There are many different theories about Fidel Castro’s love for food but all of them have one thing in common, ice cream. To say the Cuban revolutionary loved ice creams is an understatement. Born and raised in the countryside, he was so passionate about dairy, especially ice cream, that he took it upon himself to start one of the largest ice cream factories in the world, state-owned of course.
Story goes that back in the 1960s, Castro ordered his ambassador to Canada to ship across 28 containers of ice cream from Howard Johnson’s, a popular American chain of hotels, motels, and restaurants. He tasted each and every flavor made by Howard Johnson’s and then decided to build an ice cream factory so large that it would rival those in the USA. Soon a factory was set up near Havana’s airport under the guidance of Castro’s private secretary and confidante, Cecilia Sanchez. She named it after her favorite ballet, Coppelia. The factory even imported state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment all the way from Holland and Sweden.
Coppelia’s funky futuristic interiors © Bit Boy / Flickr
In 1966, its flagship store, designed in a futuristic style by Mario Girona, was opened in the swanky Vedado neighborhood in Havana. It dished out 26 flavors of ice creams, some of them rather outlandish like Indian canoe and Lolita cup. The Cuban people loved it and hailed it as the ‘Ice Cream Cathedral’. Today, there are several branches of Coppelia across Cuba but the one in Havana remains the most popular with over 400 employees serving more than 16,000 liters of ice cream to 35,000 customers each day!
Long queues outside Coppelia
Coppelia’s massive two-storey flagship store in Havana is spread across two square blocks and has five different entrance lines! Long queues aren’t a rare sight, obviously. By 10am the entire pavement is filled with eager customers and remains so till 9.30pm every day. To entertain the waiting customers, there are hawkers and street performers. Despite the long hours of waiting just to get a scoop of ice cream, for Cubans, eating an ice cream here is a ritual and a luxury. Then of course, there are those who complain that Coppelia is no longer the same. Today, less than half a dozen of the original 26 flavors are available and the quality seems to have gone down according some critics. But the lines outside the store tell another story.
Happy customers enjoying ice cream at Coppelia © Bit Boy / Flickr
While Cubans love to proudly boast that Coppelia is the ‘World’s best ice cream’, this claim is best taken with a pinch of salt. After all most Cubans have never left the country and for them Coppelia is the only ice cream in the world. So, it’s best if you dig in and decide for yourself if it truly is the world’s best!
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Tags: Cuba
