1.29.2009

For the Love of Coffee...(and Love in general)

We are well into the season, which picked up late. So late—infact—that talk among business owners is it's the slowest season ever experienced in Rincon. But we have high hopes as more travelers head this way in February (one of the busiest months of the year, next to Christmas). We're working 13-hour days, six days a week.

But we're loving the coffee business. Seriously.

Our coffees are sourced local from Maricao (Cafe El Mananero), San Sebastian (Cafe Casablanca) and Adjuntas (Sandra Farms).

Sometimes we bring in special coffees off the island (Kana, Intelligentsia), but mostly we plan to find more roasters on the island to bring our customers the best espresso Puerto Rico has to offer. Besides the full range of espresso drinks, we also debut the Vietnamese Coffee Jello served with condensed milk. We'll soon offer vegan jello—another unique offering to our health conscious clientele.

A few quick bites—

Rincon's 1st Speed Dating sponsored by Banana Dang; Wed. Feb 11 @ 7pm. Each bachelor/bachelorette meets a potential date every 5-minutes. Free coffee.

2nd Annual Rincon International Film Festival happening April 28-May 3. Poster by DANG Factory.

"Make it Dirty" promo: Add espresso to any smoothie for a unique drink experience! So far, the Nutty Dang is the #1 "Dirty Drink" at Banana Dang with chocolate, banana and peanut butter.

10th Annual World Barista Championship comes to Atlanta this April. Banana Dang is proud to volunteer at this prestigious coffee event at the SCAA Conference where coffee connoisseurs (and geeks!) from around the globe talk shop and give respect to the best in the industry.

Banana Dang's head barista Mario Jimenez is planning to compete next year in Puerto Rico's Barista Championship. To prepare, he is pulling shots all night and mixing ingredients for his signature drink.

...On a personal front, T2 is happy that her big sister, Kim-Van Dang is getting married! My new brother-in-law (from South Africa) is a sommelier with an affinity for action sports. Congratulations to you both. We wish you a lifetime of love.

Happy Valentine's Day! xoxo T2 and Mario