In my home country there is a very strong tradition of drinking coffee. It is all about coffee. It is the most important liquid after water for most of the people - young ones, middle aged, old ones - in the morning, in the afternoon and even in the evening. There is no rule when it comes to precious liquid.
In general people take take strong (Turkish) coffee in the morning to wake them up, or regular espresso from the coffee machine. But actually there's a big difference in drinking and making coffee tradition from country to country - by culture, by type and orders of coffee drinks.
Say what?
Yes, let's say it like this, if you order macchiato in Portugal, there is a great chance that only thing you can get is WTF look, but if you order macchiato in Croatia you will get medium coffee cup with one espresso shot in it and the rest of the cup filled with warm milk and milk cream/foam. The same order in Italy implies one espresso shot in the small coffee cup with a drop of cold milk. Cappuccino in Germany and in Italy are two different types of coffee. Get the point now? :)
It is really hard to standardize types of coffee because they are somehow integrated into the culture of the country you live in. Modern coffee shops/bars all over the world are trying to simplify it by standardizing the coffee menu on couple types of coffee drinks and that's all they offer. Usually modern standard looks like this:
- Espresso
- Americano
- Macchiato
- Cappuccino
- Latte
That means that if you go to any modern coffee place anywhere in the world you can find this types of coffee drinks, and they will look mostly the same as the coffee drinks from your favorite local coffee place. Only difference are the type of the coffee beans and quality of coffee, milk water, grinder, skill, coffee machine, etc., but that is complicated subject so I will skip that part.
Speciality coffee
I cannot skip the part about popularization of the speciality coffee places all over the world that are overtaking the coffee market. What does that mean?
It means that coffee market changed from the times how coffee was prepared in the 80's, 90's, 00's and today. There is a huge progress that happened not so long ago when all the focus went from regular cafe bars to the speciality coffee places in which even the tiniest detail about coffee is taken care of. Usually, those kind of places are also roasters, so they roast their own coffee and make their own blends of coffee, and sell it as the regular coffee beans or prepared coffee drink.
If you want to know the difference between regular commercial coffee and speciality coffee please prepare yourself for the really BIG difference. Smell, taste, look... everything is different, better. In the beginning you might not like it, because there is so much going on, but for me there is no discussion about it at all . speciality coffee is much more better and more healthy than regular commercial coffee - or coffee isn't healthy at all? :)
Coffee tradition differences
As I mentioned before, there is quite big difference from country to country about the way they prepare and drink coffee. As i can compare, Croatia and Portugal have a big difference when it comes to coffee culture or tradition. In Croatia coffee is the way of life. If you go on a business meeting you are going to do it with the cup of the "sweet" black liquid, if you are going on a lunch break than you are going for a coffee also, etc., but maybe the biggest difference is the way Croatians care about preparing a good coffee, at least trying to prepare a good coffee drink.
Here in Lisbon I'm really struggling to find a proper coffee that I can really enjoy, since their way of making a normal coffee is not the way i got used to. Simply, it's their way. As we have our own way, they have theirs. If I need to describe regular Portuguese coffee I would say that their coffee is too waterish and there is no taste at all. You can just taste the burn of the coffee beans. I noticed that Portuguese do really sloppy "tamp" on the grinded coffee when they put it in the coffee handle, or they even don't tamp it so the water just pass through non tamped coffee and all you can get is water washed grinded coffee that can easily be served as a tea, and not as an regular espresso.
If you want to order latte or macchiato than please be careful because you can easily get burn by the boiling milk inside of the coffee. It can be so boiling hot and with burning milk taste that you need to wait at least 20-30 minutes for cooldown. After you try it you can just pay (or you don't need to) and leave, because there is not even "C" from "Coffee" in it. It is a simple unsuccessful try of a coffee drink.
If you don't get cup of boiling lava latte, probably you will get a cold milk and coffee soup, of course, tasteless.
So, to avoid those kind of places I will suggest below my favorite coffee places in Lisbon, Portugal and Zagreb, Croatia:
Lisbon:
- Fabrica Roasters
http://www.fabricacoffeeroasters.com/
https://www.facebook.com/fabricacoffeeroasters/
- The Mill
- Copenhagen Coffee Lab
http://copenhagencoffeelab.com/cafe-at-rua-nova-da-piedade/
https://www.facebook.com/cphcoffeelab/
- Heim Cafe
Zagreb:
- Cogito Coffee Roasters
http://www.cogitocoffee.com/
https://www.facebook.com/cogitocoffeeroasters/
- Eliscaffe
- Express Bar
Believe me, very cool places to visit and places with best coffee you will taste! :)
If you taste some of the listed write me your impression.
Till then take care!
GG