Today is International Coffee Day. In celebration, let’s learn about coffee in Brazil, the largest coffee producing country in the world for the past 150 years, harvesting a third of all the coffee consumed in the planet. Café, coffee, is not a native Brazilian plant and it was probably brought to the north of the country from the French Guiana in the mid 1700s.
Brazil is home to about 287,000 fazendas de café, coffee farms, varying in size from the industrial mammoths to the small-scale specialty purveyors. Since these plantations are located in several different regions of Brazil, the crop they produce is diverse and easily adaptable to international market demands for varying sabores, tastes, tipos de grãos, grain types e misturas orgânicas and organic blends. In addition, the Brazilian coffee industry generates around eight million jobs that range from farming and trade to the restaurant sector.
Last year, Brazilians consumed about oitenta e três litros de café por pessoa, 83 liters of coffee per person, making it the second largest coffee consumer in the world, second only to the United Sates.
Most Brazilians have café com leite, milk and coffee, for breakfast. Coffee made at home is usually prepared by pouring boiling water into a paper or cloth filter containing café moído, ground coffee. Some people sweeten the water before pouring it into the filter. This coffee is called café filtrado, filtered coffee.
Then, during the day, Brazilians will have and additional two to three xícaras, cups, at home, or at local cafés, bares ou padarias, cafés, bars or bakeries. Brazilians are so crazy about having the right coffee that they will drive great distances, no matter the time of day, to savor their favorite type of coffee at their favorite café.
At most of these places, coffee is served at the counter and people stand side by side, talking and drinking the very black, thick looking traditional cafezinho, literally, small coffee.
The barista brings the coffee, em uma xicrinha com pirês de porcelana e uma colherzinha, in a small porcelain cup and saucer with a small spoon (never in a paper cup). Some people prefer it with açúcar, sugar, while some use adoçante, artificial sweeteners.
Now, since coffee plays such a significant role in the culture and traditions of Brazil, knowing how to order um cafezinho is a serious business in this caffeinated country, so read the following pedidos de café, coffee orders, then click on the link below to hear the orders and practice your pronunciation.
Um cafezinho, por favor. A coffee, please. (comes in a small cup)
Uma média, por favor. A coffee with milk, please. (serving is about 6oz.)
Eu gostaria de um pingado. I’d like some coffee with milk. (a small coffee with milk)
Me prepara um café curto, por favor. Can you make me a short coffee. (a ristretto)
Me dá um expresso, por favor. Give me an espresso, please.
Um expresso com espuma, por favor. An espresso with milk froth, please.
Dá para fazer um café Americano? Can you make an americano?