In Miami, the price of Cuban coffee has climbed, but the human connection sipping it creates is priceless | Editorial
The cost of Cuban coffee, Miami-Dade County’s drug of choice, has skyrocketed, doubling at some storefront ventanitas. A Miami Herald article by food editor Carlos Frías alerted us all.
Blame inflation for the jolt to the pocketbook. The average price for a colada, a Styrofoam cup with four ounces of liquid fuel meant for sharing, is now $2.06. The cost of a single cup is up by about 50 cents.
It is, as one person on responded when Miami Herald reporter Doug Hanks tweeted about the price increases, “escandalosa!”
Back in the pre-COVID world of 2019, you could rely on a colada costing about $1 at popular places like Sergio’s restaurant in Kendall and other ventanitas, the small walk-up windows that dispense the sweet, thick dark brew. In Miami, ventanitas are omnipresent, a place to chat about the topic of the day grab a quick cafecito. The Miami Herald even has a weekly Miami Herald food podcast named La Ventanita, hosted by Frías.
So has the higher price of Cuban coffee caused outrage from Little Havana to Homestead? And have the ventatinas emptied out over the extra buck customers have to pay?
Not a chance. At one popular cafe spot, Chico’s restaurant in Hialeah, featured in the Herald article, business is as brisk as ever. That’s according to Barbara, who helps run the silver-toned coffee-making machine at the eatery’s ventanita.
‘A social thing’
“Nothing has changed; the same people are still coming in,” she told the Editorial Board. She knows why customers have not retreated.
“Drinking Cuban coffee here is a social thing,” she said.
Enjoying a cafecito is not just about coffee. It’s about the art of socializing and connecting with other human beings — regular customers on the same, ritualized journey for caffeine or perfect strangers.
As they stand and sip and then order a croqueta or a guava pastry, many customers at ventanitas — often men of a certain age — talk politics, reminisce, exchange news about their kids and grandkids. The cafecito ritual is timeless.
“Humans are fundamentally social creatures,” Asia A. Eaton, a social psychologist and associate professor at Florida International University, explained to the Editorial Board. “The need to belong, to socialize with others is very strong.”
In other words, the ventanitas probably could get away with charging even more. The people would still come. Two bucks a cup? For the opportunity to sip and connect, it’s a bargain.
Go ahead and raise the price of Cuban coffee. Miamians will still turn out. In this town, a colada — and everything that goes with it — is priceless.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 6:38 PM.