A nice and lovingly made cup of coffee is a perfect way to lift anyone’s spirits, specially when someone else paid for it out of the kindness of their heart. Such is the underlying philosophy of cafe pendiente, a philanthropic practice that essentially consists of treating someone to a cup of coffee without even looking at the beneficiary.

Cafe pendiente is a trend that recently started to make its way to certain sodas and coffeehouses in Costa Rica. Journalist Diego Arguedas of La Nacion described the scene at a soda in San Jose:

Three penniless high school students wearing the iconic gray-on-black uniform of the Liceo de Costa Rica asked for a free glass of water at a soda in the downtown district. One student asked for coffee and he was told, “Sure! We have some cafes pendientes, I can make you one.”

Cafe Pendiente: How It Works

The cafe pendiente mechanism is simple: Let’s say a coffee drinker is feeling philanthropic and walks into a soda such as the trendy Viva Cafe in La California or Cafe.Te.Ria in Barrio Amon; he or she can order a cup and pay for two -the additional cup would go as a credit towards the cafe pendiente ledger. Needy coffee drinkers, usually the homeless or those working for marginal income such as the wachimanes who coordinate curbside parking, can enjoy a free cup that is subtracted from the ledger.

Cafe pendiente comes to Costa Rica by way of Argentina and Chile, although the practice originated in Italy -specifically in the working-class neighborhoods of Naples. The idea is similar to that of the Pay It Forward movement; coffee drinkers who feel they have received a sign of luck in their life would celebrate with a cup and paying for several more for others to enjoy without reaching into their wallets of purses. This practice is called caffe sospeso in Italian, and it is supposed to have originated at some point during the 20^th century as a form of working-class philanthropy.

The city of Rio Cuarto in Argentina actually approved a municipal ordinance supporting the cafe pendiente practice. The use of social media and mobile apps bolster the practice in other Latin American communities. In Costa Rica, the practice was first adapted and implemented during a meeting of the Club de los Libros Perdidos (The Lost Book Club), which is based on Book Crossing. Other organizations behind cafe pendiente include members of the 89Decibeles online community, IndignadosCR (the Costa Rica chapter of the Occupy Movement with some affiliation with Anonymous), and bike-friendly Chepecletas.

The next locales that will join the cafe pendiente movement are EcoMercado in San Pedro, Cafe del Barista in Barrio Aranjuez and Kassa Cafe in Coronado. In the future, all participating sodas and coffeehouses will be identified by an in-store logo and will be listed online.