Coffee Culture in Portugal

Europe does not produce coffee beans, but drinks coffee into a strong cultural flavor.

It is Americans who are lack of humanism, but have succeeded in exporting coffee culture to the whole world. It has even knocked on the market door of tea-drinking countries and borrowed the coffee basis of the Italians to sell popular coffee culture. It was a success. It's just that it's not really coffee that is sold.

The Europeans must not be convinced.

Coffee is concentrated.

C saw the large cup of coffee in the hands of the Americans and joked that they were holding a bowl of soup. C is from Portugal. For him, there is only one kind of coffee. That's espresso.

However, open the European coffee territory, but there is no sign of Portugal. Starbucks brought Italian coffee, French cafes are famous all over the world, Switzerland has Nestle coffee, and now it has a Nespresso.

The Portuguese are drinking their own standard coffee. No ambition, no much thought.

Espresso. No milk. There is no latte, no cappuccino, but there is another way to drink. You must make a special statement to the waiter when ordering coffee. Otherwise, you call for a cup of coffee and bring a small cup of espresso. The teaspoon is also very small. Just need to be in essence.

Meeting place

Just like our coffee shop, there is a coffee shop in even a remote village in Portugal. Because cafes are part of their lives. The connection between the Chinese is inseparable from eating, while the Portuguese go to drink coffee. To catch up or chat with friends, make an appointment in a cafe. Drinking coffee naturally means not only drinking coffee, but also enjoying snacks, but also a social way and a manifestation of culture. This kind of coffee drinking culture naturally drinks out of the old cafes.

Many of the works of Fernando Pessoa, Portugal's most famous poet, are soaked in the aroma of coffee. Inevitably, this makes his frequented coffee shop Caf é A Brasileira popular because of factors other than coffee. Unwittingly, Caf é A Brasileira has stood for more than 120 years.

Antique cafes can be found in the capital Lisbon. In addition to Caf é A Brasileira, there is also Cafe Versailles, which makes you feel like going back in time when you push the door. There is no need for artificial antique decoration. Even the clothes of the waiters make people think that they are in the wrong era.

Portugal has a long history and naturally has no shortage of ancient capitals, so it is not difficult to find old cafes. After a hundred years of baptism, the old cafe can still be allowed to be so old in such a society. It is not seen as a stumbling block to development. This is very touching.

In addition to time-honored brands, the so-called cafes in Portugal are actually similar to our coffee shops. There is no special decoration. A few plastic tables and chairs can make a coffee seat. It can be divided into indoor or outdoor seats. Unlike France, the price of coffee here is uniform both indoors and outdoors.

Coffee here is not limited to breakfast or snack time. Even after dinner and dessert, there will be a cup of coffee in the end. Even decaffeinated coffee is fine.

Ordinary coffee

If you are tired from walking on your legs, you will find coffee to appease you. When I was traveling in Portugal, this made me feel at ease. I'm not afraid of not finding a coffee shop. I'm not afraid of not finding decent coffee.

Have you ever had such experience? If you want to drink coffee, in the absence of Nanyang kopi, look for places all over the street that have been occupied by Western-style cafes or chain cafes. No, no. To. Coffee. Coffee. I mean decent coffee.

When living in France, R once said that even McDonald's coffee is delicious in France. That's what it means. Delicious coffee should not need a label from a boutique cafe or be responsible for by a chain cafe. A coffee shop in any small town in Portugal can serve decent coffee.

That's the kind of coffee I need.

Coffee dictionary

The coffee map of Europe is not small. The name and method of coffee also vary from region to region.

The "affectionate" degree of Portuguese coffee can vary according to the amount of water and milk. Espresso can be subdivided into concentrated and double concentrated. The same amount of water and twice as much coffee. The concentration of coffee can be imagined. People who like to measure can have a large cup of coffee, one espresso and two points of water.

As for coffee with milk, it is subdivided into more choices.

Some people do not like to let milk "dominate the host", so they add a few drops of milk to their espresso and become pingado.

If you have more milk, it becomes garoto.

Some people "treat equally" and like milk and coffee as much as they like, so they have one espresso and one milk, and the one they carry in a larger coffee cup is meia de leite.

Milk "dominate the host", slightly more than espresso, evolved into gal ã o, which is no longer strictly coffee.

The cappuccino we are familiar with is not in the Portuguese coffee dictionary.

Simplicity and Portuguese style

I used to be infatuated with American-style coffee shops. What kind of smoothie coffee, mocha coffee, plus a block of whipped cream with a variety of flavors. Just to fill your vanity. At that time, what I wanted to drink was actually a kind of fashion.

However, what is coffee can not be hidden from the taste buds after all. The need for taste buds can indeed give way to the pursuit of vanity. However, at a certain stage, people just want pure things.

There is no choice of plain Portuguese coffee, let alone smoothies. Even if it is 40C in summer, coffee can only be reserved for hot drinks. It's that simple.

Fortunately, at the right time, I came across plain Portuguese coffee. You no longer have to look for sporadic coffee flavors in a mixture of water and syrup.