CubaPLUS Magazine

Trinidad de Cuba is preparing for a new celebration, ¨The Festival” Canchánchara: culture and tradition”, which is already turning the corner to be celebrated for the first time in that land from December 8 to 10, with the presentation of various artistic manifestations in the making of values from the locality and from other parts of the country, all of recognized prestige.

The city whose historic center and famous Valley of the Mills has been declared a World Heritage Site and Creative City, in different times, by Unesco. It will display a very brilliant invitation to reevaluate a refreshing drink, perhaps considered the first cocktail invented on Cuban soil. They say that although it is a tradition deeply rooted in the Creole lands of the Villa de la Santísima Trinidad, founded in January 1514, it is possible, however, that this drink was drunk for the first time in the manigua or fields of the East, where the troops of the Cuban independence army in the 19th century rose up against the Spanish colonialism.

Since those times on the Island, when fighters were called mambises, brave combattants of those troops, mitigated the cold and the effects of humidity in the strong early mornings of the bush forests, they mixed the brandy with the delicious honeybee, that sometimes they added lemon or orange juice, or also its leaves, when the juice was missing. Due to its toning properties, it helped them alleviate hunger and stress, tiredness from the fierce machete charges in which they participated as combat mode.

Returning to the joyful and invigorating Canchánchara Festival that according to the local press, Issac Delgado, Haila María Mompié, Waldo Mendoza, Maykel Blanco, Mauricio Figueiral and Will Campa, all very popular in Cuba and well known in Latin America. It will be a celebration to highlight the aforementioned Creole cocktail and some of the most genuine musical traditions of Trinidad and the entire province of Sancti Spíritus to which the city belongs.

These are the peasant tunes, traditional trova and starlight serenades under the moon.  Of course, the rich gastronomy of the region will be well represented, and the samples of the powerful artisan movement of this city also classify among the nation's heritage centers for its well-preserved historic urban fabric dating back to its splendor acquired in the colony, especially in the 19th century. Nothing better for a traveler passing through will be to reach an establishment which is quite a symbol: La Canchánchara, where excellent cocktails and family pottery are enjoyed. That little corner will be celebrating its 40th birthday.

Their bartenders will invite you to taste the largest canchánchara in the world, which will contain about 250 liters of Havana Club rum, honey and lemon, to which they are inviting residents from the city. Locals say the ineffable canchánchara is best drunk in a kind of clay cup without handles, that they call jícara, which Initially had a plant origin. Things from most traditions accentuated features of our simpler communities. But surely the mix of Havana Club, with honey, lemon and ice, to today's taste, is equally divine in any container. It is the drink of Gods, I assure you.