Thanks to the generosity of a good fellow monger, I came into possession of 5 kilos of freshly roasted "Reserva Especial" dark coffee beans. Perfecto!
Now, I really like a good cup of coffee. In fact, I am a bit of a coffee snob and have missed the freshly ground coffee that I am used to in the northwest USA. And these are no ordinary beans, no. My amigo has a deal with a grower and these are hand selected beans, roasted to his specifications. Great! Don't get me wrong, I like pre-ground Britt but it is just not the same as freshly ground, hand picked and roasted beans!
Fortunately, I just ran out of my last bag of Britt, so I rinsed the old coffee jar in the sink and put it away. No more ground coffee getting stale in the mason jar for me! Now all I need is a coffee grinder and I am in business. No sweat, right?
(2:00pm, raining lightly) I ask my favorita where I might find a coffee grinder. She suggested Hypermas so I called a cab and off I went to Guadalupe. Arrived at a modern "Walmart/Target" type store and quickly found at least 30 different coffee makers, all manner of blenders and even a few juicers and a wine decanter/server but no coffee grinders. Hmmmm...she also mentioned Pollo, another department store so I flagged down another cab and launched for Pollo.
(3:15pm, raining steadily) Arrived at Pollo and learned that what I was looking for is a "caffe molindor"...and they didn't have one. Coffee makers, Osterizers, juicers, but no coffee grinders (they do grow the shit here, don't they???). They recommended a store called "Play" in Zapato. TAXI!!!
(4:20pm, pouring rain) "Play" is a modern department store with everything you could possibly want as far as high-end tech gadgets go. They had barbecues and big screen TVs, refrigerators and hot tubs, but no coffee grinders, although the nice sales lady tried to convince me that the $100 food processor would grind coffee. Yeah, and you can use a Ferrari for a golf cart but it is not the best tool for the job. She said she thought "PriceSmart" would have one. Yeah, right.
(5:05pm mini-monsoon) PriceSmart is similar to Costco, in fact, they carry Costco brand merchandise. Of course, they had every kind of coffee maker from a French press to an Italian espresso machine but no coffee grinder. The last straw was the line of locals at the Britt machine, waiting to get their beans ground. WTF!!!
Oh well. Grabbed a double bag of Britt ground coffee and headed for the check stand. Guess the old coffee jar will have to be pressed back into action. That should be the end of the story, but no. When I paid for my coffee, the register decided to eat my receipt. Now I had my coffee but, because I had no receipt, I couldn't leave with them. Finally a manager appeared and after another five minutes of verifying my purchase against the yellow store copy, I was issued a hand-written receipt and was allowed to depart with my booty.
I will pack my grinder on my next trip to the US since it is easier to fly there and retrieve mine than try to buy one here. Muy Tico!!!!
Mercado Central 