Around the world in 80 coffees
Most people drink a hot drink of some form in the morning. If you’re reading this, chances are it’s probably coffee. How do you drink yours? Have you ever thought about how other countries drink their morning beverage? Here’s a guide.
Most people probably associate coffee with Italy even though the bean is native to Africa. It’s Here that the espresso machine had its birth, and it’s here that a coffee lover can enter nearly any establishment, whether a slick Neapolitan bar or a small nameless café in the remote Abruggio, and expect no less than the brown-black best. Most of the coffees start with espresso and by adding milk; it opens the door to a world of frothy, creamy Italian coffee drinks.
This is where it all began. Ethiopia is the heart of coffee country, native homeland to the Coffea genus, and people here have been drinking coffee for more than 1000 years. Today, coffee-called buna-is still made and served in a traditional table-side ritual that transforms the beans from raw red cherries into a toasty, steaming drink, often all before the guest’s eyes. The process can last more than one hour, as the host toasts, grinds and boils the coffee before serving.
Spanish citizens need to look no further than the nearest church steeple for their cup of coffee. The cross indicates that a café dwells at ground level in the plaza. There, the old men are gathering as the silvery, steel machine hisses away. The establishment, almost always, is called “Café Bar” and by 6am is buzzing with caffeine and activity. Many take their coffee standing at the bar with a hand in their pocket. If you want milk, please don’t order a latte. Café con leche is what you want.
America has gained an irresponsible taste for the inky black juice of the espresso machine. But “Gas station coffee”, the type that one may spot in the roadside diner by the register, ominously tea-coloured and brewed hours before, is still a symbol of Americana. At the other end of the spectrum are the massive high-calorie coffee drinks innovated by Starbucks, containing varying mixes of espresso, caramel, whipped cream, chocolate, eggnog and other ingredients.
Turkey’s favourite drink is tea, called “chai”, yet coffee is available there. In Istanbul, espresso and the associated lattes and cappuccinos are commonplace, while in the countryside, Nescafe rules-usually poured from 3 in 1 packets of instant coffee, sugar and artificial dried milk. True Turkish coffee, served in espresso-like cups, can be surprisingly hard to find.
The favourite coffee drink in Greece is the frappe. Made using Nescafe, a frappe is a frothed-up blend of milk, sugar and Nescafe, served over ice. The drink can be had with or without sugar, but on a warm summer day in the islands, the ice is the essence of a frappe.
Ireland is where coffee first got really fun. The Irish coffee was invented in the 1940s and is now a cocktail served in bars worldwide. It contains hot coffee, whiskey, sugar and whipped cream, and, while traditionally an after-dinner drink, Irish coffee may be hard to argue with on a chilly morning.
Coffee drinking arrived in Vietnam with the French in the 1800s, and the local palates quickly shaped their own interpretation of the drink. Fresh milk in Vietnam was not as available as it is in the pasture lands of France, and so the café au lait took a sharp evolutionary turn. The Vietnamese poured their coffee over sweetened condensed milk-from a can-and served the drink over ice.
Unless you request otherwise, in Ecuador they may pre-sweeten the drink for you. If you ask for a café con leche, what you’ll get is a mug filled entirely with steaming hot milk, served beside a jar of instant coffee granules. If you ask your host whether they’re serving Nescafe, they might say no-but not because they’re making coffee in a French press but simply because they are serving some other brand of instant coffee, like Buendia or PresCafe. Even in a swanky countryside bed and breakfast fitted with a dazzling espresso machine, if you order a cappuccino, they might reach for the sweetened mocha packets in the cupboard. However, if you want pure and simple coffee, just order a café filtrado.
Clearly we all have different ways of drinking and ordering coffee. Obviously we didn’t cover 80 countries but you certainly get an idea of what your fellow man is drinking thousand of miles away.
