It's a tradition to offer coffee to visitors. Even in the humblest of homes, and if the infusion has to be a little bit watery, with little sugar, visitors will still receive a cup of coffee. Mind you, our Italian/Spanish and even Arabic mixed society has brought along the national desire for strong and tasty cappuccinos, lattes, and a much-extended version: the gravity brewed. That last one is not my favorite, as I prefer to use a small coffee maker to pressure-brew one cup at a time.

However, in every home, there is a gravity brewer. You may now have an idea of the extent of our coffee consumption. When the commies here decreed that all the coffee production had to be sold to the "State," this just further contributed to the coffee scarcity we saw during the Hyperinflation Period (2017-2021).

You can prep coffee, but how do you grow it? I would like to tell you what my family did to keep coffee in our mugs during the collapse of our country.

It's no secret that Venezuelans have had it rough over the past few years.
Some had it rougher than others, but that is life.

I consider myself fortunate: my family has some means that not many people had throughout the past couple of years. Like a cabin in the mountains, for instance. A few fruit trees. We are still getting mango juice from the last crop of our four trees, even though the season is almost over. Sadly, most of our citrus trees didn't survive the past few years, and only one lemon tree made it – currently fighting for its life. We did do well with our tangerines, orange trees, and grapefruit trees. This last one was such a huge producer that we even gave fruit away.