With the legal return of small-time businesses to the economy in the 1990s, freshly roasted peanuts became a standard staple of snack vendors on Cuba’s urban streets. Although many foreigners failed to divine what they are, historians (and often older visitors returning to the island from exile) easily identified these paper rolls as the artisanal way that vendors had packaged peanuts for individual sale in Cuba since the early twentieth century. One key difference, though, was the packaging: in the chronic absence of any alternative material, Cuba’s contemporary peanut vendors tend to rely on bright white office paper. It was used by state enterprises, pilfered by workers, and sold on the black market. Peanuts packed this way taste great and prove easy to eat without dirtying your hands—at any time of day: my son always seemed to crave a pack right before bed! Havana, June 2016.
