I was born and raised in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, so most of the products that I consume are those that arrive on the shelves of the supermarkets in the city.
In the case of coffee, since I was a child this beverage has been part of my life, I remember years ago that I only knew three commercial brands of the producers with greater capacity or those that had offices in Caracas.
The preferred coffee was Café San Antonio, a coffee from a family business of Italian immigrants, noted for its unbeatable quality. They choose the best beans from different areas of the country, this coffee is the one we see most frequently if not always in the coffee shops of the city to prepare the most delicious espresso coffee.
My palate became accustomed to its flavor until the scarcity of products in the country began and I had to venture into other brands and artisanal coffee.
At that time I worked for a public institution and part of the responsibility for the supply came from us. I remember a young man who was starting out as a coffee producer in the state of Lara, located in the central western part of the country. In spite of the availability of regional offices, he preferred to travel to Caracas in order to obtain the procedures in an expeditious manner.
One of the many times I attended him, one day he gave me a gift of half a kilo of the coffee he was producing, the aroma was undoubtedly different. I was grateful for the gesture and as soon as I went up to my office, I informed my colleagues and we prepared the coffee pot (we were all great consumers of coffee).
I was surprised in a good way by the different taste, it had a certain something, I don't know what, that made it unique. Perhaps the way of roasting the beans, the rudimentary way of the process in general, the love in each step, the freshness of the product, the desire to stand out in a positive way, I do not know. What I do know is that we all agreed that it was better than what we were used to.
Later this young man made it a tradition to bring me some of his coffee on every visit to the institution. The first package I donated for my department's consumption, the following ones I took home. After all, each public servant served specific users and we were free to do whatever we wanted with the gifts.
Today the state of Lara is the largest producer of coffee in Venezuela and this month they will offer the "Expo Café Lara 2022".
The images are my own and I made the templates in Canva with the free version.
