Interview: Desde Cuba To Atlanta, La Cena

La Cena was founded in Cuba in 1923 and grew to be one of the most important Cuban brands in the food industry in it’s early history. In 1960, La Cena moved to the United States for a fresh start. In 1963, the brand acquired a small 3,000 sq. ft loft in Brooklyn, NY. After three years, the volume of business made expansion necessary, and La Cena moved to a 12,000 sq. ft. store in the Bronx, NY in 1966.

Due to the continuous growth, in 1974 La Cena moved to Saddle Brook, New Jersey. Now the brand is expanding outside of New Jersey and has found a new home in Atlanta and has been growing their distribution of their brands.

Today, La Cena is a well-established, highly accepted and recognized brand, committed to quality, with an attractive product line catering to the many Hispanic groups. La Cena continues it’s expansion with new products and distributors across the United States offering brands like La Cena, D’Sabor, Texicano, Victorina, Riquesito, Bajamar, Casa Real, Palacio Real, Taquera de Casa, Veracruz, Cozumel and Tomacado.

Some Holiday Favorites

La Cena Dulcella Sweetened Condensed Milk

History/What is it: Stemming from as early as the 1850s, with references dating back to the writings of Marco Polo, people have been condensing milk, allowing them to store and use fresh milk well past its shelf life. Sweetened condensed milk takes this useful practice and adds sweet components in order to utilize the milk-based mixture in desserts across multiple continents and cultures.

Uses: Sweetened condensed milk is used in a multitude of Latin and Central American recipes, including: Horchata, Tres Leches, Flan, and Dulce de Leche.

What makes us unique: Our condensed milk is packed by the highest quality sweetened condensed milk factory in North America, and we sell it at half the price of leading brands. Our condensed milk comes with an easy open lid, which allows fast and efficient opening for retail consumers when making recipes at home or restaurants when needing portion controlled sweetened condensed milk for their menu items.

La Cena Hoja de Platano

History/What is it: Whether used as decoration, in religious ceremonies, or to wrap a tamale during the holiday season, banana leaves (or hoja de platano) have been utilized around the world, specifically in tropical or sub-tropical areas, for centuries. Due to their waterproof nature, and large surface area, banana leaves have even been used in homebuilding and as a writing canvas by various cultures, making them an extremely versatile natural resource. Even within the Latino community itself, where banana leaves are routinely used in cooking, they are the key ingredient in a wide-array of recipes, with as many variations as there are cultures.

Uses: Used in various recipes, the banana leaf is an irreplaceable tool when cooking Central American, Latin American, or Caribbean cuisine. Known as Guanimos in the Dominican Republic, Pasteles in Puerto Rico, and Tamales in Mexico, each corn meal, masa, or banana dough based food is unique in flavor, but they all have one major ingredient in common: the banana leaf. While containing the heat and steaming the dough/vegetable/meat ingredients wrapped within it during the cooking process, like a bay leaf in French or Italian cuisine, the banana leaf itself is not consumed once served. In the case of Mexican Nixtamalized Tamales, however, the tamale is cooked while wrapped in the banana leaf, giving this style of tamale that you know and love its distinctive, bitter flavor.

What makes us unique: Our frozen banana leaves are the top selling banana leaf for a reason. With a dark, deep green that highlights the freshness of the product, La Cena Banana Leaves are picked from the healthiest banana plants in Thailand. Unlike banana leaves picked from other areas around the world, our Thai banana leaves never lose their beautiful green coloring, adding an aesthetic level of quality that puts the La Cena Frozen Banana Leaves in a class all their own.

Fun Fact: For the Guatemalan, and some Central American consumers of tamales, the hoja de Mashan, or Mashan leaf, is used instead of banana leaves, and in most cases, due to its softer texture, is consumed along with the stuffing. For these consumers, we also provide our D’Sabor Hoja de Mashan product, cultivated and produced in Central America.

D’Sabor Ponche de Navidad

History/What is it: A warming combination of dried fruits, cinnamon, and piloncillo/panela, Ponche de Navidad, or Christmas Punch, has roots as far back as India. Originally borrowed by the English as “punch,” then the Spanish as “Ponche,” Indian pãc consisted of palm wine, sugar, lemon, tea, and water.

Uses: Steeped in tradition, Ponche de Navidad has become a Central American staple for the holiday seasoning. Consumed warm, usually with pieces of fruit and a cinnamon stick garnish, Christmas Punch is a drink that whisks away the cold and feels like home. While the ingredients change depending on the location (even in Mexico, where each region and state has their own strikingly different recipes), the key ingredients are usually the same, conjuring up the traditional flavors of Christmastime, such as cinnamon and brown sugar.

What makes us unique: Our D’sabor Ponche comes in two varieties: frozen or in a glass jar filled with delicious syrup and are packaged by the leading Central American supplier of high-quality, specialty fruits. D’Sabor Ponche provides all of the amazing elements of traditional Ponche, sugar cane, cinnamon sticks, guava, tejocote, etc. and brings them all together in a ready to make presentation that tastes like the holidays.

La Cena Panela

History/What is it: Panela is unrefined cane sugar (consisting of crystals and molasses) made from crushed then boiled and evaporated sugar cane that has a rich caramel flavor. Although Colombia in the largest producer of Panela in the world, it has a long, cross-cultural reach, from Central America to the Caribbean to Spain. With many nicknames such as Chancaca in Chile and Peru and Piloncillo in Mexico, several variations exist, but consist of aesthetic differences rather than fundamental changes in flavor. Other than subtle variances in design (panela comes round or in cut into pieces while Piloncillo is formed into a cone shape, for instance), the unique un-refined process is what makes the panela flavor so unique, making it impossible to replicate if done improperly.

Uses: In Latin America, panela is used as a 1:1 white or brown sugar substitute in anything from aguas frescas to cakes, and is delicious in winter recipes such as Mexican Hot Chocolate, Ponche de Navidad, and Café de Olla (black coffee sweetened with sugar, in this case sweet panela crystals, and cinnamon). In Colombia, the specialty sugar is used in a delicious concoction known as Agua de Panela, similar to limeade when served cold or a sweet and flavorful tea when solved warm.

What makes us unique: Our panela comes either round or cut into small squares, and is manufactured in Colombia in a world-renowned sugar processing factory. The process used to create our panela is authentic, and without any corner cutting, resulting in a flavor profile as unique as it is delicious.

Gaita and Gaitero Sidra

History/What is it: Originating from Asturias, Spain, and made from apples unique to Asturia, Sidra (or sparkling cider) is the ultimate companion for any celebration. With a similar flavor profile to Champagne, and an alcohol content hovering between 4% to 6%, Sidra has been enjoyed for Centuries, having once been called “Pomaria” by the Romans, and “Siseria” by the Arabs, becoming a world-famous staple of the region.

Uses: With a much lower alcohol content than champagne (which averages 12%), the primary use of Sidra is as a substitute for alcoholic beverages at times of celebration. Typically year round in Spain, Sidra’s sales around the world, especially in the US, see a dramatic increase during the months of November and December, when Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s celebrations stimulate a spike in consumption.

What makes us unique: Our Sidra Gaita is produced by the premier supplier and manufacturer of Asturian Sidra in the world. Much like champagne is only allowed the moniker when made from grapes cultivated from the Champagne region of France, Sidra is only Sidra if it comes from apples cultivated from the Austurias region of Spain, and our Gaita Sidra is not only authentic, it’s also the best there is.

Casa Real Turrones

History/What is it: With roots from southern Europe, possibly from Islamic Spain or Greece, turron is a sweet dessert usually in the form of a bar that’s made from honey, sugar, egg whites, and toasted almonds (as a note, the Cuban turron uses peanuts instead of almonds).

Uses: While consumed year round, traditionally turron is eaten as a sweet treat around the holiday season from Spain to Italy to Latin America. The Spanish variety is made up of two primary types of turron, Alicante turron and Jijona turron. The Alicante turron is of a harder consistency, with a delicious almonds packed between two wafer-like layers of egg whites, honey, and sugar. The Jijona turron is much softer, and maintains a creamy, peanut-buttery, paste-like consistency where the honey and almond flavors really shine through.

What makes us unique: Our Casa Real Turrones are produced in the premier ice cream and dessert factory in all of Spain, utilizing an ancient recipe passed down for generations. It doesn’t get more turron than our Casa Real Turrones.

Try these holiday favorites and start your own traditions.