A Last Bit of Shopping

I thought that I had finished all my shopping for gifts to take to Ohio.  But after packing my suitcases I still had some room.

Last week the World Trade Center held a coffee and chocolate expo.  My friend Katie is passionate about coffee and chocolate.  (She rarely reads the blog, so I am safe to write this.)  So, on Saturday, the last day of the expo, Alejandro and I planned to check it out, and perhaps buy more gifts for Katie.

Many, if not most, of the expositions at the World Trade have free admission.  This one, however, was charging 270 pesos (more than 14 US dollars) to get in.  We agreed that paying almost 29 dollars for the two of us for the privilege of buying something inside was highway robbery.  We turned around.

Later in the afternoon, we were in the adjacent neighborhood of San Pedro de los Pinos, and went into this little shop that I have mentioned a number of times previously.

The entire building is beautifully painted, and the store carries an interesting variety of artisanal and organic products.  That day they were featuring products made from goat's milk.  They were giving tastes of "cajeta". a kind of Mexican caramel made from goat's milk.  It was very smooth, both in consistency and taste.  Even though it was not made in Celaya, the city that is the most famous producer of "cajeta", this was perhaps the best I have ever tasted.  Katie also is very fond of Nutella, and I figured that if she likes Nutella, she is going to love this.  They also had packages of Mexican table chocolate (what is used for making hot chocolate).  The chocolate beans are toasted and ground by hand by the women of the indigenous Amuzgo tribe in the state of Guerrero.  

So, I bought two jars of "cajeta" and a package of chocolate.  My shopping is now definitively done.

(As a side note, Alejandro told me the origin of the name "cajeta".  It comes from the word "caja", meaning "box".  The goat's milk caramel was originally sold in little wooden boxes... "cajitas"... and so the sweet confection came to be called "cajeta".