One of my loyal readers suggested I might talk about coffee. Actually, one of the other loyal readers has an extensive knowledge of coffee around the world, but i will nevertheless proceed from my own perspective!
I dug out two coffee cups from a set I bought in Brazil. The small cup is for cafezinho and the other for cafe com leite. AS I UNDERSTAND IT ( I put this in capital letters as my understanding may be severely limited!) The Brazilians take the coffee beans and, instead of roasting them, they char them. Then they turn them into a dust that looks a lot like cocoa. It is absolutely essential to the drinker's health that the coffee that is produced from this is thoroughly filtered. Hot water through coffee in a filter to a coffee pot. This very strong brew is put into the small cup and two or three teaspoons of sugar are added. A small spoon used for the purpose of stirring in this tiny cup WILL stand up. Many of us became absolutely addicted to this brew. It would certainly get you UP for the day and rarin' to go.
The second way to use the coffee produced in this way was to make cafe com leite. The coffee put into one pot, hot milk into another and the two added simultaneously into the larger cup. Then one could add sugar or not as preferred. Fantastic. Fabulous. Absolutely addictive.
I have through the years made something called a "milky drink" which is an ersatz version of cafe com leite. Heat a mug of milk in the microwave to boiling, but not over flowing. (That in itself is a trick!) Add a heaping teaspoon of instant coffee and some artificial sweetener, and voila... a pale imitation of cafe com leite.
The pots from Mexico work very well in making this coffee, but it is to get the Brazil coffee that is the trick. I hear that there is a coffee in the stores now from Brazil but I wonder if it is roasted to accomodate us or charred and typically Brazilian. If it is just in the bean, I wonder how we will process it. I will report more as I discover more.
Take care!
7 comments:
Very informative! WE must have coffee together.
Question. . Can you use Half and Half cream or do you need milk???
I enjoy when you share your experiences from Brazil!!! And were those coffee cups wonderful or what??
Well... of course whole cream added in equal portions to the very strong coffee would blast you right out of the park. Both need to be hot, however. I've always used milk... but, hey! I'm always in favor of cream.
Your pictures are so bright and clear. Just reading this blog will keep me up to all hours. Fran.
Fran, if reading the blog doesn't do it (keep you up) a cup of Vicki's special coffee will!!
Izzy, do they do any coffe in Japan or strictly tea?
So what's on the menu next Vicki?
Jeffrey was pleased to read of your Brazilian coffee particulars, having been in Brazil two summers ago enjoying the coffee.
It seems we always are searching for an ersatz version of the coffee we have imbibed in other regions of the world we live in.
(How's that for reusing your great words that send me scrambling to my dictionary?)
yum-I love coffee! In Tanzania mostly we drank chai, which was wonderful. Most of the coffee that you would get in restaurants was an instant chicory coffee called: "Africafe". I got used to it, but really I preferred chai. Here I prefer coffee but it must have some kind of cream or milk--not black! I love iced coffee or cold press too.
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