English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 24 March 2022 — “It doesn’t taste like milk, it tastes like a powder that they give to the elderly on the ration book called lactosoy. That’s the flavor,” complains Ernesto, a Havanan at the gates of Coppelia. A local regular and fan of ice cream, the young man went … Continue reading “‘Coppelia Ice Cream No Longer Tastes like Milk, But like Soy, Like the Mincemeat’”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, March 19, 2022 — Employees at Havana’s popular Coppelia ice cream parlor reported seeing fewer customers just days before a price increase is scheduled to effect on Tuesday. Although it is common to see dozens of people waiting outside early in the morning to avoid the customary long lines, on … Continue reading “Few Customers at Havana’s Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor After Prices Go Up”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 3 October 2021 — A week ago the Coppelia ice cream parlor in Havana resumed table service but only for customers with a telephone reservation. The new access mechanism to the ’Cathedral of Ice Cream’ has not prevented the long lines or frustrating waits that have been an inseparable part of the … Continue reading “Havana’s Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor Opens a ‘Line for Failures’”
14ymedio, Havana, 4 January 2020 — After hundreds of criticisms in Cuba’s streets and on social networks about the high prices in the popular Coppelia ice cream parlor, which were raised at the beginning of the year, the Government of Havana announced on Monday that the new prices would be lowered, without specifying the details … Continue reading “Cuban Authorities Backtrack on Price Increases for Coppelia Ice Cream”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, May 28, 2019 — Hugo is nine years old and has never seen a pistachio. But the word sounds so funny that he asks for an ice cream with that flavor in a privately owned spot on the corner of Línea and L streets in Havana. The menu at this small … Continue reading “Cuba’s Iconic Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor Loses Flavor”
Ricardo Fernández, Camagüey, 29 January 2018 — The ice cream parlor Copellia in the city of Camagüey has become an empty passageway between two main streets. Only the occasional passerby wanders into the empty building to access the Italian restaurant and three small shops on the floors above. At midday the employees take advantage of the calm hour … Continue reading “Two Months Without Coppelia Ice Cream in Camaguey”
14ymedio, Havana, 10 November 2016 – The Havana corner of 23rd and L in Vedado displayed an unusual panorama on Thursday. Along with the passersby were mixed characters dressed in period clothing with a patina of mud. The street art group D’ Morón Teatro came from Ciego de Avila to celebrate five decades of the ice cream … Continue reading “Coppelia Ice Cream Celebrates Half a Century / 14ymedio”
Coppelia, the most famous ice-cream parlor in Havana and in Cuba, turned 45 on June 4. Located on the corner of Calle 23 at L on the central avenue La Rampa, its architecture is one of the most beautiful and best-designed since the olive-green revolution led by Fidel Castro. The design, by Mario Girona (1924-2008), … Continue reading “Coppelia Ice Cream Turns 45… Without Strawberry or Chocolate / Iván García”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 November 2023 — The emblematic Coppelia ice cream parlor, located on L and 23, in the heart of Havana’s El Vedado, is closed on all four sides this Thursday, with the lights off and the tables cleared. Again, as was the case earlier this year, there is no ice … Continue reading “Cuba’s Iconic Ice Cream Parlor Coppelia Closes Because ‘There is No Ice Cream, No Milk, No Sugar’”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 30 May 2023 — Even during the worst of the Special Period, people lined up outside its entrances in double rows, waiting to get in. But the days when Coppelia could call itself the “cathedral of ice cream” are long gone. Though it has not had to close like it … Continue reading “Low-Quality Ice Cream Forces Coppelia to Offer Soft Drink and Cookie Combos”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 11 August 2020 — Although Havana has just resumed the most drastic measures to stop the pandemic after the increase in cases of Covid-19 on the island, the Coppelia ice cream parlor has not completely closed its doors. In the middle of August, one of the hottest months of the year, … Continue reading “Ice Cream Flavors are Convoyed* in a ‘Militarized’ Coppelia”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, 24 June 2019 — Many Havanans had planned to get some relief from the intense heat of this first weekend of summer by buying a tasty ice cream in the renovated Coppelia ice cream parlor, whose public reopening was scheduled for Sunday after an official opening the evening before, but it never … Continue reading “Coppelia is Ready to Open, All That’s Missing is the Ice Cream”
Juan Juan Almeida, 7 July 2016 — Yanetsi Azhares is a young Cuban woman who leaves nothing to chance. Only twenty-eight-years old, she knows what she wants. Her mother was a pastry chef who lived close to the Alondra ice cream parlor and whole life was spent saving up enough money to buy a little sweets shop. … Continue reading “Ice Cream Parlors in Cuba or How Gelato Killed Coppelia / Juan Juan Almeida”
When it first opened, it offered twenty-six flavors. Now Cuba’s most famous ice cream parlor leaves only a bad taste in customers’ mouths. Cubanet, Manuel Diaz Mons, Havana, 17 December 2015 — Nestled into the corner of 23rd and L streets — the busiest corner in Cuba — and known to many Cubans for its reasonable … Continue reading “Coppelia, the Cathedral of Ice Cream, Is Melting / Somos+, Manuel Diaz Mons”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, May 7, 2024 — All bubblegum pink and turquoise, the brand new Helados Cid (Cid Ice Cream) location, which opened Friday at 23rd and H streets in Havana’s Vedado district, is a magnet. The place had been under construction for half a year and expectations were at their peak on … Continue reading “The Successful Privately Owned Ice Cream Brand, Helado’s Cid, Opens a Location in the Heart of Havana”
