I want some coffee!

The hot weather makes it both uncomfortable to roast and introduces the risk of damage to the roaster from excessive temperature when it's running. And that means the heat is getting in the way of having coffee on hand for the morning brew. But if I had some Cuban coffee on hand, this ad suggests I might be able to get the roasting done before the Bullet died! [Thanks to conchscooter of Key West Diaries for the image!] We got hooked on Cuban coffee back when we moved on our Gemini catamaran to Key West in mid-2002. You can find a decent cup of Cuban at pretty much any place that caters to tourists with offerings of snacks/food/groceries, but there are a couple that we favored- Five Brothers either in-town or up on Ramrod Key at MM-26 El Mocho which is a working-dude's cafe on Stock Island (where our marina was) If you're a 3rd wave coffee snob (I really hope I'm not!), you might find Cuban coffee a little on the rough side thanks to the robusta varietal coffee bea...

... and I guess this is it. I've been a coffee drinker since about 1949 when my paternal grandfather offered me a cup with my breakfast one summer while I was visiting. I'll never forget it... it was disgusting! I must have spit rinse water for 15 minutes. My grandfather (JO to acquaintances, Oscar to his friends, and Pa to me) was greatly offended by the wasted cup. We were only 4 years out of WW-II and coffee was still hard to come by. In truth, timing probably had little to do with being offended. He was frugal by nature and horrified by waste. My grandmother Ida (I used her given name; the photo is circa 1912) was nearly in hysterics (which did nothing to help Pa's mood). When she stopped laughing long enough, Ida doctored the coffee with milk and sugar and, as we all know (and with apologies to Julie Andrews), "...a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down". But I was embarrassed and thought I probably would never make it in the world of big pe...