Café

This week, when my mom talked to me about coffee, her answers were short, concise, and to the point. She was not at all rude, but I think that she just thought that coffee is a common thing, and there really aren’t many questions about it. You drink coffee in the morning and the afternoon, and that is just what you do, no questions asked. It is so engrained in culture, that it is the norm. It is difficult to think of a comparable U.S. custom, and I have yet to come up with one.


My mom talked about how she drinks coffee at 10 in the morning and in the afternoon around 4. This seems comparable to the other families in the group. When she drinks coffee in the morning, she has it with breakfast, which always includes bread, but in the afternoon she only drinks coffee, and without bread. Though she did answer this question, sometimes her actions speak more than just what she tells me. Around 10 about once a week, the other son, Marlon comes to the house to drink coffee with my mom, and she serves him any food that he could possibly imagine. It is a way to show her love. Also though she says that in the afternoon, she only drinks coffee with nothing else, but from observation, I know that is false. When she is alone, she drinks coffee with nothing else, but when Flor, her best friend, comes over, my mom pulls out two or three different types of cookies or bread. I think that having various types of food to eat coffee with is a way of showing not only love, but also shows that she can afford variety, and can afford to share as well.


Similar to the painting by Antonio de Pereda y Salgado, café is more than the coffee itself. The accessories and foods eaten with the coffee are just as important. Though my mom does not serve the coffee with any fancy dishes, she always has a special cake, pastry, or cookie to server her friends when drinking coffee. 


As far as the age that people begin drinking coffee, she told me most people begin at age 3 or 4 with café and pan with breakfast. Sometimes Costa Ricans will dip the pan in café for the children to eat. To me it seams like it is similar to how “united statesians” drink milk. Here I have noticed that my family does not ever drink a plain glass of milk. It is only used in cereal and other recipes. Instead of a daily glass of milk, in Costa Rica it is at least one cup of coffee.         

Coffee is sold in grocery stores like mas por menos, am pm, or others. In addition to the normal places, tourist places sell coffee in grain form or in coffee bean form covered in chocolate, as seen above. Coffee is clearly a drink as well as a daily treat. In addition to the coffee served in bean form or served normally in machines, like the United States, traditionally coffee is served as shown below. This was a new form for me, but some in C.R. still use this method today. At the restaurant, this method of coffee was a special treat for me.