Coffee

Café Majestic

~ saltofportugal ~ 4 Comments

Magestic Café

Nothing fuels creativity like coffee. Voltaire made sure his inspiration never faltered by sipping 40 cups of coffee a day. Balzac conceived plots for his novels by staying up all night drinking coffee.

One of our favorite places for a stimulating cup of brew is the Majestic Cafe in Oporto. Inaugurated in 1921, it has elegant proportions and exquisite Art Nouveau interiors. The café charges premium prices so it attracts few locals. Drinking a good espresso will set you back 5 euros. It is a price well worth paying for all the creative ideas that a visit to the glamour of the Belle Époque can spark.

Café Majestic is located at Rua Santa Catarina 112, Porto. Click here for the café’s website.

Every cup of coffee is a voyage

~ saltofportugal ~ 3 Comments

Sr． Adelino Delta

It was with anticipation that we drove to Campo Maior to meet Adelino Cardoso. For 41 years he has tasted, tested and roasted the coffees made by Delta, a renowned Portuguese coffee brand.

When Adelino joined Delta, he first had to prove his worth by roasting humble ingredients like barley and chicory. It was only then that Comendador Nabeiro, the legendary founder of Delta, took Adelino under his wing and started introducing him to the secrets of coffee production.

Adelino speaks about coffee with great  passion. “Every cup of coffee is a voyage,” he tells us. “To places like Brazil, Kenya and Vietnam where the coffee is cultivated. Every day containers arrive from faraway lands.  We take samples that are visually inspected and analyzed in the laboratory. If these tests are satisfactory, we roast the beans, grind them and brew coffee. We taste the coffee in a quiet room where nothing distracts us from the appreciation of the aromas and flavors. When the coffee does not meet Delta’s rigorous standards, the container is returned to the seller. We stand by quality, we want our clients to love our coffee. Comendador Nabeiro’s motto is that every client is a friend.”

“What is the secret of producing a great blend?” we ask. Adelino hesitates because this is a naive question, one that takes a life-time of experience to answer. He finally tells us that “It is complex. At a basic level, the Arabica beans lend aroma and acidity and robusta beans lend the viscosity that we often call body or intensity. But there are many other important elements. At what altitude was the coffee produced, how and when was it harvested, how was it processed after the harvest. Then there is the roasting. How long did the roasting last, how quickly did the temperature rise, how high did the temperature get.  The coffee beans have to be ground in a way that is appropriate to the method used to brew the coffee. The amount of coffee used has to be exact. The coffee cups have to be heated before the coffee is served. All these factors determine the quality of the coffee. A good espresso has a thick hazelnut cream that protects the delicate coffee aromas. As it comes out of the machine, the last drop should be white.”

“I would like to invite you for a cup of coffee.” Adelino says.  We walk with him to the lab and watch the meticulous preparations. The way he measures the coffee and drains hot water from the machine before brewing. The way he heats the cups. Finally, the coffee comes out of the machine. “For me, the ideal espresso has 35 ml of coffee, not too short, not too long,” he says stopping the machine at the right moment. “You should not drink the coffee right after it is brewed. The coffee pours out of the machine like a wave crashing on the shore. We have to wait until it settles down.”

The coffee has a gorgeous hazelnut cream adorned by a white drop. We wait for a moment and then take a sip.  It is fantastic. We enjoy it slowly aware of the length of the journey, the depth of the knowledge, and the strength of the passion that produced this perfect cup of coffee.

You can visit Delta’s Center for Coffee Science at Herdade das Argamassas in Campo Maior, tel. 268 009 630, email geral@centrocienciacafe.com. It is a great place to learn about coffee and to enjoy a perfect cup of espresso.

 

 

Mindful coffee from Flor da Selva

~ saltofportugal ~ 2 Comments

Flor da Selva Composit

Most cups of coffee are drank in a hurry. They’re just a flash of bitterness and a shot of caffeine. Flor da Selva (jungle flower), the coffee produced by the last traditional roaster in Lisbon, is a gateway to a very different experience. This is coffee made to be savored mindfully.

We spent a delightful afternoon with Francisco Monteiro at Flor da Selva’s roasting workshop in the Madragoa neighborhood. His family’s company, founded in 1950, has preserved the secrets of the traditional roasting processes abandoned by most producers. They source green coffee beans directly from the best plantations around the world and roast them gently with oak fire wood. The coffee acquires a round, harmonious taste that contrasts with the metallic tang often associated with gas roasting. Our visit helped us rediscover the taste, aroma, and mystery of coffee.

We took several Flor da Selva blends of Arábica and Robusta beans to try at home. Preparing the coffee is a ritual that deepens the appreciation for this fine beverage. We like to brew Flor da Selva with the pour-over method, using a filter that ensures that the water is in contact with the coffee for the time necessary to soak up all the flavor from the beans.

First, we weight 29 grams for two cups. Then, we grind it finely, but not as finely as if we were making espresso, otherwise the water takes too long to pour through. We heat  filtered water at 205 Fahrenheit and pour it slowly over the grinds. The air fills with delicate aromas. Then a thick, golden foam develops (if the foam is thin and white, the coffee is too weak). Finally, we heat the cups with hot water, discard the water and pour the coffee. We drink it slowly, enjoying its lush, exotic taste. And we smile.

Flor da Selva is located at Travessa do Pasteleiro, 32 Lisbon, tel. 213 967 166, email info@florselva.com. Click here for their website.

 

 

Café Nicola

~ saltofportugal ~ 5 Comments

Nicola, a famous café in Lisbon, opened its doors in the late 18th century. Run by an Italian emigrant, it became popular in literary and political circles. Here, you could listen to the latest government gossip, conspire against the prince regent, or hear Bocage, a bohemian poet, improvise brilliant verses.

All this fun came to an end with the Napoleonic invasions—French officers adopted the Nicola as their gathering spot. So, when the French retreated in 1808, Nicola threw a grand independence party.

In 1929, Nicola moved to its current location, featuring the art deco architecture that you can see today.

At Nicola you can do it all, improvise poetry, start an insurrection, celebrate independence, and have a great cup of coffee.

The perfect espresso cups

~ saltofportugal ~ 5 Comments

Coffee lovers are on a constant search for aromatic coffee beans, roasted to perfection. They get up early on weekends to study Italian, hoping to uncover the nuances lost in the translation of their espresso-machine manual. They mumble incantations like “ruotare la manopola in senso antiorario per aprire il rubinetto di erogazione vapore” with a passion normally reserved for the poetry of Dante. They listen in rapture to the machine’s rumbles as the water rushes through the coffee at the ideal pressure.

But, after all this effort, they pour their brew into bulky, thick porcelain cups. European cafés use these cups, they tell you with pride. True, but cafés only use them because they rarely break. The coffee tastes so much better in thin coffee cups!

Vista Alegre, the great Portuguese porcelain maker, produces the best espresso cups we have ever tried.  They have the perfect shape and come in bright, joyful colors. These cups are hard to find outside of Portugal. So, if you are visiting Portugal, here’s your chance to bring something unique to your java friends.

Here is a link to the Vista Alegre website.