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Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 06:57 PM Jun 2016

Caffeine Diplomacy: Nestle to Bring Cuban Coffee to US

Caffeine Diplomacy: Nestle to Bring Cuban Coffee to US

Jun 20, 2016 Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK—Nestle announced on Monday it will reintroduce Cuban coffee to the U.S. for the first time in more than 50 years following the easing of United States sanctions on Cuba. The Swiss food giant plans to sell Cuban coffee under its individual-capsule Nespresso brand, initially as a limited edition, starting in several months.

"Nespresso is thrilled to be the first to bring this rare coffee to the U.S., allowing consumers to rediscover this distinct coffee profile," said Guillaume Le Cunff, president of Nespresso USA, in a statement. "Ultimately, we want consumers in the U.S. to experience this incredible coffee and to enjoy it now and for years to come."

A spokesman for Nestle said the coffee has "wood notes" and a "light caramel finish."

In April, the U.S. Department of State in April updated its list of goods that could be imported into the US from Cuba to include coffee.

More:
http://www.industryweek.com/trade/caffeine-diplomacy-nestle-bring-cuban-coffee-us?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IWNews+%28IndustryWeek+Most+Recent+News%29

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141495527

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Caffeine Diplomacy: Nestle to Bring Cuban Coffee to US (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jun 2016 OP
The next taste of US-Cuban diplomacy will be coffee-flavored Judi Lynn Jun 2016 #1
Why People in Havana Are so Crazy for Their Coffee Judi Lynn Jun 2016 #2

Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
1. The next taste of US-Cuban diplomacy will be coffee-flavored
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 07:02 PM
Jun 2016

The next taste of US-Cuban diplomacy will be coffee-flavored

Written by Keenan Steiner

5 hours ago

Havana, Cuba

Whether it’s well-balanced cortadito, a simple espresso, or one of the many coffee concoctions found at Havana’s coffee shops, Cubans are particular about their caffeine. Cuban coffee, as a style, is usually some combination of strong, dark-roast espresso with sweetness from sugar.

Cubans are better known around the world for their rum and cigars than their coffee. But in the mid-1950s, before the revolution, Cuba exported more than 20,000 metric tons (22,000 tons) of coffee to global markets, and official figures in the 1980s often exceeded 12,000 metric tons. Since the Cuban economic collapse following the fall of the Soviet Union, exports from the annual harvest have fallen drastically to just 660 metric tons, according the most recent figures provided by the International Coffee Organization.

In that time, Americans have become rabid and discerning consumers of caffeine. And since the Obama administration made a little-noticed regulatory update in April allowing certain Cuban coffee imports, some entrepreneurs and companies have been racing to make it the first Cuban agricultural good to be commercially exported to the US since the embargo was imposed more than 50 years ago.

Nestle-owned Nespresso, which sells single-serve coffee capsules for its home brewing machines, appears to be winning that race, announcing today that it will begin sales of a Cuban espresso roast in the US in the fall. The coffee was produced by small farmers and purchased from Cubana, a British company that already imports Cuban coffee to Europe, and the state-owned enterprise Cubaexport, Nespresso said. Though its initial purchase is only a few dozen tons, the company plans to invest to increase Cuban farmers’ production through a partnership with sustainable development nonprofit TechnoServe.

More:
http://qz.com/709772/the-next-step-in-u-s-cuban-diplomacy-will-be-coffee-flavored/

Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
2. Why People in Havana Are so Crazy for Their Coffee
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 09:57 PM
Jun 2016

Why People in Havana Are so Crazy for Their Coffee

Photographer Adam Goldberg captures the cultural importance of Cuba's black gold

By Craig Cavallo Posted February 25, 2016


[font size=1]
Photo:Adam Goldberg

Workers enjoy a coffee from a ventanilla before work
[/font]
Cuba's clock stopped in 1960 when the U.S. imposed a trade embargo. More than 50 years later, the American portrait of the Caribbean island 90 miles south of Florida is still painted with old cars and colorful but crumbling buildings. And without much opportunity to see the country over the decades, we've ignored some of its most crucial cultural mainstays, such as its coffee. "In Cuba, coffee is not about the type of extraction or the quality of beans," says Adam Goldberg. "It is a vehicle to bring friends together."

Goldberg is a New York-based software engineer with an affinity for coffee, food, and photography. He founded A Life Worth Eating in 2007 to document his meals and adventures. "When I was traveling, I would get to know a city through its coffee shops. They became a guide for me," he says. "Coffee shops attract young professionals with a good pulse on their city." So last year, Goldberg co-founded Drift, a biannual magazine that explores a city—its culture and its people—through the lens of coffee.

Cue Havana. "I had always dreamed of visiting Havana," writes Goldberg in Drift. With American-Cuban relations easing, he dedicated the month of September there for volume three of Drift, uncovering a complicated history and discovering a passionate culture that has persevered and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep Cuban coffee culture and the island's black gold alive.



Photo:Adam Goldberg
[font size=1]
A patron inside Cafe la Luz. "They only serve espresso," Goldberg says, "and one employee works three machines, each one capable of brewing four espressos at a time. There are 12 stools, so the employee pulls 12 shots every five minutes or so."
..[/font]
At the turn of the 20th century, Havana had more than 150 cafes. This number slowly started to shrink as coffee took a backseat to the island's production, and export, of rum and cane sugar (white gold). Castro nationalized coffee production after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and the island turned its efforts to farming food. "Production declined but consumption rose," says Goldberg. "50 years ago, Cuba was producing 60,000 tons of coffee a year." Today, that number is closer to 6,000 tons.

More:
http://www.saveur.com/cuban-coffee-culture

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