» Coppelia: La Catedral del Helado CUBAN TRANSITIONS

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Coppelia: La Catedral del Helado

May 4, 2012 by admin

I am a very serious fan of ice cream. My father worked for Häagen Dazs for the first twelve years of my life and, needless to say, ice cream was always abundant in my house. I’ve eaten more of it than is healthy. No matter where I am, I will find ice cream and so, after hearing about the famous Heladería Coppelia in Havana, I immediately put it on my list of places that I absolutely must visit in Cuba.

Much to my pleasure I managed to make the 40 minute trek from Hotel Plaza to Coppelia twice during the trip. Coppelia is a chain across Cuba but the original store is located on La Rampa, or calle 23 (cross-street L) in the Vedado district of Havana. It opened on June 6, 1966 under the order of Fidel Castro, who is apparently also an avid ice cream eater (something we can bond over if/when we meet). It is named after a famous ballet often performed by the Cuban National Ballet- actually it is the ballet some of us saw performed early in our trip. The ballet theme is also reflected in the ice cream parlor’s logo, featuring ballerina’s legs.

When it originally opened, Coppelia proudly offered 26 flavors and 24 combinations. Customers could even purchase an Ensalada de Helados or “ice cream salad,” a bowl with five of your favorite ice cream flavors. Such a dish would be utterly impossible today, as only two or three flavors are served each day. This is due laregly to the economic difficulties during the Special Period during which access to milk was extremely limited, causing the quality and variety of the ice cream to decrease. Still, people would buy tubs of Coppelia ice cream and sell it on the streets as something of an underground, black-market ice cream business.

Though there weren’t many flavors the two times I went, the ice cream I got was delicious. Both times I paid about 4 CUC for a two scoop sundae covererd in graham cracker crumbs, syrup, and cookies. It was quite delicious and certainly passed my test as an amateur ice cream connoiseur. That is to say the sundae as a whole was delicious; the ice cream itself was pretty good but nothing I would brag about. Still, I really enjoyed both of my experiences at Coppelia.

There were some aspects of the Coppelia experience that I feel like I missed, though. I didn’t notice either time I was there that there are designated lines for people paying in CUC’s and those paying in moneda nacional. This was probably because there were no lines when I was there, another trademark of Coppelia that I missed out on. Apparently on crowded days half the fun is watching people on the line and enjoying the crowds. I also was unable to try the famous combination of fresa y chocolate (strawberry and chocolate), made famous from the movie Fresa y Chocolate in which the main characters meet at the Havana Coppelia. I’ve never seen the movie but there were posters for it and for the fresa y chocolate combination inside the shop.

Coppelia seems to me to be one of the only ice cream shops in Cuba. It was the only one that I saw, anyway, and I was certainly always on the lookout for ice cream. I saw and bought ice cream on the street, Nestlé pints and bars from tourist stores, and even a cone from the side of a building in Cienfuegos. The ice cream I got at Coppelia, however, was certainly the best and the novelty of its popularity among Cubans and tourists alike probably contributed to that. I’m now happy to find out that there is a location in Miami and another due to be open in Venezuela after a deal was made between Castro and Hugo Chavez ealier this year. It is good to know that I won’t have to illegally sneak back into Cuba if I want another taste of Coppelia ice cream.