So, it's been a couple of rouge weeks but at least monthly my husband and I go out and have a walk to relax and talk in some nice place. Here in Santiago there are a lot of cute places were you can have a cup of coffee and more. However, I definitely prefer a place over any other, and I've said it before in this community.
Casa Dranguet , that how it's called this amazing place. It's not just a regular coffee place, it goes beyond that. This place holds tradition, and culinary arts. It's an colonial building located few meters away from Céspedes Park in the center of the city. It is also referred to as The Center dedicated to the Cultural Interpretation of Coffee and that's exactly it's purpose. The place has the city's Museum of Coffee, which is something big taking into account the tradition of coffee of the whole Eastern part of the country.
Specially Santiago de Cuba has a deep and beautiful history around coffee. I learned with my boss in the 'African Cultural Center Fernando Ortiz' that during the Spaniel colonization times in Cuba this city was one of the best producers of coffee. However, they never used to work in the Sierra Maestra (which is a very mountainous place). When the Haitian Revolution happened, this city welcomed many french that were running away from the conflict in that country, so in order to make a living the French decided to sow the lands of the Sierra Maestra and guess what happened!
It turns out that that mountainous place was ideal to sow coffee. So the French succeeded in the harvest and sale of coffee beating the spaniels in this business. Interesting right. Well back to the Dranguet House, my husband had a cortado and I had a cappuccino which I must say was the most delicious capuccino I ever had. The cream was so thick that the spoon couldn't get down. I wish I could prepare such perfect cappuccinos. That's gonna be my new goal you'll see.
After having coffee we order some buñuelos (a traditional snacks here in cuba), and a couple of papaya juice, delicious! I love this place, is the best place in the city to have a coffee, and the atmosphere is so relaxing and pretty, you could stay the whole day there , honestly.
Well folks, that's all for now.
Have a nice day!
All pictures are my property