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
Ordering Guide
Turkish Coffee: Sugar Goes In Before Brewing, and the Grounds Tell Your Fortune
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
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
Vienna Coffee Houses: Why One Melange Buys You the Whole Afternoon
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
How to Order Coffee in France: Café, Noisette, Crème and Allongé
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
Greek Freddo Espresso: How Iced Espresso Took Over From the 1957 Frappé
Walk past a café in Athens in July and the glasses on the tables are tall, iced and topped with foam. For decades that meant a frappé. These days it's more likely to be a freddo espresso, or a freddo cappuccino with a thick cap of cold milk foam. Few countries take iced coffee as seriously as Greece. The Frappé, an Accident at a Trade Fair The story goes that the frappé was … [Read more...] about Greek Freddo Espresso: How Iced Espresso Took Over From the 1957 Frappé
How to Order Coffee in Spain: Solo, Cortado, Manchado and the Canary Islands Barraquito
Spanish bars run on a short list of coffee words. Learn a handful and you can get exactly the cup you want in any bar from A Coruña to Cádiz. The cortado sits between the black coffee and the milky breakfast one, and it's what a lot of people order after lunch. The Basic Words Un solo: an espresso, black. Un cortado: an espresso cut with a little warm milk, in a small cup … [Read more...] about How to Order Coffee in Spain: Solo, Cortado, Manchado and the Canary Islands Barraquito
Málaga Coffee Names: Nine Ways to Order Espresso and Milk, From Solo to Nube
You can order a cortado in Málaga and get one. Locals usually reach for their own words, though. The city has its own scale for coffee with milk, nine names that run from all coffee to barely any, and once you've learned it you can dial in the exact glass you want. The Scale Each name describes how much coffee goes into the glass, with milk making up the rest. The proportions … [Read more...] about Málaga Coffee Names: Nine Ways to Order Espresso and Milk, From Solo to Nube
Portuguese Coffee Orders: Bica, Pingado, Garoto and Galão at the Lisbon Counter
In Portugal the cortado mostly goes by other names. There's a whole ladder of small coffees with milk, each with its own word, and people use all of them. Learn the ladder and you can order the exact drink a cortado fan wants at any counter in Lisbon. Start With the Bica Ask for um café anywhere in Portugal and you'll get an espresso. In Lisbon people call it uma bica. In … [Read more...] about Portuguese Coffee Orders: Bica, Pingado, Garoto and Galão at the Lisbon Counter