Espresso Cortado

Coffee Culture

Why Your Espresso Comes With a Glass of Water or a Biscuit

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In a Naples bar the glass of water often lands on the counter before the coffee does. In a Brussels café the extra is a biscuit in a red wrapper, sitting next to your cup. Neither one costs you anything, and neither one is an accident. What comes with a coffee is one of those small things that tells you where you are. Some of these extras are old habits of hospitality. Others … [Read more...] about Why Your Espresso Comes With a Glass of Water or a Biscuit

Buenos Aires Cortado: Argentina’s Most Ordered Coffee and the Lágrima That Reverses It

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In Buenos Aires the cortado is the default coffee. It's the most common order in Argentine cafés, the one you'll hear from the next table again and again, and it comes as a small cup of espresso cut with steamed milk and often a little foam. How much milk depends on the café. Some pour a splash, others nearly as much milk as coffee. How to Order One Start with size. A plain … [Read more...] about Buenos Aires Cortado: Argentina’s Most Ordered Coffee and the Lágrima That Reverses It

Coffee Culture in the Influencer Era: Cafés Built for Photos and Drinks Made for TikTok

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Both photos on this page came from café tables. In one, a Canon A-1 film camera sits in the sun on a slatted terrace table next to two cups of coffee. In the other, a mirrorless camera shares a wooden table in New York with a flat white and an almond pastry. You've probably seen a thousand pictures like them, because coffee has become one of the everyday things people … [Read more...] about Coffee Culture in the Influencer Era: Cafés Built for Photos and Drinks Made for TikTok

Turkish Coffee: Sugar Goes In Before Brewing, and the Grounds Tell Your Fortune

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Forget the espresso machine. For this coffee, the beans are ground as fine as flour, heated slowly with water in a small pot and poured, grounds and all, into a small cup. You drink it slowly, stop before you reach the sludge, and in some homes someone then reads your future in what's left. UNESCO added Turkish coffee culture and tradition to its Representative List of the … [Read more...] about Turkish Coffee: Sugar Goes In Before Brewing, and the Grounds Tell Your Fortune

Italian Espresso Bar Rules: The €1.29 Counter Espresso and the Morning-Only Cappuccino

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Italy drinks its coffee standing up. Walk into any bar at eight in the morning and you'll see a row of people at the counter, each with a small cup and a quick word for the barista, and then they're gone. The country has about 140,000 bars, and between them they pour something like 6 billion espressos a year. Nobody writes the rules down, but almost everyone follows them. … [Read more...] about Italian Espresso Bar Rules: The €1.29 Counter Espresso and the Morning-Only Cappuccino

What to Eat With a Cortado: Pairings From Pastel de Nata to Palmeras

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A cortado is gone in a few sips. It's strong enough that you taste the coffee and soft enough, with its splash of warm milk, to drink without wincing, and that makes it good with food. Most of the places where people drink one have a pastry they reach for at the same moment. There's some logic to the pairings. Butter and milk soften coffee's bitterness, which is why a flaky, … [Read more...] about What to Eat With a Cortado: Pairings From Pastel de Nata to Palmeras

Vienna Coffee Houses: Why One Melange Buys You the Whole Afternoon

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A Viennese coffee house sells time as much as coffee. You order one drink and the table is yours for as long as you want it. The waiter won't bring the bill until you ask for it, and nobody expects you to order a second cup. Your coffee arrives on a small silver tray with a glass of water, and the newspapers hang on wooden holders near the door. The city takes this seriously. … [Read more...] about Vienna Coffee Houses: Why One Melange Buys You the Whole Afternoon

Naples’ Caffè Sospeso: The Coffee You Pay For and Leave Behind for a Stranger

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In some Naples bars, a customer will pay for two coffees and drink one. The second is a caffè sospeso, a suspended coffee. It waits on the bar's tab until someone who can't afford a coffee comes in and asks whether there's a sospeso. If there is, they get it free. Nobody knows who paid, and nobody asks. Where It Comes From The custom grew up in the working-class cafés of … [Read more...] about Naples’ Caffè Sospeso: The Coffee You Pay For and Leave Behind for a Stranger

Why Cafés Serve Coffee in Glass: From the Gibraltar Tumbler to the Galão

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Order a cortado in a Spanish bar and there's a fair chance it arrives in a small glass, too hot to hold anywhere but the rim. Order a galão in Lisbon and it always comes in a tall one. Glass is an odd choice for a hot drink when you think about it. It gets hot to hold and it shows every drip. Yet plenty of coffee cultures … [Read more...] about Why Cafés Serve Coffee in Glass: From the Gibraltar Tumbler to the Galão

How to Order Coffee in France: Café, Noisette, Crème and Allongé

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Ask for un café in France and you'll get an espresso, short and dark in a thick little cup, with a sugar cube or two on the saucer. Nobody asks what size you want. Anything else needs its own word, and the words aren't the ones that work in Madrid or Lisbon. If you drink cortados, the one to learn is noisette. It's the nearest thing France has to a cortado, with less milk than … [Read more...] about How to Order Coffee in France: Café, Noisette, Crème and Allongé