Coffee cultures clash in Miami's cafes

By ANDREA ELLIOTT

To the east: soft jazz and an eggnog latte. To the west: loud salsa and a cortadito. Only Meridian Avenue sits between Starbucks and David's Cafe II in South Beach, but the two-lane street marks the gulf between Miami's clashing coffee cultures - a chatty, inexpensive, sidewalk communion and a more pricey, syrupy, serene scene.

The Cuban-rooted experience and the mainstream American one - a coffee competition seen almost nowhere else in the United States due to Miami's high concentration of Latin Americans and a coffee consuming tradition that predates the U.S. coffee craze by five decades.

"This is our roots," said taxi driver Raul Gomez, 43, as he cradled his colada, a tar-brown shot of pure espresso. "Starbucks - that's water."

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