Cuba’s bitter brew: Officials announce return of coffee mixed with peas in savings measure

[El Presidente]

Cuba’s bitter brew: Officials announce return of coffee mixed with peas in savings measure

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, May 4

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/cubas-bitter-brew-officials-announce-return-of-coffee-mixed-with-peas-in-savings-measure/2011/05/03/AFVTTOiF_story.html

HAVANA ��" Cubans’ morning joe will be a little more bitter and a little less potent as the island returns to mixing coffee with roasted peas in a cost-saving move.

The blend is being distributed beginning this month for domestic consumption, the Interior Commerce Ministry said Tuesday in an announcement published by Communist Party newspaper Granma. The change apparently will not affect coffee for export, for sale in pricier stores or in establishments catering to tourists.

The message also said authorities are eliminating the coffee ration for Cubans ages 0 to 6. Up until now, coffee had been allocated by number of people in a household as a way to support families.

The measure was first brought up in December by President Raul Castro, who said Cuba was paying $47 million a year on imports to meet local coffee consumption in the java-loving nation.

Like rum and cigars, coffee is an iconic product in Cuba. In the early 1960s, annual production reached 60,000 tons and Cuba was a net exporter. But last month, state-run coffee company Cubacafe director Antonio Aleman said that while the country has spent $9.5 million to modernize production in the past five years, meager harvests are falling short of annual demand of 18,000 tons of beans.

Prodigious consumers of highly sweetened java, Cubans are no strangers to coffee cut with peas, which was long the norm. When they started getting the pure stuff in 2005, some even complained that it tasted funny.

“I like it better with peas,” street sweeper Juan Hernandez Pedroso said as he sat on a curb Tuesday, taking a break during the afternoon Havana heat. “I don’t know, maybe it’s because it’s what I’m used to.”

Fans and foes alike agree that there’s no mistaking the difference.

Coffee with peas isn’t as foamy when it boils, and the end result is a strong-tasting, less caffeinated brew, said Froilan Valido, an unemployed gas bill collector.

“It’s much, much more bitter than pure coffee, which is smoother,” Valido said. “But many people here are accustomed to it. The habit makes the monk.”

Local cafes were still selling supplies of pure coffee Tuesday, and it was not clear exactly when the pea blend would be on shelves. The ministry did not specify what ratio officials have in mind for the mixture.

Tuesday’s announcement in Granma noted that the price of coffee rose 69 percent in the last year from $1,740 to $2,904 per ton, while peas are going for just $390 a ton.

“Faced with this economic reality, it has been determined to fix a price of 4 pesos ($0.17) for a 115-gram (4-ounce) bag of mixed coffee to support the amounts that will continue to be delivered as normal to the people,” it read.

That’s a price cut; the same bag used to cost 5 pesos.

“I prefer natural coffee,” Jose Hernandez said as he waited his turn at a popular coffee counter. “But we all understand that it’s a necessity. Hopefully it’s temporary.”

[SmokinLightning]

Better than pee in your coffee...

[CBL]

Man the locals there get the short end of the stick with literally everything

[sblevit]

Sounds gross.

[anacostiakat]

I applaud the ingenuity of the cuban gubmint in striving to see that their people get a balanced diet.

[laficion]

I applaud the ingenuity of the cuban gubmint in striving to see that their people get a balanced diet.

They'll need some pork chops to go with the peas, no ?

[Scdalak]

Commie Bastards...

[thechenman]

I don't think you can rightly call if coffee anymore after that...it's just not right.

[Onsto]

Next up on Communist Masterchef, how to make tea out of old sticks and 100 useful tips.on how best to cook mud...

[BobKincaid]

As a southerner, this isn't all that surprising to me. "Stretching" is something that poor folks do to extend both necessities and niceties. Roasted peanuts (as well as hulls) were a staple beverage of the Confederate Army, as well as folks back home during what some still refer to as "The War of Northern Aggression."

The admixture of coffee and chicory root was something folks in the Gulf area did to extend their coffee and many Louisianians to this day don't think coffee tastes right if it doesn't have chickory root in it. I must admit I'm right fond of it myself.

Moreover, though, I can't help observing that the Cuban people, via stories like this, manifest something that we Americans have utterly lost in the era of Predator Capitalism: shared sacrifice. Granted, while the Cuban people are subjected to such things via a top-down system, it at least appears to apply uniformly, save for the almighty tourism sector. Additonally, it's worth remembering that, while their coffee may not be up to our standards, their literacy standards, as well as their infant mortality and maternal post-partem death rates far surpass those of the U.S. So while we've got GREAT coffee, a lot more Americans can't read the print on the cup than may Cubans.

At present here in the U.S., we have a system of both shared sacrifice and shared wealth. What's left of the Middle Class shares the sacrifices, while the lobster-for-lunch Wall Street crowd shares all the wealth.

Now where ARE my Che pajamas . . .

[shrink]

This is a sad commentary on the failures of Cuban style socialism. Hopefully, the market reforms being instituted by Raul will eventually bring about a more robust, competitive economy. In the meantime, the Cuban people suffer.