an awful lot of coffee…

For many, Italy is considered the best country to enjoy a good cup of coffee. It comes in many varieties, and the Italian coffee has a long and interesting history. What many don’t know is that Portugal is another country where you can enjoy an excellent cup of coffee. Much, much better than in Spain or France, where the coffee usually has a muddy and bitter flavour. And definitely much better than the grossly overrated and overpriced Starbucks dishwater.

In the 18th century, the Portuguese started cultivating coffee in their colonies, first in Angola, somewhat later in Brazil. The beans to make the excellent Portuguese coffee is usually a blend of Arabica and Robusta beans. The Portuguese coffee is roasted slower and at a lower temperature than the Italian, which makes it slightly less bitter and more aromatic. The coffee is brewed with a higher water pressure than in Italy, though the machines were initially of the Italian Cimbali brand, and then adapted to the different water pressure used in Portugal.

different names

So now that we know that Portugal has its own coffee culture, it makes sense that they have their own names for the different styles of coffee. A lot has been written about this by many, but the information is often scattered, so I thought I might as well give it a go and give you the most important terms for Madeira. Necessary, because Madeira has different names than used in mainland Portugal for some coffees.

forget Italy

First, let me urge you to drop any Italian names you may want to use in Madeira or, for that matter, in mainland Portugal. So stop asking for espresso, or, worse, cappuccino, or, worst of all, using the really English term latte. (English, because what latte means in Italian is just milk, and what you would really want is latte macchiato, hot milk with a little coffee in it. But no, no asking for latte macchiato in Portugal either.

learn the Portuguese names

black coffee

The most common type of coffee the Portuguese drink is the strong and small coffee, which is officially called café. However, on Madeira and in Lisbon, it is more commonly called bica. When the first coffee came to Portugal, there was a sign in the famous café a Brasileira in Chiado, a neighbourhood in the centre of Lisbon, saying Beba Isto Com Açucar – Drink this with sugar. The Portuguese were not used to the somewhat bitter taste of coffee, so the sign told the customers ‘Drink This With Sugar. B.I.C.A., later simply bica. Throughout the rest of the mainland this name is not all that common, and in the Porto area there is yet another name for this coffee: cimbalino, taken from the initial brand of the coffee machines.

On Madeira, bica really is the term that everyone uses if they want a small, strong coffee. Note that it is not quite the same as the Italian espresso, which is supposed to be 20 centilitres, where the Portuguese standard is 30 centilitres, and you will notice it is not quite as aggressive as the Italian espresso, and more aromatic. Having said that, I should add that the water in the area plays a big role in the bitterness – or the lack of it – of coffee. Soft water gives the best coffee, hard water often causes bitterness.

For those who prefer a little less strong coffee, there is the bica cheia, or the café cheio. It is the same as a bica, but they let the water run a little longer, to completely fill the cup. Cheio means full, and becomes cheia because bica is feminine, and coffee is masculine, so the terms are bica cheia of café cheio. If you prefer less strong than a bica cheia, you can also ask for a carioca de café. Officially it is a coffee for which only half the usual quantity of ground coffee is used, but often they make a carioca by re-using the coffee of a bica just served and run water through it again. Not the nicest coffee, so best avoided, to be on the safe side. If you really want a weaker coffee you could ask for a café americano, but, like in Italy, this is a bad copy of the already horrible American watery coffee, but with added bitterness because of the roast of the coffee. Many of my Dutch friends tell me, when asked what kind of coffee I should order for them, ‘ordinary coffee´. They forget, of course, that what they think is ordinary coffee is unknown here, so really exotic instead of ordinary. They have the aromatic but mild Dutch brew in mind, which cannot be made in pressure machine but needs a filter and a slow-drip device. So, best stick to bica or café, or have a bica cheia, and if you think the quantity is too small, you can always ask for a chino, which is a double bica. There is a simple summary of the most important names at the bottom of this page.

coffee with milk

If you like milky coffee, the first thing to forget is asking for a cappuccino. If you order that in Portugal or on Madeira, you will probably a coffe that comes closest to the Italian panna montata, a fairy-tale like coffee, with a fat mountain of whipped cream on top, complete with chocolate sprinkles. And the price will also be a fairy tale price. So,no cappuccino. If an Italian cappuccino is what you want, you order a chinesa. When on Madeira, that is.

We once arrived from Madeira at the Lisbon airport where we had to wait, and Noud went to order coffee at the bar, asking in his best Portuguese ‘uma bica e uma chinesa clara¨. He got a blank stare from the ‘barista’ who said ‘huh?´. A loud voice came from the kitchen after a second, calling ‘they are from Madeira and the want ‘um café e uma meia de leite´.

So, there you have it: what is a cappuccino in Italy, is a chinesa on Madeira and a meia de leite in mainland Portugal. If you want coffee with just a little bit of milk, you can order a garoto (the word means little boy) which is a bica (or café) with a little milk in it. If you ask for a garoto escuro, you get a bica with just a small splash of milk, so a little darker than a normal garoto. If you want coffee with a lot of hot milk, like the Italian latte macchiato, you ask for a galão. I won’t bother you with the Brazilian terms, because they are different yet again.

Like the Italians, the Portuguese only have milky coffee at breakfast, or maybe as late as mid-morning. After that, and especially after a meal, they will just have a bica or a bica cheia. They would never have a chinesa or a galão after a meal, like the Italians would not dream of having a cappuccino after eating. Unlike the Italians, however, they will not frown upon anyone having a milky coffee after dinner.

tea?

Though specialised shops will have it all, the tea culture that makes tea out of all fruits and vegetables available has not yet arrived in Portugal. If you are in a simple bar, they will have black tea (cha preto) as a standard. On Madeira, however, there is one ‘tea’ i would like to mention, as it is very refreshing and different from what you are used to. It is cha de limão. Lemon tea. As opposed to all other countries I visited, this is not made with lemon grass or melissa, this is made by simple poring boiling water over some very thin slices if the lemon skin. So no lemon juice is used, just the skin. As the citrus trees on Madeira are completely natural and not treated with any pesticides, the skin of the local lemon is clean and healthy and extremely tasty.

overview

Below, i have made you a summary naming the most important coffee terms. I have put in the expression for one and for two coffees, as the numeral for two (and only that one) follows the gender of the noun.

type of coffee	Madeira one coffee	Madeira one coffee	Mainland one coffee	mainland two coffees
black espresso- like	uma bica	duas bicas	um café	dois cafés
slightly weaker	uma bica cheia	duas bicas cheias	um café cheio	dois cafés cheios
American style	um café americano	dois cafés americanos	um café americano	dois cafés americanos
double espresso	um chino	dois chinos	um café duplo	dois cafés duplos
weaker espresso	uma carioca de café	duas cariocas de café	uma carioca de café	duas cariocas de café
strong coffe with a little milk	um garoto	dois garotos	um garoto	dois garotos
with even less milk	um garoto escuro	dois garotos escuros	um garoto escuro	dois garotos escuros
cappucino Italian style	uma chinesa	duas chinesas	uma meia de leite	duas meias de leite
Latte-macchiato style	um galão	dois galões	um galão	dois galões

If you prefer to have a coffee without caffeine, just add descafeinada behind the words bica, chinesa, bica chiea, meia de leite and carioca de café (descafeinadas if you order more than one); and descafeinado behind any combination of café, garoto, or galão. And of course descafeinados if you order more than one.

Note the difference between one galão and two (or more) galões. The tilde above the a and the o serve to nasalize the vowel, but if you find it difficult, just remember that Portuguese knows no diphthongs and you have to pronounce all vowels separately. If you just do that, they will understand you perfectly well!

With all this in mind, you are sure to enjoy the excellent coffee Portugal and Madeira have to offer. Make sure and have the ever present pastel de nata – plural pastéis de nata (and yes, a different name in Mainland Portugal exists too: Pastel de Belém) with it in the morning. The local bakery Panoeste close to our house makes excellent ones.