Xaviera gets beaned

Xaviera Hollander, aka the Happy Hooker, toured the nearby coffee farm known as Finca de los Nietos(grandchildren) yesterday. Fresh from a rousing nights performance the evening before at the Café Rainbow in Antigua, she was treated to the sights of a boutique coffee plantation.

Set on an acre of what used to be a municipal dumping ground, the site is almost overgrown in plants and flowers of every variety: papaya trees stand next to bougainvilleas, the latest coffee harvest is drying in the sun and the roaster is spinning out superb batches of Arabica..given the altitude of 4500 feet, the other variety known as Robusto isn’t quite at home here. Raul Freyre, a transplanted Cuban born in Holguin, his wife Christina, their daughter Grace and a small detachment of workers deftly handle the encroaching jungle of an amazing variety of ornamental shrubbery, the coffee trees and the tourists who find this Garden of Eden in the midst of San Lorenzo El Cubo, a small village four miles southwest of Antigua.

The green and massive bulk of the volcano known as Agua rises to the south, silhouetted by the fountain in the front lawn. The coffee? Superb hand-crafted small batches of different roasts: Raul’s favorite
(and mine) is the Grano Cubano, an espresso that’s as close to Cuba’s national pride, Cubita, as one can get. There are a few pounds of Cubita in my refrigerator. We’re scheduling a taste-off, if that’s a word. Xaviera? She was the center of attention, as usual..film at eleven.