Cafe con Leche

An Arial View of The Central Section of Leon, Nicaragua

Cafe con Leche

by

Roger X. Navas-Balladares

As I get older, I can't help but to think back to my childhood days when life was worried free. I didn't have to worry about taxes, working, global warming, or how the swings of crude oil prices would affect my life. Everything was provided and as a small child all my brother and I were only responsible for attending school, going to church on Sunday, getting good grades and the occasional house chore.

Today, it seems the kids have to worry about so many things. I find it incredible to even imagine being a kid in this day and age. For example, when I was a kid, we did not have to worry about peanut, wheat or corn allergies. We ate what was given to us and what was seasonally available at the market. Today, my niece can’t even take certain foods to school because of the fear someone with a peanut or wheat allergy may come in contact with her food.

Parque Central - Leon Nicaragua - Where I used to play as a kid

Another thing that shocks me is that as a kid, we ate what we liked, without having to worry about being fat, this is probably due in part that not too long ago, walking was the preferred mode of transportation for kids. I used to play with our friends all throughout the neighborhood. I would sometimes even go to the Central Market alone without having to worry about being kidnapped or molested. I guess we were blessed, and really feel like our children are missing out a great deal of self-discovering today. If I had do it all over again, I would love live my childhood, just they way I did. Very much like the kids in the movie by Jean-Loup Hubert “Le Grand Chemin”. I highly recommend watching this movie about a city boy sent to live in the country for the summer in 1950s France. It is a classic French movie about kids being kids.

As the owner of Split Bean Coffee, one of the things I enjoy the most if the aroma of roasting coffee, there just something about the nutty, sweet intoxicating essence the carries me back to my childhood days in Nicaragua, when my Grand-Aunt, or Mamita as we used to call her, prepared us a nice bowl of “Café de Leche” (Coffee and Milk – aka Café au Lait) with freshly baked “Pan Frances” (French Bread) that was delivered by vendors every morning. In those days vendors marched up and down the streets delivering fresh goods to all the houses in the neighborhood. It was just unheard of to eat day-old bread. Even the milk was delivered fresh from the farm at 5 or 6 in the morning, along with some fresh cheese, butter, sour cream, and eggs.

My Mamita would warm the milk just to the point of boiling and remove the “nata” that would form on top. She would then add freshly ground coffee and bring to boil once again. Once the milk had once again reached the boiling point she would remove it from the fire and serve it in our big “Café de Leche” bowls, add just the right amount of sugar, and serve it with a couple pieces of French bread. My brother and I would cut the bread into small pieces and soak them in the “Café de Leche”. This was our favorite breakfast food, and though we had corn-flakes and oatmeal available, we would always opt for our Café de Leche ritual.

Today, as I was roasting coffee to be shipped to our regular customers, I could not help and wonder that perhaps one of our customers will one morning smell our freshly roasted beans and possibly experience a similar back-flash, perhaps to a time when he or she was a kid and was also loved by some little old lady in a very different world, in a distant past.

To enjoy freshly roasted Nicaraguan coffee, visit our website at

www.SplitBeanCoffee.com . You will also find a assortment of our world famous Alfajores and our Award Winning Marshmallows and other sweets.

www.SplitBeanCoffee.com