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.

Mami Loves Cuban Coffee - A Giveaway

Mother's Day is next week, people.

It always comes on the 2nd weekend in May. And yet, I'm always surprised that it comes so soon after the month starts. What's that about?

Anyway, because I love you, and I know that you love Cuban coffee as much as I do, I have fabulous news:

My good friends at Gaviña & Sons Coffee have offered to sponsor a La Llave Cuban Coffee Basket for a Mother's Day Giveaway. The beauty of this is that the Gaviña family is Cuban and they know espresso.

The La Llave Cuban Coffee Basket for Mother's Day 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

It's a beautiful thing, right?

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:

• How do you like your espresso? Straight up? With espumita? Cortadito?
  
• How many times a day do you drink it?
  

Please leave your comment on this post and I'll choose a winner on Monday, 6thth, 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 apiece. You're welcome. Mami will love it. I promise. Also, please let them know that Marta from My Big, Fat, Cuban Family sent you. (I don't get extra points for that or anything. I just want them to know you are reading about it here, but that's not important right now.)

{Disclaimer: Gaviña Gourmet Coffee has graciously provided this Cafe La Llave Gift Basket as a giveaway.  I have received no compensation for this. I just truly love them.}

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.

Cuando salí de Cuba - Maria Elena's story + A Giveaway

Marta here: I'm celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: Cuban-Style with a series of stories about Cuban American families: Cuando Sali de Cuba, stories of courage and hope.

Today's story comes from MS. She owns and operates the online store, A Taste of Cuba. 

*Tissue warning!*

I was born in Havana, Cuba in 1956.  My mother was married to my father, I had a sister and a brother.

My father owned his own business, family owned accounting firm.

 

 Her dad, sister and brother on car in front of their house in Cuba.

My mother is still alive and is a feisty 92 1/2  year old  mother, grandmother  and great grandmother!

My memories of Cuba actually begin when our life in Cuba ended.

 Her brother with his nanny.

By 1960 my mother and father had separated. My mother and her immediate family began to make plans to flee Castro's regime.  One thing my mother promised was that Castro was taking over her home but she was not leaving anything inside for the communist to enjoy.  She kept her promise.  Sometimes in the wee hours of the morning she removed every piece of furniture and gave it  to friends that were staying in Cuba.  By the time August 1961 came around there was nothing left inside the home.

My memory of that horrible departure begins.

My mother took my sister, brother, grandmother and grandfather to the airport.  We had packed a suitcase and were leaving to Miami, FL on a Pan Am airplane.  We arrived at the airport.  The soldiers had separated the people leaving from the people that were staying. 

All of a sudden my mother and I were separated by this huge glass wall.  The glass wall was a partition so that the people could not smuggle things to the family members leaving. The passengers were not allowed to take anything but a suitcase.  Our suitcases where searched by the military personnel and only clothing was allowed.

I did not know what was happening, why my mother wasn't with me, I was only 4 years old?  I quickly found out she was not going with us.  She decided to stay behind with her brother that did not get his visa.  She didn't want to leave him in Cuba by himself.  By now all my aunts and uncles had left, two uncles went to Miami and one had settled in NYC.

I had never been separated from my mother before and was not happy.  I started crying and having a big tantrum.  Finally a soldier allowed my mother to comfort me.  She hugged and kissed me, and assured me everything was going to be ok.  She told me my grandparents were going to take care of me until she could join me again in a few days.

I remember I was holding my favorite doll, she told me when I got to my seat on the plane hold the doll up to the window and wave to me.  She said, "Then I'll know you are ok."

 After a few minutes we had to board the plane.  But back then they didn't have ramps to board a plane.  You actually had to walk on the tarmac to a stairway to board the airplane.  I started walking and right before we boarded the plane there was a soldier making a last minute check of all boarding passengers.  He took my doll and told me I could not take it in the airplane. 

I started to cry that it was my only connection to my mother. I had promised her I would wave so she knew I was ok. My family pleaded with the soldier that the doll had already been checked inside and I was to wave to mother good bye.  So I was able to board the plane with my doll. 

I sat down next to the window, waved my dolly goodbye to mother, as I cried, the plane too off into the sky.

That was very traumatic for me, as a four year old, but nothing compared to what my family went through.

Days turned into months, it wasn't until two or three long months later my mother and my uncle were able to leave Cuba and reunite with us in Miami.

As a mature woman now, mother and grandmother myself I often think back and wonder how my mother was able to handle everything in her life.  I realize how strong my mother is and her strong faith in Jesus has allowed her to sustain the turmoil.

This was very difficult to write I was reliving it.

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

Marta here: I'm so grateful to M.S. for sharing her deeply personal and painful story. As a mother myself, I cannot imagine letting go of my 4 year old and putting her on a plane to another world not knowing when we would be reunited. I have tears in my eyes even as I type this. 

MS owns the very cool online shop, A Taste of Cuba and has generously offered to host today's giveaway.

It's a Cuban Coffee Basket (yes, please!) that includes the following:

1 Coffee maker (3 cup pressure system)coffeemaker is perfect for cafe, latte, or cafe con leche! 1 Cafe Cubano (espresso coffee) 2 cups and saucers (design varies) 1 Maria cookies(3.5 oz)

Just leave a comment on this post telling MS your thoughts about her story, or tell your own. 

I'll choose a winner on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 5 pm.