Cuban coffee at the Red Velvet Cafe - my new thing

Yesterday I zipped right into civilization. I got my errands done and I made a fantastic find. Immediately stop what you are doing and plot a GPS course for Red Velvet Café in Pickerington. Not in central Ohio? Doesn't matter - make the drive. I was there for the cupcakes but what I found instead made me absolutely swoon.

Seriously. Check out these lovelies. 

These guys are really terrific. I was warmly greeted by the owner and immediately I could tell that they specialize in excellent service. He knew every one of his customers - by name and their orders. How great is that? I tried to find out a bit more about their business and found this article. What a great story!

The cupcakes were given to me in this beautiful box. Thanks! 

Here is where the real love started.... I asked for a cappuccino but, he asked, would I like a cuban style coffee instead?

Be still my heart.

I had to catch myself on the edge of the counter lest I actually swoon and fall to my knees. I've been wanting to try a real cuban coffee for months. Years. Let's face it. I've been waiting all my life for this. I even was hatching a plot to fly to Miami for the day just to try one of these coffees. Seriously.

I've heard about cuban coffee but, aside from a TV segment on one of those morning shows, I didn't really know what it was about. It's about perfection. 

What is cuban coffee? Well. It's kinda hard to properly explain. It's a very small "demitasse" serving of extremely strong and very sweet coffee like nothing else you've had before. If you have the chance you have to try it. 

I found a great explanation of "how to here" - plus check out how fun these folks are. See that the key is to use the "crema" - which is the very first part of the espresso - to make a sugary caramel mix that is then blended with the rest of the coffee. It's kind of amazing. It makes the coffee very sweet, creamy, and lucious. Add milk? Cream? Or anything else? Nope. Just one small cup of delight. 

The Red Velvet Café serves all kinds of incredible drinks including smoothies (I got a sample of a taro root smoothie) and the amazing sounding Hawaiian salted caramel almond latte. Wow! And Thai iced teas and so much more but I can only think about that cuban coffee.

I don't usually get to that part of the world but you can bet when I do I'll be stopping at the Red Velvet Café. THANKS for your terrific service, beautiful cupcakes, and excellent coffee!



Editors note: What's with the shoutout to a local biz? What did I get out of this? Did they bribe me with booze or money or free stuff to write this? Nope. They had no idea I was an undercover farm blogger on the prowl for extraordinary coffee. To them I was just the next customer to walk in the door. They probably won't even see this. Maybe they will - I'll thank them again on 'the facebook.' My point is... this is a great business that I will drive the extra mile to visit the next time I go that way. Plus hey! Cuban coffee is a fun new thing. I may try to make this at home. I already have the coffee maker it's this one - the stovetop espresso maker - the 3 cup version. And I saw in the video that this is the coffee that they used. Now see? Those are affiliate links. So if you click on those and order something from Amazon then I will get a small percentage of the sale. But as for cupcakes and stuff? Nope. I just got amazing coffee and incredible cupcakes.