They warn about a scam with adulterated coffee purchased at a MSME in Sancti Spíritus

A pro-government journalist warned about a scam she suffered when buy a package of adulterated coffee in a MSME located at the Sancti Spíritus interprovincial bus terminal.

Delia Proenza reported in the weekly Escambray what happened to him in February when he acquired a 250 gram package of supposedly Gourmet coffee, which according to its packaging was produced in Spain and had a grade 5 intensity. It cost him 1,200 pesos.

"Beautiful in the photo, it looked too similar to that strange mix of Hola that is sold, not so regularly, by the so-called basic basket," he noted.

Although the product seemed undamaged (the box was tightly sealed, the silver cartridge was vacuum sealed and difficult to open), Delia He began to suspect its authenticity as soon as he saw the dust.

"It wasn't a coffee to exclaim with satisfaction. It didn't smell or taste like what it was supposed to be.. It was not, in short, a good coffee, perhaps a Hello 'baptized' with someone else"he described.

"The 1,200 peso coffee that I had bought as if it were the one sold in MLC stores for a price of almost 4 dollars, turned out to be a scam for me," he stressed.

Delia concluded that there would be no point in complaining about possible adulteration after almost a month, but she wanted to check if the coffee was still for sale and when she went to the terminal, The MSME premises were empty.

"If someone wants to avoid such a disappointment, to save themselves from that uncomfortable feeling of having thrown away a not inconsiderable amount of money, think carefully before paying, at a dubious point of sale, for a presumably Gourmet coffee, apparently extra strong" , he warned.

In recent years, the population has complained about the quality of coffee, both standardized and that sold in foreign currency stores. The one from the winery has always been mixed with peas, but now many users say they don't know what it has.

In February 2022, several people showed on social networks what can be found when sifting the product with a sieve.

A woman did so and checked what the package contained: pieces of a product that she could not identify and white particles that looked like paint. "We are miraculously alive," he stressed.

In August 2021, a Cuban doctor reported having purchased a package of coffee beans in the MLC store at the Cohíba hotel where he found small spikes and papers.

The dangerous discovery was made in a 500-gram container of the nationally produced Guantanamera brand, for which he paid $7.

"Total outrage! Package of coffee beans bought just a few hours ago in the Cohíba hotel store and when it was time to grind at home, nails and paper inside! Who is responsible for it?" Enmanuel Vigil complained on Facebook.

"The complaint goes everywhere, it came from thieves who not even in MLC respect the people!" he added.

In the midst of the food shortage that exists in Cuba, unscrupulous citizens do not hesitate to adulterate deficient products to obtain profits.

In March of last year, a resident of Cárdenas reported that she was scammed when buying oil at the popular black market fair "La Cuevita", in the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, where instead of oil they gave him water with vinegar.

"To the people who travel to Havana to La Cuevita in the Cárdenas trucks, do not go and buy oil, they have just scammed me, the sealed knob is muddy on the outside and it is vinegary water," Ileana Peña warned on Facebook.

In the comments to the post, where some people questioned her for not reviewing the product, the woman explained that the container was completely sealed and there was no way to suspect adulteration of the oil.