Europe Trip #1 2022 - The Coffee Report

Time for some little niblets of information about various parts of the trip. Let’s start with coffee.

We’ve been enjoying beans all the way across this trip. American coffee shops generally innovate by offering some flavor options in lattes (e.g. Glen Edith in Rochester has a killer cinnamon latte). This is entirely missing in Europe. Europe has more “small-bite” coffee offerings (macchiatos, single espressos). The European small serving is ~7g of espresso, much less coffee than a small American which would be at least twice this. While it’s smaller it’s also cheaper. Drinks range from 1-3 euros, only going higher for something quite fancy. The pourover below was our most expensive drink (6-8 euro?) but it was only about 12 oz (to share).

Alternative milks have been easy to ask for. Oat milk (hafermilch) was common in Germany and we saw more almond in Italy.

A few notes by country.

• Germany/Austria: Solid performances especially w care of the milk, the macchiato above was one of the best of the trip with nice creamy foam. Germans love super automatic machines, but the coffee shops were mostly hand-made. You can get lighter roasts here. Craftsmanlike performance.
• Hungary: Sample size small, had some good stuff.
• Italy: Home of the fast, cheap, consistent espresso. Italian espresso is bitter and has a luscious mouth-feel. Sugar is offered standard. Not always handmade, our agritourismo used ESE machines everywhere. You can have four espressos before you know it. You don’t always feel they put full effort into a cappuccino.
• Spain: So far, so good. A mix of the German care and Italian speed. Italian-style espressos are easy to get but we’ve seen nice craftsmanship and care in the milk drinks.