Page 14 - #62 eng e-mag

c Cover story

spresso is a form of coffee extraction, that requires to force boiling water
under pressure through ground coffee beans. Originally born as a drink Italy,
today espresso has many fans around the world and some countries have their
own variations of the drink.

Rome, Italy Havana, Cuba
Hear espresso, think Rome? No wonder In Cuba, coffee is basically its own food group.
as this coffee capital has been famous for cen- A vital part of each day, steaming little cups of Cafe
turies. Even if people might say that Italian Cubano, also called cafecito,—espresso mixed with
coffee culture is pretty traditional, Romans still sugar as it brews—or Coradito—espresso topped
have a lot of variations for espresso based with steamed milk—mark the morning, signal the
drinks. Brought by Arabs in 17th century, cof- end of a meal, and are a perfect excuse to stop and
fee is so much a part of Italian culture (as well linger with a friend. But those are expensive op-
as pizza) that you’ll rarely encounter a local tions. After Cuban revolution Castro nationalized
who doesn’t drink it. Hence, there are plenty coffee production and later the Cuban government
of coffee shops around the town as well as introduced a rations system, subsidizing 114g of
growing number of specialty coffee spots. If coffee per person per month. That is how café con
not in coffee shops, Romans enjoy their cup of chícharo (mix of ground, toasted beans and toasted
black gold at home, almost every household in chickpeas) was brought to the market to make cof-
Italy has a moka pot, which is Italian creation. fee more affordable. Moreover, Cubans usually
According to Eurostat, Italy’s biggest coffee drink coffee at home, but if you do not have time
import is green beans and consumption per for it but still want to have your morning cup of
capita is 5.6 kg, so we can see that Italians like joe, you can simply stop by one of ventanillas. It is
to roast their coffee by themselves the way they an option of drinking coffee outside the windows
like it. Italian roast is the name applied to a of other people’s homes, where coffee is sold
Local order: Espresso ▶
Best Time to go: degree of roast of coffee beans resulting in a through windows opened up to the street, it will
April to June and late Septem- very dark brown bean. In this roast, the beans cost you just around 1 Cuban peso (0.04 USD).
ber to October pass second crack. Italian roasted beans have
Things to do: a dark color and a shiny surface from its oils. Sao Paulo, Brazil
Visit marvelous Colosseum ; Italian roasted beans are usually used for pre- Brazil produces almost 40% of the world’s
Visit the smallest country in
the world, Vatican ; paring espressos, while specialty coffee shops coffee. Pair its standing as a major producer
Eat as much pizza as you can. usually use lighter roast. with strong cultural influences from coffee-
loving countries like Portugal and Italy, here
Lisbon, Portugal you’ve got the perfect recipe for a great cup.
People get seriously poetic about coffee in And while the world’s biggest coffee-producing
Lisbon. The irresistible combination of a storied countries don’t always have a coffee culture to
cafe culture and a fantastic cup of coffee can do match, Sao Paulo does its home country proud.
that to a person. Pour yourself into the experi- Because Brazilians consume coffee very regu-
ence by heading to a cafe, settling in for a lei- larly, they drink it in small cups and tend to
surely sit, and ordering a bica. The revered shot use a lower quality coffee than the high qual-
of black coffee is longer than an espresso and ity beans that they export out of the country,
usually a little bit smoother in taste, due to Por- because it would be expensive to drink so
tuguese roasting being slightly lighter than the much. Traditionally, Brazilians would have
Italian one. In almost all regions in Portugal it’s their coffee really sweet. This is partly due to
Local order: Bica ▶
Best Time to go: also simply called ‘um café’ (a coffee in Portu- the fact that in Brazil coffee beans are grown
March to May and September guese). The country’s coffee-drinking habit was at lower altitudes than in other countries, re-
to October imported from Brazil, its former colony. During sulting in the beans having a naturally more
Things to do: decades of relative economic isolation under the bitter taste. Here it is very common for people
Visit Torre de Belém - Av. de Salazar regime, Portugal sourced its coffee from to go for cafezinho or “little coffee” after lunch,
Brasília ;
Wander in Alfama District of its colonies. The beans were Robusta, which made cafezinho is an espresso that is usually drank
Lisbon ; people enjoy strong and bitter coffee. According with sugar and served with a small pastry on
Catch one of the famous Lis- to Brazilians, Bica stands for: B (Beba) I (isto) C the side, like a mini cookie or a brigadeiro, a
bon trams. (com) A (açucar), or “Drink this with sugar”! Brazilian chocolate treat.

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