Aroma Café brings a taste of Puerto Rico to Milwaukee through coffee

 

MILWAUKEE (TELEMUNDO WI) -- Coffee is one of the world's most popular beverages, and in some cultures, like in many Latino households, it forms part of a daily routine.

With a trailer and a mobile coffee station, the Torres from Aroma Café are helping to bring a taste of Puerto Rico to Milwaukee through coffee. Luzann says that having a cup of coffee is a universal experience. For many, like her, it starts at a young age: “I think that my experience with coffee started when I was so little with our grandmas, parents. It was something that was a cultural thing in every home that you get so used to and we worked so hard that we weaned something like a fuel to get us going.”

Much of the world's coffee is made in Latin America. In fact, about 80% of the world's arabica coffee comes from there, and it's thanks to the land's conditions. Torres explained that Latin America has the perfect temperature for coffee to grow a variety of coffee. Aroma Café gets its coffee from la Finca La Torre located in Barranquitas, a small town of Puerto Rico in the center of the island “with a very good temperature” according to Torres.

The way they make their coffee is unique too, says Torres. The coffee manufacturer has a style from the 1940’s where “it’s all done by hand, firewood, no gas, nothing electric. So it’s basically an old-fashioned roasting coffee.”

If you haven’t had Puerto rican coffee before, Torres describes it as “smooth” leaving no bitter aftertaste.

Torres' coffee shop started in Puerto Rico, but the Torres had to move in 2017 after the devastating effects of hurricane Maria. She described the aftermath as hard and a long process, “we had a lot of faith that everything was going to come out the way we wanted it. We took it one step at a time.”

Now, Torres brings that same coffee and taste from Puerto Rico to Southeast Wisconsin and to our latin community. She says it’s an incredible feeling to see her customers enjoy her product, and feel proud of her hispanic heritage. “It’s very exciting to see their reaction. It’s like, wow. It’s like you see in their minds that they’re having a whole backflash of times, visiting when they went and got their coffee back there and got it here in their home. It’s so nice, it’s amazing…. For me to be latina it’s – it’s that power. Like, I feel proud of myself for how long i have been and all the things i have achieved in a little amount.”

You can find Aroma Café at the South Shore Farmers Market from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday and Sunday at Greenfield Farmers Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. They’ll post on their Facebook and Instagram accounts whenever they’ll be at another community event.

This is just one of several Hispanic Heritage Month Stories CBS 58 and our sister station Telemundo Wisconsin will be running from September 15 to October 15. Be sure to tune in for more of our Hometown stories!