Coffee Rituals Around the World
Drop me down in a coffeehouse somewhere in the world, and if I have ever visited that country the native rituals will tell me where I am before I’ve heard a single “sucre”, “glyko”, “milchcafe”, or “café negro.”
flickr photo by uteart via flickr (common license)In Europe and the Americas, coffee is the upstart, edging out the earlier communal drinks of hot chocolate and hot tea. I have learned from impeccable sources that coffee was first discovered by goats. That legend somehow makes me feel better about the fact that although I love coffee houses and their ritual, I really can’t stand coffee. With a few slight exceptions, I drink tea—or hot chocolate.
In Greece, my husband and I acquired a taste for Greek coffee, in defense against the alternative to American coffee. The waiter inevitably served a small shiny packet of powdery brown stuff, which would perhaps dissolve if the water in the cup were hot enough. From the prevalence of this powdery stuff throughout southern Europe, we figured that some Swiss Nescafé guy was one heck of a salesman.
To ease into drinking Greek coffee, served in a small cup that holds strong black liquid on top of a spoonful of black sludge, and makes you grateful it comes in a tiny cup, we took it sweet. This coffee, we decided, explains the hairy chests on Greek fishermen. It helps to drink it down after a glass (or between glasses) of ouzo, the licorice-flavored, clear firewater of Greece. While ouzo is getting you drunk, the strong coffee is sobering you up. I could keep that routine going for quite a while.
I had first discovered that trick in Switzerland, where I found I could indeed tolerate a cup of coffee livened with a lot of plumkirsche or orange or pear-flavored liquer, or best of all, cheri-suise. Yum!
In Greece, the real coffee houses occupy the central location in every village. Rarely does anybody sit inside. Instead, men of various ages, coffee cups on the table, lean back in their wooden chairs on the sidewalk and carefully watch every woman who walks by. Women do not sit in these tavernas, but look around and you’ll find a taverna in a scenic spot that welcomes both sexes. In a Greek taverna, a tiny cup of Greek coffee, a glass of wine or an ouzo buys you space at a table for hours. Not so in other Mediterranean countries.
Italy has developed a ritual best dubbed “gulp and run.” Of course they don’t mind selling you a cup of coffee, or a thimble of espresso—but DO NOT SIT to drink it. We saw an unwitting tourist buy a coffe at the bar and happily saunter over to a table by the canal in Venice. A waiter came flying out from behind the counter yelling and waving arms. You would have thought the tourist had left without paying. Well, in a sense, he had. He did not pay extra for the use of a chair.
The same rules apply in Spain. When our feet were tired after a long trek through Seville, we stopped at a small tapas bar for refueling. We noticed there was a big crowd standing around the bar, but nobody sitting at the tables inside or outside. How lucky, we thought. A place to sit and relax. We paid double for the privilege of taking our tapas to a table with a chair.
We were also surprised in Spain and Italy to see small children wandering in and out of these establishments that in America would be neighborhood bars. Plenty of people gulp a glass of wine at the counter instead of espresso. But the bar doubled and tripled as coffee shop and pastry shop and sometimes sold a bit of groceries as well.
In is way, they are similar to Ireland, where you can get a cuppa (more likely tea than coffee) in the pub. The whole family might congregate in the Irish version of a coffee house. As I chatted with the barkeep in a pub on the Dingle Peninsula, I noticed that the shelves behind him held an array of goods that a street kiosk might stock: small bags of potato chips, boxes of crackers, cans of Campbell soup, toothpaste and toothbrushes, packs of tissues. Coffee houses as opposed to pubs that sell coffee do exist in Ireland, but in the bigger towns. And you probably can’t get your toothpaste there.
Sweden takes it coffee seriously, and you may see coffee shops anywhere. We found one mixed in with the sleek aluminum and white leather and teak of Scandinavian furniture. Not just a counter in the showroom that served complementary coffee to buyers of sculptured chairs—a whole, complete coffee shop. It was certainly a better atmosphere than the Internet coffee shop a few streets over, whose black walls attracted a whole crowd of purple and green-haired goths in clothing matching the walls.
When we planned a trip to Austria and Hungary, I was very concerned about being an outcast, since coffee houses are a Big Deal in those countries. Surely they did not serve tea, I thought. Imagine my delight, when we first entered an 18th century coffee house with polished wood everywhere and racks of newspapers hanging in neat rows, available for anyone’s perusing. The menu included not just tea, but Earl Gray, Camomile, Mint and other choices.
Despite the nice choices of tea, when we dropped into the Mozart Coffee House in Salzburg, which sits next door to a restored apartment where Mozart’s family once lived, I had to drink coffee. It wasn’t so much the coffee that lured me, but the fact that the Mozart Melange, served in a delicate white china cup edged in gold, was half hot choclate, piled mit schlag (whipped cream) and accompanied by a chocolate truffle. It is easy to forgive the bitter flavor of coffee when it comes wrapped in all that chocolate. Another lovely tradition of the venerable coffee houses in the Austrian-Hungarian territory—they serve a glass of water along with the coffe or chocolate.
Of course the first challenge in a Austrian coffee shop is picking (or trying to avoid) a pastry. The glass pastry case is front and center. We waddled from coffee shop to coffee shop appreciating the historic ambiance, the background music, the cultivated conversation buzzing around us, and the whipped cream. In truth the cities of Vienna and Salzburg and Budapest gather their historic sites in a small enough area that you can walk and walk and walk, so we really did not gain weight, despite mit schlag.
I thought I had seen some pretty interesting coffee experiences.Then I talked on line to Nancy Sathre-Vogel, who blogs at http://familyonbikes.com . She says of her experience in Ethiopia, “The ceremony starts out by spreading petals on the ground, then carefully arranging a three-legged stool, a small charcoal brazier, a tray for the cups and other odds and ends on the grass.”
The long ceremony includes roasting the coffee beans, walking around gently waving the aroma toward each person, and then grinding the beans into a pot of boiling water. If you want strong coffee, be sure to get yours from the first pot, because three pots are made from the same beans, so each is a bit weaker.
Nancy, like me, is not a coffee drinker, but she converted while in Ehtiopia, just to see the ceremony. “Although it seems formal, it really isn’t—it is happening at all times, everywhere,” Nancy says.
And that is completely fitting, since the goat nibbling on berries was discovered by an Ethiopian farmer.
Vera Marie Badertscher blogs about books and movies that influence travel, and about her own travels at A Travelers Library (http://atravelerslibrary.com)
photo by uteart
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18 Comments
Reader Comments (18)
what a great piece. I am ADDICTED to coffee. First thing I think of when I wake up, no matter which part of the planet I am in. I love the civilized coffee service in Europe (At least in France and Belgium)> Always served on a tray with a little sweet a cote! And my Italian mother in law always served hers with a little sambuca. She called it "Corrected". Thanks for making me smell the coffee this morning.
Very entertaining post. I especially liked that you weren't a coffee drinker. As for me, when we moved to the Pacific Northwest, I couldn't believe how many drive-through coffee kiosks there were. One block might have two on each corner with another across from it. I guess we need something to combat the gray days!
Thanks, Kim. And Bliss, I thought about including America in this but that's a whole 'nother story, isn't it? The rise of Starbucks pushing aside the hippie-dippie poetry reading coffee houses of the 60s and 70s, and then places like McDonald's getting in the act and selling lattes and frappes?? I do wish somebody would do chain of tea shops a la Starbucks--although they DO serve the Tazo teas and I'm addicted to green tea lattes.
This is fascinating. I don't drink coffee either and had no idea that things differed so much from country to country.
What a great summary of coffee options in Europe! Perfect reading prior to a trip abroad. Thanks!
What a great post! Thank you for sharing your coffee experiences at all these locations. I worked for a coffee company for years, so it's a real treat to read your first-hand experiences. I've experienced an Ethiopian coffee ceremony; it's amazing.
Here in NZ the coffee culture is similar to the US, but the language used to order is quite different. It was odd moving here and hearing people order a "flat white" or "long black".
Love this post -- especially your idea of combining stimulants and liquor. That's my idea of moderation.
What a fascinating post, Vera. The coffee in Salzburg sounds especially yummy. I have often wondered what we ever did before Starbucks came into existence. It's not just the coffee itself, but the whole idea of a gathering place and the whole experience that makes it so special. I had no idea there were so many varying coffee rituals around the world!
I love reading about these different coffee rituals. Will send the link to my husband, a total coffee fanatic!
This brings back memories. I lived in Vienna for awhile and the coffee was legendary--the pastries too! Although I'm not a coffee drinker, I loved the dark, rich hot chocolate with fresh, whipped cream on top.
makes me wonder -- so where have you enjoyed yuor favorite cup of tea?
Great post, Vera! I'm not really a coffee person, either, but maybe I'd appreciate it more in Europe. Same thing in London where you have to pay extra to dine in. It's funny, because in the US, I've seen some places add a surcharge for takeout.
A fact that is not well known is that a great part of India drinks coffee. Many people are aware of an invisible line somewhere in the middle of the country south of which you get good coffee. I am not sure if you have access to it but a piece on Coffee by R K Narayan in his book the Writerly Life gives an overview of how coffee is made in this part of the world.
I've got to admit that when I saw the byline on this piece on coffee, I was a bit dubious, as I have insider information that the author dislikes coffee. Of course I read on out of curiosity -- and because I knew the writing would be terrific -- and sure enough, not only was the writing excellent but the author explained and transcended her coffee phobia. Which I still can't understand, but that's another issue altogether...
Brava!
I rarely drink coffee and most definitely do not drink it on a daily basis. If I drink coffee I'd prefer it as a real treat, something special so I found the details in this so interesting.
I must reply to Kerry Dexter's question about my favorite cup of tea. The first place that popped into mind was not a tea or coffee shop, but a museum. In Ft. Worth, Texas, the art is very nearly upstaged by the serene architecture at the Kimbell Art Musem. And one of the best places to enjoy the building must be the Buffet restaurant. My husband and I had tea at a table beside one of the glass walls fronting formal pools and looking across at another wing of the museum. The tea was excellent, too. Although at the moment I can't tell you exactly what kind they served, it came in a lovely silk package. Thanks for the memory.
As a recovering coffee fiend, I love this post. I'd love to have a cup of coffee in the best coffee house each town I visit has to offer - how can I track down a town's most stellar cafe?