# Home Roasting Cuban Style



## Geordie Boy (Nov 26, 2012)

I've just come back from a holiday in Cuba and was lucky enough to see a coffee farmer roasting some beans. As you can see from the photo, he basically uses a metal pot placed ontop of a fire and stirs the beans around. Apparently it takes 50 minutes to roast that pot! You'll also see from the close-up of the beans in the pot that the roast is very uneven with beans cracking almost continuously as they are all roasting at different rates.

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The end result is that the beans are obviously very dark and ultimately I just found the coffee in the country to be very bitter (note they drink it with sugar added).

I also got some photos of one of the methods of brewing the coffee. Basically they do a big pot and make the coffee in a Turkish style, and then filter it.

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You could get espresso out there (Expobar and Rancillo machines were pretty widespread in hotels and cafes) however it would be made with pre-ground coffee. Even if a place had a grinder, they'd put the pre-ground straight into the doser and dispense it from that. It was very rare to see beans in a hopper. Mocha pots were available in shops so they use them also.

Overall, it was one of those trips that makes you appreciate how lucky we are with all the gadgets we have!


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

I can't remember when I went to Cuba. Must be about 10 years ago. I saw farmers roasting just a frying pan full on their verandas. I really don't remember having good coffee. It would have stood out because the food was so bad.

Café Cubita, the ubiquitous brand, makes great filter coffee. Exported beans like Serrano can be awesome.


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## mcgregor_dave (Nov 25, 2013)

I am not sure either about the final quality of this coffee, but then again I will have to wait to go to Cuba and check for myself


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