Puerto Rican Coffee, or why you've never had any

Before the Spanish-American War, coffee was one of the strongest industries of Puerto Rico. Along with sugar and tobacco, it dominated exports. So why is it today nearly unheard of?

One of the most abrupt changes that the war brought was the devastation of the industry. This can be blamed on a few factors: 1, the U.S. had already entered in a deal with Brazil for their coffee, 2, the taste of Puerto Rican coffee was too strong for most Americans (most of its success was in Europe), and 3, American interests in the Caribbean laid mostly in the sugar industry, as seen with Cuba. Sure enough, the sugar industry exploded overnight, causing ruin for most coffee-growing families who could no longer export to Europe or the U.S.

Despite this, the coffee companies have hung on. On the island, there are a few companies that keep their products on local shelves. Sadly, however, quite a few of these include coffee from outside the island. Both output and demand aren't high enough to change this.

Yauco Selecto has previously been reputated to be an excellent coffee, equal to Jamaican Blue Mountain and Hawaiian Kona (some of the most consistently high rated coffees in the world), although apparently quality has been hard to maintain lately. Right now, according to Coffee Review, the best coffee Puerto Rico has to offer at the moment is something called CaféBello, which I've never heard of before. Sounds good though.

Coffee, by the way, is definitely one way to Puerto Rico differs from the U.S. It's usually enjoyed in small cups with milk (and sugar, if you want), making a perfect café con leche, common throughout Latin America. Extremely bitter black coffee is called café puya (in comparison to café prieto, which is sweetened) and is also popular. Starbucks and the entire idea of fancy coffee drinks is really unpopular, kind of startling considering Puerto Rico's incredible sweet tooth. Cold coffee is a no-no and milk will often be heated up on the oven as well. Apparently warm coffee is seen as rude gesture in restaurants. So if you have guests over, don't give them cold coffee! Not that anyone would do that on purpose...

Generally whenever I get read to leave I make sure to pick up a little coffee to take with me. It's difficult to get it away from the island otherwise.