Sancti Spíritus/Like the fisherman facing a turbulent river, Suanny survives with what scares others. His specialty is repairing Italian-style coffee makers, whether electric or stovetop, that explode or clog. “These days I can’t stop receiving customers because the coffee that arrived at the warehouse is a danger,” he tells 14ymedio this 32-year-old from Sancti Spiritus. “I clean, change filters, replace the top and even have new cables and bases.”
With a repair station located in the Kilo 12 neighborhood, Suanny began maintaining rice cookers and pressure cookers, then ventured into rechargeable lamps that alleviate the darkness of the blackout, and finally concentrated on coffee makers. “I always have work because, for better or worse, a buchito sneaks into every house in this city every day.” Some clients arrive with models that are “more than 50 years old,” acknowledges the man, skilled at detecting when there is a remedy or when it is necessary to recommend getting rid of the device.
“I put new handles, the lid knob, change the rubber gaskets and even polish the exterior if the owner wants it”
“I put new handles, the lid knob, change the rubber gaskets and even polish the exterior if the owner wants it,” he details. “Many people come here who put the coffee pot on firewood or charcoal and the heat melted the handle and stained it everywhere.” But in recent years electronic formats have become popular. “They are very convenient, you don’t have to worry about whether it’s brewed or not because when they finish, they automatically turn off, keep the coffee hot and are safer,” he considers.
The acid test, however, remains the coffee which is sold through the rationed market. “It hadn’t come for months and this January it finally returned in a white envelope that you can’t see what it contains,” he says and explains that the mixture has a more compact texture that swells and covers the filter of the coffee maker, “the explosions are the order of the day, it is rare that I do not receive one or two coffee machines with problems every day for this reason.
Just this Wednesday, the handyman served a distraught client. “I poured the coffee box“I didn’t even put much into it because they had already warned me that it was jamming the coffee maker,” says the woman. “My son told me to get out of the kitchen while he was brewing and in the living room we felt the explosion. The entire kitchen was splashed, a stain on the ceiling and the top of the coffee maker split in half,” he explains. The family model, electric and with a heat-resistant plastic top piece, could not withstand the devastating bomb in It became dark powder when it came into contact with boiling water.
“What am I going to do, I have to drink this because good coffee is 1,400 pesos a packet”
“What am I going to do, I have to drink this because good coffee is 1,400 pesos per package“, the woman justified while Suanny explained to her the risks of using the contents of those packages of rough make and unpredictable content. “Normally they mix it with peas but now it seems that they have increased the proportion of those grains and I have also seen pieces of wheat roasted inside,” added the technician. “My advice: to drink this you have to do it in a strainer or half, the kind our grandparents used, Italian coffee makers are not made for this compound that no one knows very well. well what it contains”.
With quick hands, Suanny changed the rubber gasket, replaced the top of the coffee maker with another one he had in his tiny workshop, replaced the cable damaged by the explosion and cleaned the base of the device that was covered in a sticky liquid that smelled like burnt peas. The final bill after the work, more than 3,000 Cuban pesos. In the troubled river of coffee, there are always those who can catch some dividends.
