Coffee from Cuba |
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Coffee from Cuba |
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| Coffee came to Cuba from Haiti in the mid-1700s, and today its East, West and Central regions of Arabica plantations provide about 0.27 of one per cent of the world's coffee. The altitude range is only from 350 to 500 meters, and considering how good the coffees are, it's a shame Cuba's slopes are not higher. The state controls production, and the grading is numerically standardized, so exotic names really only denote beans sorted by size (descending from "Extra Turquino" through "Turquino", "Altura", and "Montana", and arriving at the "Cumbre" coffee, which is sorted peaberries). Only those bags which have a grade of 1,2, or 3 (out of 9) are exportable, as the numbers indicate the proportion of defective beans. In fact, the island government imports low grade coffees for internal consumption in order to export the top-quality produce. For a number of years most of the Cuban crop went to the USSR and its satellites; today more of its "Turquino" is available as a gourmet coffee, or was, until the Japanese discovered its similarity to Jamaica Blue Mountain. | |
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