by Raul Menchaca
GUANTANAMO, Cuba, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Mother-daughter duo Francisca Holder and Elba Vicente are proud they help ensure Cuba's coffee exports live up to high international standards.
The women, two of a small number of professional coffee tasters in Cuba, work for a state-run coffee manufacturer in eastern Guantanamo province, the island's second largest coffee producing region after Santiago de Cuba in the west.
The company's mountain-grown Alto Serra coffee brand sells well abroad, mainly in Europe and Asia, thanks in part to Holder and Vicente.
Holder has spent 45 years as a professional coffee taster, after stumbling on to the profession by chance in 1973.
"It's a point of pride," Holder told Xinhua, "because when I entered the profession there were no female tasters in Cuba, and only two in all of Latin America."
The job may sound easy, but is actually quite demanding, often requiring that she drinks up to 30 cups of coffee a day to guarantee the quality of the finished product, which represents a sizable share of Cuba's national coffee output.
Vicente, who strongly resembles Holder in appearance and behaviour, decided to follow in her mother's footsteps and recently received her coffee tasting certification from Costa Rica, one of Central America's leading coffee producers.
"She has taught me a very special skill, because coffee tasting is done by only a few people in the world," said Vicente.
The company, which processes 16 tons of coffee every eight hours, relies heavily on the pair as it processes Guantanamo's entire bean harvest at this modern plant and at a second plant in Holguin province, some 200 kilometers away.
The beans are marketed abroad through a state-owned exporting company CubaExport, which sells around 65 percent of Cuba's annual harvest overseas.
Alto Serra's Arabica variety is the company's highest quality bean, grown at plantations throughout eastern Cuba's mountainous regions.
Situated between 900 and 1,800 meters above sea level, the plantations boast the perfect climate for bean cultivation, with the cooler temperatures improving the organoleptic properties of coffee, such as taste and aroma.
As Cuba's mother-daughter coffee tasting duo can tell, the entire sensory experience is important, from the flavor and smell to the color and texture.
