Not sure if you’ve heard about it, but there’s a Bad Bunny concert on Sunday.
Well, technically it’s the Super Bowl. The Puerto Rican artist fresh off a Grammy win for album of the year, is set to perform during the game’s halftime. If you checked out after the Packers' elimination, the New England Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks. Kickoff is at 5:30 p.m.
In Milwaukee, Puerto Rican businesses are getting ready to observe what's been dubbed the "Benito Bowl," which borrows its title from Bad Bunny's government name, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio.
Shops and food trucks around the city are featuring Super Bowl spreads with arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), mofongo (fried and mashed plantains) and many, many empanadillas (smaller, Caribbean versions of Argentine empanadas). The Rave is hosting "La Casita Del Rave," a Bad Bunny-themed party featuring his music on Saturday night.
At Aroma Café, a Puerto Rican coffee shop on National Avenue, Luzann Torres is serving up her latest creation: Bad Bunny-inspired lattes.
Between pulling espresso shots and greeting customers by name, she shared the recipe: Coconut, almond and vanilla flavoring, mixed with a double shot of espresso and poured into a cup with coconut cream and frothed coconut milk. A sprinkle of cinnamon, a tower of whipped cream and a little Puerto Rican flag on a toothpick top this thing off.
Bad Bunny latte pulls from classic Puerto Rican flavors
The drink pulls inspiration from coquito, a creamy, Puerto Rican coconut cocktail. Torres adds a splash of almond as a callback to her favorite type of pitorro, the distilled spirit used to create coquito.
“For me, the almond flavor on a pitorro, it’s a very traditional way to have it," Torres says. "So since we cannot put the rum into the coffee here, we decided to add the flavor of the almond."
A true coquito latte would wake you up and put you back to sleep all in one.
Pitorro plays a big role in Puerto Rican culture and Bad Bunny's newest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which translates to "I should have taken more photos."
His first single released from the album was named Pitorro de Coco. It's a melodramatic tune in which Bad Bunny says he ends up alone at the holidays, "llorando y bebiendo Pitorro de Coco."
That's crying, and drinking Pitorro de Coco.
Dramatics aside, the coconut flavor looms large in the Bad Bunny latte.
"That’s something that Puerto Ricans are known for. Coconut is in our lives in many ways," Aroma Café owner Torres says. "Trying a pitorro, it will be a warm hug from home.”
Torres and her family moved from Aibonito, Puerto Rico to the continental U.S. following Hurricane Maria in 2017 — a storm that wiped out the island’s infrastructure and later, exposed corruption in Puerto Rico’s governance.
Even here, it’s been a tough time. Immigration raids and rising costs of living are making life scarier for many Hispanic folks in the U.S. It’s not something Torres takes lightly.
“For me to be a Puerto Rican and having the benefit of being a U.S. citizen, I don’t take it for granted. Hopefully one day we can be independent. But I am really proud to be Puerto Rican.”
Where to get a Bad Bunny latte in Milwaukee
Torres and her shop, Aroma Café, will be serving up Bad Bunny lattes at least through the end of February. Her shop is located at 8100 W National Ave. in West Allis.
The drinks have been bringing new faces into her store — people who have seen the lattes on social media.
On a recent afternoon, a regular customer asked Torres how business had been.
She smiled and nodded her head, which indicated things were going well.
Then, she added, “Gracias, Bad Bunny.”
When she's not hunting down caffeine and guava pastelillos, Katherine Kokal is the education reporter at 89.7 WUWM - Milwaukee's NPR. Have a question about schools or an education story idea? You can reach her at kokal@uwm.edu
