Portuguese and their love for coffee

The Portuguese and coffee, it could be said that without one you don’t have the other. Coffee is part of the cultural experience of the Portuguese. From business meetings to lovers courting. The Portuguese love their coffee, a synonym with ‘get-together’. A relationship formed through the colony of Brasil some 200 years ago, although coffee in Europe dates further back to this.

Coffee is not just coffee to the Portuguese, and can be ordered in numerous ways and forms. From the ‘Bica’ an ‘Italiana’, Café Cheio, ‘Pingado’, ‘Sem Principio’ to the ‘Galão’ and the ‘Meia de Leite’. The ‘Bica’, a straight forward expresso, an ‘Italiana’ expresso short and strong, ‘Pingado’ expresso with a drop of milk, ‘Sem principio’ a weak expresso, then to the coffee with milk, a ‘Galão’ served in a glass, the ‘Meia de Leite’ a shorter version of the ‘Galão’ and served in a cup. Of course, you can order the ‘café Americano’, a filtered coffee, or an ‘Abatanado’, black coffee in a cup, with much more flavour.

The earliest substantiated evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree is from the 15th century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen. By the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, South India, Persia, Turkey, Horn of Africa, and northern Africa. Coffee then spread to the Balkans, Italy and to the rest of Europe.

The word "coffee" entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch koffie, borrowed from the Turkish kahve, in turn borrowed from the Arabic qahwah ( قهوة).

There are several legendary accounts of the origin of the drink itself. Other accounts attribute the discovery of coffee to Sheik Abou'l Hasan Schadheli's disciple, Omar. According to the ancient chronicle (preserved in the Abd-Al-Kadir manuscript), Omar, who was known for his ability to cure the sick through prayer, was once exiled from Mocha to a desert cave near Ousab. Starving, Omar chewed berries from nearby shrubbery, but found them to be bitter. He tried roasting the beans to improve the flavour, but they became hard. He then tried boiling them to soften the bean, which resulted in a fragrant brown liquid. Upon drinking the liquid Omar was revitalized and sustained for days. As stories of this "miracle drug" reached Mocha, Omar was asked to return and was made a saint.