For years, Miami has had a stranglehold on America. Sure, they had their crappy Starbucks and fancy, yuppy coffee roasters. But we had cafe Cubano, cafe con leche, cortaditos,
la gasolina de la tarde.....
But now J.M. Smucker has
bought the local -- actually historically Cuban -- brand that has long made our city unique, Rowland Coffee Roasters.
The firm had been run by the Souto family for decades and had its beginning in Cuba in 1865. Gringos weren't even drinking coffee back then. We were too busy picking up the dead after the Civil War. Which is to say: These guys know coffee. They are a horrible loss.
Out in Doral, where they roasted the coffee, the air has smelled sweet for decades. It was an industrial neighborhood, but that didn't matter, because you'd stick your head in the air and breathe in the beautiful smell of coffee roasting.
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