Plantations from the Past
Cuba’s Coffee Heritage 

By Toni Dabbs 

Coffee is an integral part of life in Cuba. Made thick and rich, it is served at breakfast, after lunch and dinner, and during business meetings and social events.

Although coffee is so closely associated with Cuba today, the Spanish custom of drinking chocolate dominated the island in its early days. Coffee was not introduced to Cuba until 1748, when traders brought it from Santo Domingo. Not long afterward, French families fleeing the Haitian slave revolt (1789-1804) settled in Cuba and established coffee plantations.

By 1827, Cuba had more than 2,000 coffee plantations. Most were in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra, a lush mountain range in southeastern Cuba. The French emigres had to carve their estates from the overgrown slopes, but their persistence paid off. Coffee production boomed. And for a time, investments in coffee estates equaled investments in sugar plantations.

However, higher returns from sugar and competition in the coffee market from Brazil, Venezuela and Costa Rica caused Cuba’s coffee production to decline. Then the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878), Cuba’s first real battle for independence from Spain, left the eastern end of the island in ruins, devastating the local coffee industry. Plantations were abandoned to be reclaimed by the jungle.

In 2000, UNESCO recognized the remains of these 19th century coffee plantations as “unique evidence of a pioneer form of agriculture in a difficult terrain,” casting “considerable light on the economic, social and technological history of the Caribbean and Latin American region.” The organization designated the Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the Southeast of Cuba as a World Heritage Site.

What survives only hints at what once was. Bits of architecture and equipment are strewn around the Sierra Maestra, the largest mountain range in Cuba, 155 miles long and 19 miles wide. Trails into the site are accessible from the bustling sugar mill town of Bartolome Maso in Granma Province and from the colonial city of Santiago de Cuba in the province of the same name.

An estate that is relatively easy to visit is Cafetal La Isabelica, 16 miles outside Santiago near La Gran Piedra, a huge rock at the highest point in the Sierra Maestra Grand National Park. The rock, which is of volcanic origin, is 167 feet long, 98 feet wide and 82 feet high, and weighs an estimated 63,000 tons.

Climbing the 459 steps to La Gran Piedra, visitors pass through a jungle of ferns, orchids and other endemic plants. Those with sharp eyes and good luck might spot a Tocororo, the trogon that is Cuba’s national bird. Beyond La Gran Piedra, a rough track leads to the former coffee plantation.

La Isabelica was established by a French immigrant who fled Haiti in 1791. The owner is said to have named it for his mistress, a beautiful slave who later became his wife. It was one of about 60 coffee plantations in the area.

Still standing is a two-story stone mansion built in the style of a rural French manor house. Now a museum, it contains original furniture, slave implements and other items related to Cuba’s early coffee industry. Outside are three platforms where coffee beans were dried, and nearby is a circular thatched hut where the beans were ground.

High tariffs placed on imports in 1927 and 1930 revived coffee production in Cuba to some extent. Plantations again are operating in mountainous areas, where climatic conditions produce high-quality Arabica beans noted for full flavor and low caffeine. Nearly 12 varieties are grown and processed for the domestic market and abroad under such brand names as Caracolillo, Cristal Mountain, Cubita, Serrano and Turquino.

Canadian travel writer Toni Dabbs is a regular contributor to The Cultured Traveler.