Juan Valdez is the fictional guy wearing a poncho and with a coffee bag slung over his shoulder who has represented the Colombian Coffee Federation for something like 50 years. But the Juan Valdez I am talking about here is the chain of coffee shops that are springing up all over the city.
These are the Colombian version of Starbucks, of course, but better. The desserts are better, the architecture is always ultra-contemporary, and the coffee is just the best. And you can get a reasonably sized cup of coffee, or cappucino, or whatever for the equivalent of about $.80. (This is just one of many things that are served in reasonable portions in Colombia for reasonable prices, rather than in super-sized versions like we are used to in the US).
I knew of a couple Juan Valdez shops in the city, and they are always fun places to hang out or to meet up with people. The closest to me was on CR. 9 with Cl. 73. But now one has opened up just half a block from me on Cl. 70 between 5 and 7. It’s not much size-wise, since they just have an large outdoor brick patio and a tiny shop with no room for tables, but at least it’s Juan Valdez in walking distance.
Supposedly there was a plan to have quite a few Juan Valdez coffee shops in the US, something like 20 of them by 2005, and grow from there. It didn’t happen, but I know for sure there are three of them (one in Washington, DC in the Organization of American States building downtown, one in New York, and one is some other city–I forget exactly where). Like lots of Colombian businesses, they apparently haven’t been able to get organized and get it together, but might be headed in that direction, since there’s been a little building boom of JV coffee shops in Bogota, it seems.
So, you can look up Juan Valdez, the coffee federation, or Juan Valdez, the coffee shop. If you are anywhere near one of the shops, definitely stop in.
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