Sunday, January 23, 2005

Coffee in Portugal: An exotic experience

Annie Datta
Hindustan Times

Elsewhere perhaps coffee means just coffee at the beginning of a monotonous day. The newspaper that ritually accompanies the morning cup brings variety but the daily cup of hot coffee does not. It’s just the same day in and day out. But here in Portugal things are different. Here you are not a passive drinker, gulping down whatever is given to you but actively involved in choosing the right kind of taste and size of coffee. What if you do not wish to have too much quantity of coffee in the morning or wish to alter its taste according to your need?

All you have to do is to walk into a café here and translate your need. Say in a university town of Coimbra. The coffee machine hisses incessantly and the euros clink in the backdrop. One is offered a range. There is café the most preferred one. It’s strong with no milk. The cup is small enough to contain just a single measure, suitable mostly to those hard pressed for time. If you have more leisure you could go for meia de leite which literally means half filled with milk in a tea sized cup. University students prefer escuro.

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