my own computer in warm Deep Southern Texas!!
On Sun, 2003-06-22 at 07:15, susan oppenheim wrote:
a little story about the cuban torquino altura beans I roasted last week
I did them for a cuban neighbour who left the island legally and
emigrated to Toronto in 1999.And the latest news was that anyone who
left after 1999 would have to wait 5 years to even visit
home................
So my neighbour is in the dumps missing his family in Matanzas-on the
ocean side 3 or 4 hours from Havana.And so he had a party to take his
mind off things-he invited his friends and her friends from work-they
are waiters and sales clerks.
I brought them in a baggie-(a Kona baggie sent from Mike Mc K a while
back-I think of these things as "lucky").
I also brought a hundred year old black box hand top crank grinder set
on a fine grind.
And an old beautifully coffee stained choreador-a sock like filter bag
apparatus free-standing on a wire base-a bag on a guillotine"
It was such a hot night-they even moved couches out onto the
street-cuban style-Cubans can make anything out of anything.
And Uri explained about the importance of coffee to their culture and
about these beans in particular and that they came from the highest
mountains near Santiago where the revolution was born.And that this
hand grinder was exactly what people used 100 years ago as well as the
simple drip choreador.Out popped video cameras and digital cameras and
everyone was ecstatic about tasting this dark shot with a hint of
sugar.It was quite the ceremony.And it made his night!!!
Thank you roasters' list for the past months of e mails and the
preparation for this wonderful moment my cuban friend had.
Susan Oppenheim
Toronto
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