La Llave — Cuban-American Lifestyle & Food Blog — My Big Fat Cuban Family: A Cuban-American Blog

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.

I like love coffee. It's part of my Cuban DNA.

Growing up in a Cuban household, coffee was The Staple that was ever-present. I can remember having café con leche for breakfast before school. Of course, this was back in the day when no one was calling the authorities if children were given caffeine. But I digress....

Eric's coffee preference is a strong, sweet espresso, specifically La Llave by Gaviña. Mine a deep, rich Columbian roast. My favorite is Don Francisco, also by Gaviña.

The Gaviña Gourmet Coffee Roasters invited me to come up and take a tour of their facility, which I jumped on. A day surrounded by our favorite coffee? That's the closest definition of heaven I can come to.

The tour required us wearing hairnets. And in Eric's case a "beard net." (One of my favorite words in Spanish is the one for "hairnet." It's "redesilla," but that's not important right now.)

This is me and Eric in Coffee Heaven.

How attractive are we??

I so love the long and rich coffee history of the Gaviña family and their commitment to selecting the best coffee beans from around the world. Their dedication to quality is pretty much unsurpassed.

Our tour guide, Leonor Gaviña-Valls was wonderfully knowledgeable.

Leonor Gaviña-Valls and me. I predict hairnets will soon be back in style...

Eric was decidedly beside himself that we happened to be there at the exact moment they were running the La Llave Espresso through production.

Eric and and miles and miles of La Llave Espresso.

Also impressive was the fantastic collection of coffee roasters displayed throughout the facility.

Just a sampling of the many and varied coffee roasters found at Gaviña Gourmet Coffee.

After the tour, it was time for "cupping."

Like wine tasting, cupping is the art of observing the aromas and tastes of brewed coffees. You begin by noticing the different colors and textures of the coffee, before and after roasting.

The next step is to deeply sniff the coffee grounds as hot water is poured on them.

We look so pro, don't we?

Then comes the slurping. Loud slurping. The slurp gets the coffee all the way to the back of your tongue and it fills your mouth, engaging all your senses. Again, no polite sipping here. Slurp away, people! Noisy slurping is the only way. (Obviously, this was extremely fascinating to me. I even shot a video of the slurp-fest, which I may or may not share someday. Sorry, today is not that day.)

Also, a disclaimer: I may not be articulating the cupping ritual exactly. All I remember is that there was sniffing and slurping and there was coffee and it was wonderful.

We determined that Eric really, really likes the La Llave espresso. And I really like the Don Francisco. But then, we knew that. And honestly, if we didn't already love those brands, after spending a day with the Gaviña family we would be their biggest fans.

Our cupping experience was made all that more delightful by the knowledgeable Michael Gaviña who lives and breathes coffee and walked us through all the smelling, tasting, and slurping that is The Art of Cupping.

Check out this beautiful ad with Michael and his father, Pedro Gaviña.