The Smell of Home - Gaviña Coffee Basket Giveaway

I remember being about 5 years old when I really took notice that my family brewed coffee a dozen times a day. It was almost a Sacred Ritual. This also happened, I took note, in every single Cuban home I had ever entered.

The daily brewing of the perfect Cuban cafecito is something that happens repeatedly throughout the day in Cuban households and ventanitas everywhere ("little windows" - these are mostly found in Miami, but that's not important right now).

I think one of my very first sensory memories has to do with the fragrance of a beautifully brewed, hot, sweet espresso. The aroma is something that evokes warmth and family and men in guayaberas and women in crisp aprons and lots of loud talking. The smell of home.

A few weeks ago I announced that My Big, Fat, Cuban Family had partnered with Gaviña Gourmet Coffee. I'm so pleased that they are my newest sponsor.

In light of this wonderful parnership, I think we need to celebrate, don't you?

And what better way to celebrate than to do a giveaway of a Basket of Coffee Awesomeness from Gaviña? Can I just tell you that my morning cafecito tastes sooo much better when drunk from one of these adorable Cafe La Llave tacitas. It does. I promise.

The Cafe La Llave Cuban Coffee Basket consists of the following:

• 2- 10oz. Cafe La Llave espresso bricks
• 1- 8.8oz. Cafe La Llave decaf. espresso brick
• 4- 1.75oz. Cafe La Llave espresso samples
• 4- "tacitas" - demitasse cups and saucers

1) To enter this drawing for this beautiful Cafe La Llave Cuban Coffee Basket, please leave a comment on this post and answer one or both of the following questions:

• Do you remember the first time you had a perfectly brewed espresso?
  
• Or is this a taste you acquired later in life? Tell me.
  

Please leave your comment on this post and I'll choose a winner on Friday, March 28th, 2014 at 11am PST.

2) For an extra entry, please go "like" Cafe La Llave on Facebook and come back and leave me another comment telling me:  

• "I like Cafe La Llave!"

So that's not one, but two entries. De nada.

If you want even more coffee awesomeness, please click on the sponsored La Llave Coffee link to the right and be sure to enter Cuban20 at checkout for 20% off Cafe La Llave.

Also, please let them know that Marta from My Big, Fat, Cuban Family sent you. It doesn't make any difference to how I choose the winner. I just want them to know you are reading about it here, but that's not important right now.

A Match Made in Cuban Coffee Heaven

You know how much we Cubans love our cafecito.

We also love lattes and cappuccinos and café con leche. Any iteration of coffee will do for us.

There's even a subset of us that just love our Americano. All that to say this: We love a cup of strong coffee any way we can get it. Particularly a shot of hot, sweet espresso.

In light of that I'm super pleased and very proud today to welcome my newest sponsor to My Big, Fat, Cuban blog Family:

Café La Llave!

If you click on the link just to the right, you can get an extra 20% off of the best coffee around. (For the record, my favorite is Don Francisco's Family Reserve, but that's not important right now.)

Also, if you're not already following them on Facebook, you totally should. Here's the link: Cafe La Llave on Facebook. They're always doing fun contests and giveaways. Tell them Marta sent you.

Thank you again to the Gaviña family for partnering with My Big, Fat, Cuban Family. We are a match made in Cuban Coffee Heaven

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"Mas café por favor!" (MBFCF Giveaway #5)

I hope you're enjoying the week long celebration of My Big, Fat, Cuban Family being here on the web for 7 years now. I'm so seriously delighted with the generosity of my sponsors and I'm grateful to all my Cuban cubiches who are helping me celebrate by offering such fun prizes.

This summer, Eric and I had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy a day at Gaviña Gourmet Coffee Roasters.

La Llave is my husband's absolute favorite espresso. In fact, (warning! over-share alert!) he makes happy, yummy sounds pretty much every single morning as he's having his La Llave. This, of course, pleases me greatly. I love that such a simple thing makes him happy.

I further love that he's embraced this part of my Cuban heritage.

This is Eric happily supervising the vacuum packing of the La Llave coffee on the Gaviña tour.

"Mas café, por favor!"

He says it with an almost flawless accent. It reminds me of my dad and I feel a catch in my throat. My husband happily drinks his La Llave from one of these gorgeous little cups every day. His wife sits in wonder at the continuity in her life.

My good friends at Gaviña & Sons Coffee have graciously agreed to sponsor a La Llave Cuban Coffee Basket for today's giveaway, which includes those same awesome La Llave "tacitas."

Isn't it fabulous?

MBFCF Blogiversary Giveaway #5

The Cafe La Llave Cuban Coffee Basket consists of the following:

• 2- 10oz. Cafe La Llave espresso bricks
• 1- 8.8oz. Cafe La Llave decaf. espresso brick
• 4- 1.75oz. Cafe La Llave espresso samples
• 4- "tacitas" - demitasse cups and saucers

1) To enter this drawing for this beautiful Cafe La Llave Cuban Coffee Basket, please leave a comment on this post and answer one or both of the following questions:

• Do you drink espresso? How often?
• Do you like it sweet? With milk? Latte? Cappuccino? Tell me.

Please leave your comment on this post and I'll choose a winner on Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 at 11am PST.

2) For an extra entry, please go "like" Cafe La Llave on Facebook and come back and leave me another comment telling me:  

• "I like Cafe La Llave!"

So that's not one, but two entries. De nada.

Also, please let them know that Marta from My Big, Fat, Cuban Family sent you. It doesn't make any difference to how I choose the winner. I just want them to know you are reading about it here, but that's not important right now.

We grew coffee in our backyard. And we liked it.

Happy National Coffee Day!

A few years ago, our dear friends, Gene and Pam sent Eric two little 3 inch coffee plants for his birthday. They thought it would be fun for us to grow our own backyard coffee.

So we added the little plants to our kind-of-chaotic-we-just-like-how-they-look backyard garden. We watered them along with everyone else who lives out there and the little coffee plants grew.

And thrived.

And we began to notice.

"Have you seen the coffee plants lately? They're getting so big!"

We repotted them and kept them close together so they wouldn't be lonely.

And last year, they produced little white flowers. WUT? "We've got COFFEE BLOSSOMS, people!"

Look at us! Growing coffee!

And then....

The little red cherries appeared. WHAT DO WE DO NOW? (<--Can you read the panic in that question?)

We sent photos to our friends. "Remember those coffee plants you gave us a few years ago? Look at what's happening to them!"

Apparently it was time to harvest. Who knew?

So, Eric set about the task of choosing the ripest red coffee cherries.

We had planned a weekend trip with our friends (the ones who originally gave us the plants) and decided it would be fun to bring some of the magic beans. Gene happens to be quite the coffee snob aficionado and has his own roasting device.

Coffee talk.

He took the beans home and after a few days sent us this:

Success!

We did some of our own harvesting, shucking, drying and roasting (If by roasting, you mean stirring the beans around in a small skillet until they're brown) when we got home.

I personally hated the idea of pulling off those beautiful, bright RED (!) coffee beans from our plants, but that's not important right now.

So we somehow managed to scrape together two small (freakishly small!) cups of our own Backyard Brew.

Also, those 2 cute little plants are so much taller than me now. I know. Shut up!

There were two things we decided after this experience with the Backyard Coffee:

1. As much as we enjoyed the process, we will, from now on, leave the coffee making to The Pros.
2. We have added a descriptive name to our Backyard Coffee. We're calling it, Mission Viejo Brown.

Keeping the Faith - A Giveaway

There have been a lot of twists and turns in my personal life (and in the country at large) this past week. It's times like these that send me looking (running!) for comfort.

Because I'm Cuban, I can usually find my comfort in the kitchen. (Don't judge me.) A fabulous sofrito, a perfect arroz con pollo a la chorrera, or a sweet flan all speak to me of goodness and abundance and home and give me an all-is-right-with-the-world feeling.

However, none of these can compete with the aroma of freshly brewed espresso. It is, to me, the quintessentially Cuban comfort. It speaks of my culture, reminds me of my Papi, and has been the constant in my entire existence on this planet. Too dramatic? Please. I'm having a moment here.

I was delighted that my friends at IMUSA USA have offered to sponsor this week's giveaway. “A buen hora.” (Loose translation: “Perfect timing.”)

An IMUSA Bistro 4 Cup Espresso and Cappuccino Machine and an 4 Cup Espresso Set with Chrome Rack.

UPDATE 11/10/12: The very generous folks at Gaviña Gourmet Coffees are adding a pound of their deliciously Cuban La Llave Espresso to this giveaway package. Gracias, my friends!

Honestly, I've always been partial to the old-school stove-top espresso maker. But this baby now takes pride of place in my kitchen and I'm pleased to report that it's simple enough to operate that I can practically do it in my sleep. (And believe me, most of the time, I'm sleepwalking when I'm making my first cup.)

Eric is in love with the cappuccino feature. He insists that the 3 o'clock hour is mandatory for his afternoon cappuccino. But, then again, he's fully awake and functioning at that hour, but that's not important right now.

For a chance to win BOTH the IMUSA Bistro Espresso Machine and the Espresso Set, please leave a comment on this post. Please answer one or all of the following questions:

• Coffee, tea, espresso, cappuccino?
  
• Do you have a particular hour for your afternoon caffeine pick-me-up?
• Does the aroma of freshly brewing coffee remind you of someone or something special?

For an extra entry, please go "like" IMUSA USA on Facebook and come back and tell me:

• I like IMUSA USA!

I'll choose the winner on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 at 11 am PST.

“Coffee and love are best when they are hot.”-German proverb

3:05 Cafecito break in the 305 (area code)

I just got back from a fabulous trip to South Florida (more about this later). One of the biggest draws for me when I am visiting Miami (Area Code 305), besides visiting family and enjoying the mostly perfect beach weather is, of course, the Cuban food.

Bistec de palomilla, moros y cristianos, maduros (you could die from such beauty):

I had this suberb meal at a place called Casavana in Homestead, Florida.

Another very Cuban phenomenon in South Florida is the mass consumption at all hours of the day and night of authentic Cuban espresso. Always ordered with the diminutive "-ito" at the end.

"Un cortadito."

"Una coladita."

"Un cafecito."

"Un (insert your favorite coffee drink)-ito."

When I'm at home I don't usually have much more than two cups of mild coffee in an entire day, but being in the 305 makes me crave Cuban coffee after every meal and at all hours. It must be a recessive gene stimulated by geographical proximity to the Motherland.

If nothing else, we have an informal "coffee break" in the afternoons. At my house, we call it Taka Taka Time. (If you're on Facebook you can "like" Taka Taka" here.)

Watch my daughter, Amy Kikita making coffee and you will understand about the Taka Taka at about the 1:37 mark. (What's up with all these numbers today, Marta?)

Which begs the question: what time exactly is Taka Taka Time? In Miami, there's a movement to make 3:05 (like the area code) the official Miami Cafecito Break Time. I love that!  That's right. Thanks to the genius of JennyLee Molina of JLPR who came up with the concept and my friend, Elena Santayana Power, who shared it with me (of Santayana Jewelers, who also happen to be in the 305, but that's not important right now) the 3:05 Miami Cafecito Break has its own Fan page. Click here to "like."

Although, I'm thinking that here on the West Coast, the Cafecito time would be at 3:10. (For those of you who don't know, since Pitbull never sang about our area codes, 310 is the area code for greater Los Angeles. You're welcome.)

There is something so sublime about that first sip of freshly brewed Cuban espresso with the perfect Killer Espuma^®.  (Please ignore my 305-frizzy hair as this photo was taken in the middle of a rain storm. Thankyouverymuch.)

I got so used to the multiple coladas during the day, that I had a hard time adjusting to the lack of Café Cubano windows on every corner like there are in The 305.

So much so that I had to resort to the next best thing, but at 3:10, of course. I know. Shut up.

How I Choose Who Gets the Giveaway Stuff (and Espresso Set Winner)

I'm still laughing at how seriously you all take your "taka taka" and how often you celebrate National Coffee Day. Some of you, it seems, celebrate National Coffee Hour, but that's not important right now. ;-)

I hope you enjoyed the "Taka Taka Time" video. I laugh out loud every time I watch it. It's obvious that I share my genetic material with those two, isn't it? (I know. Shut up.)

I'm grateful to all of you for taking the time to leave a comment and enter the drawing. I have lots more giveaways coming up in the next few weeks. 

(SPOILER: Tomorrow I'm celebrating a big bloggy thing with some giveaways. Now that I told you, I may have to kill you.....)

I love hosting giveaways, but I'm always so conflicted, because I hate choosing just one winner. (Can you say, "co-dependent?")

In case you were curious, this is how I choose that one winner:

• I read all the entries and check for duplicates. (If there are dupes, I don't count the 2nd entry in the final tally. I think it's only fair.)
• I enter the number of comments from 1 to 32 (in this case) into the Random Number Generator at Random.org.
• It immediately generates a number. 

Like so:

• Then I come back and count the comments until I get to that number and take a screen shot of the comment, like so:

• And then I congratulate the winner and ask them to send me an email so I can send the goodies to them.

So....congratulations, Crystal! 

Please send me an email with HEY, MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! in the subject line (so I don't accidentally delete it) with your snail mail address so I can send out your Coffee Goodies ASAP! You've won - a 10 oz. can of Bustelo Espresso Supreme, a 1.75 oz. jar of Café Bustelo Instant Coffee, and that beautiful Fiesta espresso set. (For those of you that are interested in purchasing your own, I got it from Cost Plus World Market - they have them in jumbo mug size, too. You're welcome.)

• Then I wait for an email from the excited winner.
• As soon as I get an address to send the stuff to, I pack it and ship it to the winner. Or sometimes, the company who sponsors will send stuff out to the winner directly. 
• And if you've ever won anything from me, that doesn't disqualify you in any way from winning again, so you're welcome to enter as many separate giveaways as you like. (Just not multiple entries on the same post. Did that make sense?)

I so delight in hosting giveaways, because I personally know how fun it is to get cool stuff in the mail and I love sharing. Plus I seriously love interacting with you. I love that you tell me about your coffee drinking or rice making or *insert random giveaway question of the day here* habits. 

You are genuinely the loveliest blog readers ever. 

Thank you!

National Coffee Day - It's "taka taka" time! (A Coffee Giveaway, too.)

Don't ask me how I know these things. I just do. 

This is one of those geeky things that has gotten stuck in my brain and screams to be celebrated.

Like Hobbit Day, which we always celebrate elaborately. Or like Pi Day, which also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday. Or even Star Wars Day ("May the 4th be with you!" - get it?), but that's not important right now.

It's probably a homeschool thing. We're Uber-geeks, aren't we? I know. Shut up.

But today is slightly different. Today, September 29th, is National Coffee Day. (Let's have a moment of reverential silence, please.)

And being Cuban-coffee-loving-uber-geeks, we celebrate this particular holiday with great devotion. In fact, we pretty much celebrate coffee, not just yearly, but much more on a daily-possibly-even-hourly basis.

Of course, we love our first-cup-in-the-morning black coffee, or café con leche, or sweet espresso, or even a wake-me-up-please latte.

But around 2:00 pm, there's that slump. You know what I'm talking about.That boy-am-I-tired-how-will-I-get-through-the-rest-of-my-day feeling. And the answer to that (at least around here) is....

It's “taka taka” time!

Taka taka is the sound of the spoon in the cup stirring the espresso and sugar into Killer Espuma®.

For us Cubans, it's the highlight of our mornings and afternoons and evenings and around here, we dance and sing when it's taka taka time ...

My daughter, Amy Kikita is the reigning Queen of the Taka Taka. She's the one who makes the best cafecito in our household. In fact, she takes coffee making to another entire level.

Let me illustrate:

So, today, in honor of National Coffee Day, I'd like to do a coffee related giveaway. 

What better brand of coffee for a Hispanic Heritage Month National Coffee Day Coffee Giveaway, than our very own Cuban go-to brand? Bustelo, of course.

And no, the Bustelo people are not sponsoring this giveaway. (I wish!) This is my very own personal I-love-MBFCF-readers-because-you-are-all-so-fabulous giveaway. You're welcome.)

I'm giving away a 10 oz. can of this beautiful Bustelo Supreme Espresso by Bustelo:

  

and ...

a 1.75 oz. jar of Café Bustelo Instant Coffee: 
 

and ...

A this set of six beautiful (Fiesta colors, people!) espresso cups:

My son, Adam, gave me this very same set and I love these tacitas so much I want to marry them. (Sorry, Eric.)

So.....let's have some Coffee Talk.

I'll be giving away all THREE items to one lucky winner.

To be entered in this fabulous National Coffee Day Giveaway, please answer one or all of the following questions:

• Do you have a mid-afternoon coffee, latte, cappucino, decaf or regular?
• Do you make it yourself, or does someone else make it for you?
• Do you “taka taka”?  ;-)

I will pick a winner randomly from your comments on Friday, September 30th at 7 pm.

So, come on....let's talk “taka taka.

Espresso time! And the winner is...

I was quite pleased as I read the comments on the How to Make Cuban Coffee With Killer Espuma post.

Most of you are of the Old Stovetop School of Cuban Coffee Making Goodness. (Yay!)

And can I just tell you right now how much I love when you tell me about even the minutia of your life? I feel like we're sharing a cafecito at my kitchen table. So thank you all.

*********************************************************

The winner of the Red IMUSA^® Coffee Maker and Red Espresso Cups is:

Aida Nava said...

i'm not ashamed to say this, we fail at making any kind of espuma.. we have a stovetop maker but haven't mastered making anything delicous from it! but if i could get my hands on turkish coffee i'd be happy!

and...

The winner of the IMUSA^® Nine Piece Stainless Steel Espresso Set is

Suzy said...

It's all about being old school. I first learned how to make espumita with my Tia Olimpia. She use to blend her coffee and sugar in one of those weird bottle/glasses that already made shrimp cocktail came in. (Not sure if they had those in Cali, but my guess is probably). Anyway I was always fasinated by the foam that was created in that weird little glass.

*********************************************************

Congratulations to you both! Please shoot me an email with HEY MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! in the subject line (so I don't accidentally delete you). Please include your snail mail address so that I can forward to IMUSA^® and they can get your goodies out to you.

I'd like to thank the very generous folks at IMUSA^® for sponsoring this giveaway. And if you thought this one was cool (and it totally was)....they have very generously offered to partner with MBFCF and do some more fabulous giveaways in the next few months, so stay tuned for that.

Check out their fabulous products and visit them online at www.imusausa.com. Or go "like" them on Facebook - they have the best cooking tips every day. Thanks again, IMUSA!

I have lots of giveaways coming up this summer, so please keep checking back in. Seriously, I'm a little overwhelmed with all the coolness I get to share, but that's not important right now.

In the meantime, I hope you're all practicing your Killer Espuma^®.

How to make Cuban coffee with KILLER espuma. You're welcome.

Making Cuban coffee is more art than science.

I think I learned how to make Cuban coffee when I was about 8 years old and able to maneuver in the kitchen without hurting anything. It wasn't just a matter of making the coffee itself, there had to be a frothy topping to that café and just the right amount of sweetness. Of course, like anything else, some people can make it happen with apparently less effort than others. Hence the artistry.

My dad always smelled of a pleasant mix of Vitalis, puros, and Bustelo. If Cuban music is the soundtrack of my life, the aroma of freshly brewed espresso is the fragrance.

Obviously, you can use a fancy espresso machine to get your café made for you at the press of a button. But I'm from the old espresso-maker-on-the-stovetop school of Cuban coffee making.

Why?

Because of the ESPUMA. That's what we call the frothy stuff on top. (I would say "espumita," but the stuff I'm talking about is much more powerful than the diminutive suggests.) Killer Espuma - I should trademark that! - is a matter of personal pride in our family. Today, my daughter, Amy Kikita, who is The Official Family Killer Espuma^® Maker will share her secret for the Perfect Cuban Espresso with Killer Espuma^®.  ;-)

(By the way, she doesn't really talk like that, but that's not important right now.)

In keeping with today's theme of All Things Coffee, I am grateful for the generous folks at IMUSA^® for providing today's fabulous giveaway gifts.

Thing 1) An old-school (of course!) Aluminum Espresso CoffeeMaker in RED. (It's the same as the beautiful red one in the video.) Along with a set of four RED espresso cups & saucers.

Thing 2) A nine piece Stainless Steel Espresso Set. Beautiful, no?

They also have a wonderful and varied line of espresso related items. Check that out right here.

So, for a chance to win one of the two featured prizes above, please leave a comment on this post and answer one or both of the following questions:

• Do you use a new-fangled espresso machine to make your café, or are you an old-school stovetopper, like me?
• Do you like your espresso with Killer Espuma^®?  ;-)

I'll choose 2 winners on Thursday, June 16th at 6 pm Pacific Time.

Thank you, IMUSA^®!

(cross-posted at Babalú blog)