Coffee

Is not the same as the coffee you get at home. Here, coffee exists solely to be enjoyed. This mentality puts pressure on those creating from beans, water, steam, pressure, and milk to put together a masterpiece for each recipient. The coffee here is so good. They don’t serve drip coffee. Every drink is made with an espresso machine so ordering a coffee doesn’t get you a coffee. You can order a long black, which is the closest thing to a coffee that you can find; it’s basically a double shot Americano. A long white is 1/3 espresso the rest is filled up with steamed milk better known as a “latte”. The best drink of all though is the Cappuccino. This drink is very common out here made like so: 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk, and 1/3 foam, toped with sweet chocolate powder. Since the coffee out here is amazing the price of it makes you lose some pounds in the morning. The other thing is that the sizes are… lets say miniscule. At home I considered a tall coffee at Starbucks fairly small, here that size would be either a large or extra large depending on the café. I have yet to find a place that makes a coffee even close to the size of a venti. I consider a small or ‘regular’ a good two gulp.

Due to the size, and the taste my lovely wife was getting into the habit of drinking at least 1 sometimes 3 of these lovely drinks a day. I’m sure it didn’t help that for the first three weeks we were here, we were on the train and at shopping centers all day long. It didn’t take long for me to give in and trek an espresso machine home from across the city. Now we enjoy “coffee” at home. We are both learning different techniques and mastering our new machine, it’s wonderful. The best part about it is that Evelyn makes me a nice cappuccino post my after school bike ride home shower. I just sit back relax and enjoy. Mmmmm

Just a quick aside:

When the weather is unbearable to walk around in, or even sit in and you don’t really have a home, which we now have, the mall became a refuge. We would go to the mall just to get out of the heat. This became a problem though for on one occurrence almost two we ate two meals, literal meals, lunch and dinner, a late dinner, at the same mall. Yes, you’ve been at the mall way too long when you’ve indulged in two meals! (this doesn’t include people who work at the mall or during Christmas.)

C.