Good to the last drop.

Today was National Coffee Day in the United States. Oh, didn't you hear? Yeah. National Coffee Day. I don’t know where this came from or when it started. But evidently you can get free coffee in some places in celebration. Sorry if you missed out on that. Mark it on your calendar for next year.

I no longer drink coffee very often. But that does not mean I don’t love it. Because I do. I love coffee. I love the smell of beans when you open a bag, or of the grounds when you open a can, of its liquid form as it steams in a cup. I love the taste of a nice, hot, cup of coffee, undiluted by sugar or cream. I also love the fancy coffee drinks, with sugar, milk, steamed milk, frothy milk. I love coffee flavored ice cream, coffee cake, and chocolate covered coffee beans. I love it all. Coffee rocks! Except for that heart palpitation thing I get from the caffeine, hence the not drinking it very often. 

Imagine how fun it is to go to a region where coffee is grown in great quantities, like Latin America. You can go to a coffee farm, see how it is grown, see how the beans are picked and dried in the sun. After such tours, you can purchase coffee grown right in the place you just saw. They even give you a sample to drink after the tour.

Coffee beans, right off the plant.

Coffee beans, drying in the sun.  

The interesting thing about this is that even though all that coffee is grown in the region, and even though I saw fields of the stuff growing on beautiful hills or growing within a forest, many (if not most) of the local people I met drank (gasp!) instant coffee (gasp again!). I’m not sure why. Maybe it is too expensive, or the majority of it is exported. But Nescafé is very popular. I personally don’t have any issue with instant coffee. If that is what my host family drank, then that is what I drank. It’s not the greatest form of coffee, true, but I am not much of a coffee snob. So I don’t mind. Again I bring up the old adage: when in Rome ...

This is not to say that you can’t get awesome brewed coffee in Latin America.  Because oh, you can. My first trip to Latin America was to Costa Rica. We had breakfast every morning in our hotel’s little café. I am sure we ate eggs and gallo pinto (rice and beans mixed together), maybe some toast. But what really sticks out in my memory is the coffee. It was steee-rong. It was rich and delicious. They served it with hot milk. I couldn’t have loved it more.

Venezuela is also an exception. I think I mostly drank hair-curling-strong espresso while I was there. But they just called it "coffee." My friend Ana Maria's family drank it often, brewing it up in a little aluminum cafetera (screw-together stove-top coffee percolator) and serving it in tiny cups. It was fantastic, strong as it was. I bought one of those cafeteras and a cute tiny cup set to take home. Coffee was a big part of that trip. I also had it in the afternoons, when my friend was still at work and I would wander off to the Museum of Fine Arts. I would get one of those tiny yet potent coffees in the museum cafe, and enjoy it with a piece of cake, torta tres leches to be exact. Delicious afternoon pick-me-up! 

Before giving up caffeine (or at least most of it), I also enjoyed fabulous cappuccinos in Panama City. Every restaurant I went to had one of those fancy cappuccino machines and every restaurant knew how to make it well. I also enjoyed delicious cappuccinos every afternoon after my Spanish classes in Quito. Also perfectly made. At least to me. Like I said, I’m not a coffee snob and don’t mind instant coffee, so maybe my bar isn’t as high as yours. But I just want you to be aware that there is non-instant coffee goodness available as well.

In Guatemala, at my host family’s house, they would always have hot water available, and I could have a cup of hot tea or coffee. Even though I didn’t mind instant coffee, I was off coffee at this point. But every once in while, I needed something other than amazing Guatemalan hot chocolate (mentioned in this post). And luckily there were plenty of cafes that served the freshly made, strong, robust coffee I love so much. In Xela, my favorite cup of coffee was at Café Baviera (Zona I, although I hear the outside seating at the Zona 3 location is very nice). 

I also recommend buying some local coffee for gifts to take home. You may find such coffee, wrapped up in cute, colorful packages at a coffee farm you tour. But I suggest going to a local supermarket and buying it there (unless you are touring a coffee cooperative where sale of the coffee helps support the local community). Even though the local folks I have known don’t drink it themselves, it is available in stores and costs less than at a farm (and you may not get to a farm). It may be more expensive than Nescafé, but I can promise it will be a lot cheaper than a bag from Starbuck’s.

So yes, if you stay with a local family when you are in Latin America, there is a chance your morning coffee will be instant, even though fields of coffee are mere miles away. But do as the locals, enjoy it, and soon enough you will be accustomed to that, and maybe even enjoy it when you get home. Just be reassured that when you are in desperate need of a "real" cup of joe, you will be able to find it. And it may just be unforgettable.