There's a party in my backyard!

Yesterday, I went for a walk in the backyard of our shop, Banana Dang, and to my surprise there is a coffee plant!It was growing nicely next to one of our 10 banana plants. Although the elevation is not high enough for quality Arabica beans,we are just happy to know that both coffee and bananas can co-exist in our yard. How's that for localism? Photos by Edward Pagan.

California Recon!

We recently returned to California to see family and friends and got a chance to check out the specialty coffee scene in both Los Angeles and San Diego. There were some good—and not so good—cappuccinos, but what surprised us most was the incredible customer service and just plain good vibes. California, here I come...

- Fix Coffee (Echo Park): Cool, industrial coffee bar with good cappuccinos and ding dongs for a buck!
- Intelligentsia (Silverlake/Venice): Knowledgeable staff that know how to pour latte art. Sparse hangout, but great to "sip and pose." We like!
- Lamill (Silverlake): Best MOCHA in the world.
- Bird Rock Coffee (La Jolla): Roaster/coffee house with a green initiative. Best customer service on the trip with a great bakery next door.
- Caffe Calabria (downtown San Diego): Coffee bar/wine bar/sports bar that serves up amazing cappuccinos. We highly, highly recommend. The vibe was exciting, energetic and intoxicating.
- Krakatoa (Central San Diego): Best Vietnamese coffee on the trip nested in a super cozy environment. Did I mention that San Diego is a Vietnamese coffee city?
- Gypsy Den (Orange County): This place was loaded with atmosphere. The coffee was OK but the vibe was what kept us there.

We also just returned from Coffee Cast—the Puerto Rico Barista Championship in San Juan. What happens at Coffee Cast, stays in Puerto Rico. Long live caffeine, T2

Postcards From the Edge

We've created a few original postcards with images of Rincon to sell at Banana Dang. They are a bit cheesy, but that's how we like it! Someone commented that what happens in Rincon, EVERYONE knows about! Boy, that is soooo true.

Banana Dang at Surfrider Foundation benefit

Last Night was a wonderful time of food, COFFEE and music to raise funds for the local chapter of The Surfrider Foundation. Banana Dang was happy to serve ocean lovers some "El Mananero" coffee from the Maricao region of Puerto Rico.

images by Ed Pagan

Banana Dang FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Banana Dang...

What does "Banana Dang" mean?
Bananas are our favorite fruits. Dang is the owner's last name. Although business officially opened in 2007, the company was "conceived" in 2004-the Year of the Monkey. So, Banana Dang was most fitting!

How many Banana Dang shops are there?
There is only one location in Rincon, PR. However, we do plan to expand in the next few years.

Where does your coffee come from?
All our coffees are sourced from Puerto Rico. We pride ourselves in serving the best from the island—Sandra Farms and Aroma del Cielo from Adjuntas, and Cafe El Mananero from Maricao. We're always on a quest for the best.

Do you use Fair-Trade coffee?
We use coffee grown right here on the Island of Puerto Rico–a U.S. commonwealth. We only use locally-grown coffee, thereby not having to import coffee. Our customers can enjoy coffee knowing that it is locally grown in Puerto Rico, under USDA regulation.

Do you make "latte art" on all your coffee drinks?
The term "Latte art" refers to the design of steamed milk when it meets espresso. Latte art can be achieved when the drink contains these two ingredients–espresso and steamed milk–so latte, cappuccino, mocha and macchiato all come with "latte art." Brewed coffee, Americano and iced coffee drinks cannot achieve latte art. Check out our latte art on YouTube.

You serve Vietnamese Coffee...but, what is it?
Contrary to popular belief, Vietnamese coffee does not necessarily come from Vietnam. The drink is named after how it is prepared and served originally in Vietnam. The drink is typically prepared with French roast coffee slowly drip-brewed in an individual filter, served with condensed milk. It's dark and sweet. When enjoyed hot, Vietnamese Coffee is best "for here"–not "to go."

What is "Purple Dang" and "Purple Bowl"?
Purple Dang is one of our most popular smoothies. It is made with Sambazon Acai–a fruit from the Amazon Rainforest loaded with antioxidants (tastes like a cocoa berry), blended with bananas, strawberries, soy milk and apple juice. Purple Bowl uses twice the amount of Acai, making the consistency very thick, blended with bananas, soy milk and apple juice. It is topped with granola and shredded coconut–and obviously–served in a bowl.

Baby Banana

We've been slacking on postings for a while...and for good reason. We had a baby recently! She is our little mochaccino and we are proud + very happy parents. We are so happy, in fact, we made a new ad just to commemorate her arrival to this world! See attached ad - "Happy Together."

On the store front, there's new merch to show off - Army green and Cranberry American Apparel tees, new stainless steel Banana Dang tumblers and ceramic mugs. We also sell the freshest Puerto Rican coffees - Sandra Farms, Aroma del Cielo from Hacienda Monte Alto, and Cafe El Mananero. There is a slight ingredient change on a few of our smoothies - agave (a natural plant-based sweetener) replaces honey, and of course, we carry the popular Sambazon Acai that is present in our Purple Dang smoothie and Purple Acai Bowl.

We made some recent YouTube videos of our espresso techniques as well. Long live coffee! And we will do our best to post more on a regular basis.

Barista at Large

Visiting coffee origin is something we’ve been looking forward to for a very long time. Through winding mountain roads and beautiful landscapes, the Banana Dang team finally made it to Sandra Farms Coffee in Adjuntas, PR for our first visit to origin. The air in these mountains is sweet smelling and dryer than the tropical humid beaches of Rincon.

At Sandra Farms, Israel and Sandra Gonzalez greeted us with a snack of local cheeses, guava paste and organic farm grown tomatoes. Lemonade and orange juice were fresh from the trees and the coffee, of course, was delicious.

Israel and Sandra gave us a history of the farm and walked through the process of farming and producing their specialty coffee. Along the vast coffee fields we saw orange, papaya, lemon, sugarcane, avocado and cherry trees. It was not harvest time so the coffee cherries were green, but plentiful.

After our visit to Sandra Farms, we drove another 20-minutes through the mountains of Adjuntas to arrive at Hacienda Monte Alto. We met Don Jimmy and family who showed us the amazing coffee processing setup on the Hacienda. Monte Alto had been producing coffee for over 30 years and it was amazing to see the processing on a larger scale. Alongside the commercial grade coffee was a completely separate specialty coffee processing system. We got another review of the care that goes into Specialty Coffee processing. Smaller batches of the highest quality beans were washed, sorted then dried.

We picked up some coffee and got to enjoy the smell of fresh coffee along the drive home. Visiting origin is a great education for any barista and coffee retailer. It gave us even more of an appreciation for what we serve to our customers every day.

Banana Dang + Surfrider

A lot of friends ask: What is Rincon like?

Aside from great weather and some of the best surf we've ever experienced, there is a short documentary on Rincon from Surfrider Foundation called Salva Tres Palmas. The movie can be seen on Surfrider's website (in both English and Spanish). We recommend it highly.

Salva Tres Palmas tells the story of the environmental victory that gave life to Tres Palmas Marine Reserve, the first marine reserve on the main island of Puerto Rico—in Rincon. There are lots of characters we recognize from living here, as well as being an informative film about the environmental hazards that face Rincon.

Aside from that, DANG Factory also designed a poster—and book—for Arte Acuatico, a project sponsored by NOAA's Marine Debris Program and is part of the educational component of the ambitious community driven program "Coral Reef Protection through Marine Debris Removal at Reserva Marina Tres Palmas," where more than 475 tires have been removed, among other debris.

Opening night of Arte Acuatico takes place on Thursday, June 25 at Rincon of The Seas, 7-9 p.m. The show features kids' art from surrounding schools in Rincon and runs all the way to July 9. We hope you can make it!

See you out there,
T2 + Mario

Banana Dang at WBC 2009

The world's best baristas from 52 nations just competed for the crown at the 10th Annual World Barista Championship 2009 in Atlanta. #1 went to U.K.'s GWILYM DAVIES!!! #2 Canada's Sam Piccolo and #3 USA's Mike Phillips. It was an amazing performance by all, including Puerto Rico's Daniel Rivera.

WBC/SCAA Conference was a coffee geek fest—an excellent chance to network with friends and coffee professionals. Best part: rows (seemed like a mile long) of the best baristas in the world serving espressos, lattes and cappuccinos—all you can drink for the price of admission! To get in FREE, we volunteered to do dishes for 10 hours, but it was an unbeatable learning experience.

In front of a live crowd and countless cameras, baristas prepared 4 espressos, 4 cappuccinos and 4 signature drinks in the allotted time of 15 minutes. They were judged on everything—including cleanliness, technicality, speed, but most of all—the proof is in the cup.

Once again, it was an international mix of vendors associated with espresso machines, roasters, teas, baked goods, hardware, and chocolate (yum). We soaked in labs and lectures that taught latte art hosted by USA/World champ Heather Perry and #3 USBC 2009 winner Scott Lucey, cupping, roasting and biz management. And the parties lasted all night as coffee poured like chocolate from Willy Wonka's Factory.

Pix highlights include:
* Lee Jong Hoon: #6 WBC Finalist from Korea
* Phuong Tran: 2005 USBC winner and the only "other" Vietnamese in Specialty Coffee
* Matt Milletto: Bellisimo Coffee (coffee educator)

WBC gave us even more *spark* to present the best Puerto Rican coffees. With this knowledge, Banana Dang will offer our own Barista Training Certification Program. We look forward to serving you the best cup.

We also got to visit family in Atlanta—my cousin Phi Phi, husband Jae and their baby boy, BABY CALEB. In this picture, he is curiously checking out his second cousin! Ha ha.

Always Caffeinated,
T2 and Mario

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