Cuba, the Caribbean Island with its kaleidoscope of exotic nature, colonial architecture and vintage cars populating the streets, was the third stage in the Ambassador Programme 2024. Hemingway loved to spend long periods here and it’s where the journey revealed not only the secrets of a unique coffee, but also the spirit of a land that is fighting bravely to tackle one of the most important challenges facing the planet: the environment.

The adventure begins in Havana, where a local guide takes the participants to discover the wonders and contrasts of a city suspended between past and future. The landscape changes radically just outside the capital, where the urban fabric gives way to lush countryside and the three-lane roads turn into dirt tracks. The means of transport change too, from cars and vans to tractors and horse-drawn carts.

The visit to the Jibacoa Experimental Centre gives the ambassadors their first contact with coffee culture and reveals a key feature of Cuban plantations: here the coffee cherries flourish in the shade of taller trees, among them the majestic Royal Palm, the country’s national tree. This growing method results in a slower ripening process, which produces higher quality beans. And if climate change poses a threat to the local coffee industry, Jibacoa’s laboratories are addressing the issue with a concrete commitment to actively support growers by researching and developing agricultural practices that protect the crops from extreme weather events.

The journey continues to the Che Guevara Mausoleum in Santa Clara, the city of Camagüey, and then the municipality of Tercer Frente, where the participants see some crucial stages in coffee production on a visit to the Los Negros cherry drying plant and the BioCubaCafé laboratories. The plantations of Santiago and Granma, as a result of Lavazza Foundation’s commitment to safeguarding diversity and fighting deforestation, are the home of La Reserva de ¡Tierra! Cuba, now a fully traceable product thanks to an integrated blockchain system.

After their brief stay in Santiago, the group heads towards the easternmost tip of Cuba, an area particularly exposed to hurricanes. Here the ambassadors visit an elementary school seriously damaged by a recent storm. The building is now being repaired under a project supported by BioCubaCafé and Lavazza Foundation, with the group making its own contribution by repainting some of the classrooms and giving teaching materials and small gifts to the students and teachers.

The last stop is an organic coffee plantation where a women’s collective not only helps with the coffee harvest but also uses the leaves of local plants to make products including baskets, hats and furniture, combining tradition and creativity.

By the end of their journey, the participants had crossed this long, narrow island from one end to the other, enjoying an experience that took them far beyond coffee culture. It was a great way to learn about a lifestyle suspended between tradition and innovation, and to understand the vitality of an impassioned community of growers who are willing to risk everything, down to the last, precious coffee bean, for a future that tastes of hope.