A study published recently suggests that coffee in Scotland is stronger than that in either Italy or Spain. The research, conducted by the University of Glasgow, says that due to the beans being roasted longer and served up in larger measures, Scots are getting a lot more caffeine per espresso than their European counterparts. This got me thinking about the way people in the UK and those in Spain drink coffee.
I have always been a tea drinker (typical Brit), preferring the gentle taste of the builder’s brew to coffee, that I considered bitter and breathy. Of course, with the advent of coffee shops taking the spots of tea rooms and cafés on Britain’s high streets, I could often be found sipping a latte during my teenage years (my cappuccino years, if you will). But what exactly was I drinking? To my mind now, it certainly wasn’t coffee, rather, sweet, hot full-fat milk laced with a hint of brownish liquid. Then I moved to Spain.
MY FIRST PROPER COFFEE
The first day at the school, where I worked as a teacher, I was invited to go to the bar (yes, bar!) over the road from the school for break time by the other teachers in the English department. It was not like any bar, nor cafe I had really been in before, with a very high counter top, tables with plastic chairs, a few bar stools and fully tiled. The head of department asked me, “What would you like, a tea?” Knowing the quality of the tea in Spain already, I said I would have a coffee, to which she asked, “Cortado.. largo?” I neither knew what this meant nor what I would be ordering but thought it couldn’t be too dreadful whatever turned up.
When it was brought to the table by Juan, the bar’s owner, I was shocked to find a milky looking coffee in a short, narrow glass. I looked around at the others in the bar and followed their lead by adding the small packet of sugar on the saucer and took a cautionary first sip. This was like no coffee I had tried before, strong and rich, but not bitter, with enough milk to dilute the intense flavour but not smother it. I gave a satisfied nod and quickly got into a conversation about my opinion of Spanish tea and why I would definitely be drinking coffee from now on. I offered to pay but was treated to my first proper coffee… all of €0.70.
COFFEE COUNTING
In his book, The New Spaniards
“Depending on your point of view, coffee-drinking may be considered a pleasure, a necessity, a bad habit or a health risk. In Spain it comes close to being an art form. There are so many ways of imbibing it that it can take some considerable time to explain to the waiter exactly how you want it served.
“You can have it solo (black), cortado (with just a drop of milk) or con leche (white). Each of the three varieties can be served with a single or double measures of coffee, in either a glass or a cup. The strength can be varied by asking for your coffee to be corto de café (short on coffee) or largo de agua (long on water)… By my reckoning, that makes for seventy-two basic permutations.”
