Cafe Culture Spawns Coffee-Savvy Society

By Andrew Hurst
Reuters

The decor is a touch Spanish, the atmosphere vaguely Parisian and the whiff of well-roasted coffee conjures up visions of Italy.

But the people sipping cappuccino at the Shokoladnitsa coffee bar are distinctly Russian.

A thriving cafe society is spawning scores of new home-grown chains in Moscow serving everything from high-quality espresso to fruit-flavored coffee inspired by exotic offerings from America's West Coast.

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