From Grande Soy Lattes to Cafe con Dulce de Leche: Coffee Culture Around the World

Clueless about the best way to meet people and get to know a new city? There’s a simple way to figure out where the best spot to go later in the evening is, or better yet, to understand how things work. Just head to a local cafe, and get the best insight on how the country you’re in operates. Learn if people are leisurely or rushed just by watching them drink some coffee.

The caf? lifestyle varies greatly from country to country. The Europeans of the world wouldn’t think twice about spending a couple of hours sitting in a restaurant or cafe, drinking only coffee. You see, it’s possible to even sip a single espresso for a long time, have a couple of cookies, and enjoy free time. And with some of the finest coffee in the world in Italy, why wouldn’t you enjoy the fine art of beverage making? Most of the cafes will have an espresso machine that’s older than the United States are, and that will make the drink taste that much better. But more than just the taste, it’s about the idea that it’s okay to relax, in public, drinking a coffee.

A number of countries are rather relaxed, but others even elevate their culture from simply enjoyable to intellectually important. Over by the university on the left bank of Paris, a number of tourists flock to the cafes where Sarte and other existentialists wrote some of the most important books of the 20th century. In a city like Paris, the caf? lifestyle is about something more than just leisure. It’s about valuing the time to think and create on your own, but also thinking that is an exchange that can happen out in public.

In western Europe, the culture of France and Italy depends greatly on having time to sit and have a coffee, and leisurely public beverage consumption there is a thing of legend. For example, it’s not uncommon to see restaurants in small plazas all over Rome with outdoor seating, even in the middle of a hot summer, where the locals and tourists alike are hanging out, sipping espresso or cappuccino, and perhaps snacking on a small cookie. If you go during the afternoon time where everyone it seems is in a cafe, it’s also likely that you’ll get a snack, like some peanuts, too.

Probably the biggest difference from country to country is what comes with your beverage. In the States, there’s not going to be any free snacks coming with your cappuccino or latte, but elsewhere in the world, a cafe wouldn’t think of serving you just a coffee. You see, the caf? lifestyle in places like Buenos Aires, Argentina, will practically give you an afternoon snack. Order a coffee–any coffee–and not only will a nice Italian-style espresso-based beverage come out, it will be accompanied by a glass of sparking water, at least three packets of sugar, a couple of tasty cookies, and sometimes a variety of chips or crackers. Likewise, if you’re in Paris, it’s sometimes cheaper to just go with their special, which means that your coffee always comes with a croissant or cookies.

It says a lot about a country when snacks come with your coffee. Because if someone’s serving you enough food to nibble on for a couple of hours, they are not trying to throw you out. They’re saying to stay, to sit awhile, to just relax. And that’s an incredible and welcome change if you’re used to a society of to-go and delivery. People genuinely do seem more relaxed places where the caf? lifestyle allows for leisure time. Everyone, from businessmen to aspiring young writers and artists, takes the time to sit down and have conversations or enjoy some private time. There’s no societal penalty, it’s just a legitimately nice time.

And there’s just something more relaxing about the time to sit and talk for awhile. Even though that culture might not exist in your home country, or perhaps the pace of work is threatening it, but it’s an important relic of a time where life was about more than just work, even when everyone was working. And work might actually save the caf? lifestyle. Because now, if you have a laptop, you pretty much have an excuse to sit as long as you like, in a public place, under the guise of work.

If you’re traveling for business, visiting a different city for a little while, or relocating abroad, the best possible thing to do is to head to a popular local coffee spot. In just an afternoon, you’ll learn more about a country by watching its citizens drink coffee and talk than you would from a whole stack of Lonely Planet guidebooks.

Damian Papworth adores coffee. So he created the One Cup Coffee Makers website. On this sitee you can read up about your 1 cup coffee maker