is the term commonly used in certain areas of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

for a ('

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

' in Portuguese) that is similar to

espresso Espresso (, ) is a concentrated form of coffee produced by forcing hot water under high pressure through finely ground coffee beans. Originating in Italy, espresso has become one of the most popular coffee-brewing methods worldwide. It is cha ...

, but extracted to a greater volume than its Italian counterpart (akin to a

lungo Lungo (), known in full in Italian as ''caffè lungo'', is coffee made by using an espresso machine to make an Italian-style coffee—short black (a single espresso shot) with more water (generally twice as much), resulting in a larger coffee, a ...

in Italy) and a little bit smoother in taste, due to the Portuguese roasting process being slightly lighter than the Italian one. In almost all regions in Portugal, it is simply called ('a coffee' in Portuguese) and always served in a

demitasse A demitasse (; French: "half cup"), demi-tasse, or espresso cup is a small cup used to serve espresso. It may also refer to the coffee served in such a cup, though that usage had disappeared in France by the early 20th century. A demitasse typ ...

cup. The name originates from the way the coffee flows, falling from the espresso machine to the cup on the tray, an analogy with a water spring or fountain; both can also be called in Portuguese.

History

The

Café A Brasileira The Café A Brasileira (; "The Brazilian Café") is a café at 120 Rua Garrett (at one end of the ''Largo do Chiado'' in the Chiado, district of the same name), in the Freguesia (Portugal), civil parish of Sacramento (Lisbon), Sacramento, near the ...

coffeehouse was opened in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

by Adriano Telles on 19 November 1905 at No.122 (an old shirt shop), to sell "genuine Brazilian coffee" from the Brazilian state of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

, a product generally unappreciated in homes of Lisboetas of that period. In order to promote his product, Telles offered each shopper who bought a kilogram of ground coffee (for 720

réis The first official currency of Brazil was the real (pronounced ; pl. ''réis''), with the symbol Rs$. As the currency of the Portuguese empire, it was in use in Brazil from the earliest days of the colonial period, and remained in use until 1942 ...

) a free cup of coffee. It was the first shop to sell the , a small cup of strong coffee, similar to espresso, with fresh goat milk from nearby farms.

References

{{Coffee, nocat=1 Coffee drinks Portuguese drinks

History

See also

References