Whether the claim that coffee is indispensable to human survival will stand up to the tests of history is open to question. There is no denying, however, that it is a beverage highly in demand in nearly every country on the planet, and that nearly every place has its favorite way of serving it.

In Austria, for example, where coffee was introduced via Turkey, the coffee house quickly became and has remained the traditional center of endless social, political and literary activities. Many Austrian cafes, especially those in Vienna are virtual palaces of luxury decorated with gilt mirrors, large tapestries on the walls, imported marble on the floors and deep, plush seats. Newspapers, writing materials and chess sets are provided as a matter of course and one can sit as long as one likes over a single cup of coffee, the waiter bringing a fresh glass of water every half-hour as kind of a time-clock courtesy. In addition to the rich cream cakes for which the city is famous, one can find innumerable varieties of coffee served black, with milk, cream, liqueurs, ice cream or schlagobers, whipped cream that has been enriched with vanilla and sugar.

(To read more about the conditorias or coffee houses of Vienna, click here).

In many parts of Germany, especially in the area of the Rhine Valley from Koln to Weisbaden and throughout Bavaria, cafe owners have gone even further in making their establishments part of the national cultural heritage. In addition to serving coffee, tea and hot chocolate along with an array of pastries, many kaffee-konditeroi, combined cafe and confectionery shops, have small bands that play dance music from noon until about 1 a.m. In keeping with tradition, the most beloved cafes, are those that feature waltzes, fox-trots and tangos. Unlike the Austrian cafes, however, in Germany one is expected to order at least one fresh cup of coffee every hour. To ensure the continuation of this tradition, many cafes serve their clients a fresh cup every sixty minutes whether they have ordered it or not.

In France, coffee became the rage in 1669 when Suleiman Aga, the Turkish ambassador to the court of King Louis XIV was the first to serve it to the king. From then on, even though many concur with Oscar Wilde's complaint that the French have never learned to make a cup of coffee that does not taste like swamp mud, the French have never stopped drinking coffee. The French, as historian Sanche de Gramont wrote "like their coffee strong, thick and intolerably sweet". In 1970, de Gramont went so far as to claim that "Parisians like coffee more than they do sex, cinema or Charles de Gaulle". Although tiny cups of espresso and grande creme are popular in cafes, the most popular way of drinking coffee at home is in very large cups. Home-made coffee, made by percolating or with an variety of filtering systems is enriched with hot milk and an extraordinary amount of sugar. The French adore coffee almost as much as they do wine and the beverage is so acceptable that even two year old children are given a cup of coffee every morning at breakfast.

The Italians, perhaps more than any other European people, have turned coffee-making into an art-form. From the simplest neighborhood cafes to the most luxurious restaurants and even at home, Italians lavish an enormous amount of energy to ensure that every cup of coffee, whether espresso, cappuccino or coffee with liqueurs or brandies will be absolutely perfect. It goes without saying that whether in major cities like Florence and Rome, in the villages of the Aburzzi mountains or on Sicily, the most popular form of coffee is espresso.

In Spain and Portugal, where most families have a small espresso machine in their homes, nearly every adult wakens and has a small cup of very strong, syrupy sweet coffee even before making their way to the toilet. At breakfast, coffee is served again, this time in large cups with lots of hot milk and sometimes with just a bit of brandy added. In the afternoon and early evening coffee is drunk black and strong. Espresso is the most popular way of preparing coffee outside the house, and in the late hours of the night many take their coffee accompanied by a glass of sweet brandy or anisette

Nearly every other European nation has its unique coffee habits. Throughout Greece and Turkey men and women consume a remarkable number of cups of strong Turkish coffee. On the island of Corfu, for example, it is considered perfectly normal to consume over twenty cups of strong coffee every day. Whether on Corfu or in Athens, one will do well to remember that Greeks refer to their coffee as "Greek" and not Turkish, and any reference to Turkish coffee will automatically be taken as a political statement, showing preference to the hated Turks. In Russia, coffee is popular primarily with breakfast and after dinner and is almost invariably made by percolating. In Romania, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia coffee houses are popular with members of both the working and intellectual classes. In nearly all of the Eastern-European nations coffee is considered an ideal after-dinner drink especially when accompanied by a glass of shlivovitz (prune brandy) or sweet Tokay style wine. Even though instant coffee has become more acceptable in recent years, most Russians and those who inhabit the Balkan states think of it as a poor substitute for "the real thing".

The people who reside on the continents of North and South America have had historically mixed feelings about how they drink their coffee. In Brazil, for example, the coffee industry began in 1727 when a Brazilian military man and diplomat, Melo Palheta, brought coffee seedlings from French Guyana to start the first coffee plantation. It took no more than fifty years for coffee to become the largest cash crop of Brazil and since that time, Brazilians have traditionally made their coffee by boiling it, much as is done in Turkey. Today, Brazil grows approximately one-third of the world's coffee, and the cafe or cafenio, is an ever present fact of life, even in tiny jungle villages. In addition to drinking coffee at home, in restaurants and in cafes, thousands of vendors line the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and other large cities. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, there are over two hundred such vendors on Avenida Rio Branco alone. At any one of these it is possible to enjoy a quick but well made cofffee pick-me-up for the equivalent of just a few pennies.. Despite its popularity, however, coffee is not the most popular beverage of the people who relish the uniquely Brazilian Guarana, a soft drink produced from dried berries, water and sugar.

Because so much coffee comes from Brazil, it surprises many to learn that Brazillian coffees are not considered the best in the world. Even though the small Bourbon Santos coffee beans produce a good cup of coffee, most Brazilian coffees are somewhat harsh, falling short of greatness. No one disagrees, however, that one of the finest coffees is the Blue Mountain variety that comes from the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Throughout the Caribbean, coffee is treated with great respect. Whether percolated or made with espresso machines, it is considered traditional to drink coffeewith a bit of lemon rind floating in the cup. While it is socially acceptable to add sugar, brandy or liqueur to one's coffee, the addition of milk at any time other than during breakfast is thought to be barbaric.

Mexico is also a major coffee producer, and the Altura Coatepec beans raised there are highly valued. Throughout Central America, the favorite way of serving coffee is with hot milk and cinnamon. In Honduras, Guatamala and Panama a small amount of cocoa is often added to coffee.

In the United States and Canada, the last fifteen years have seen a coffee revolution. Until then, with the exception of Greenwich Village, Montreal, San Francisco and a few other isolated places, what Americans was drinking was mostly a watery, week liquid that they were wrongly convinced was coffee. Even today, the "gourmet coffee revolution aside" (we will write more about that on another occasion), the the most popular way of making coffee in America is still by using percolators that allow the water to pass through the coffee grinds over and over, thus guaranteeing that whatever eventually makes its way into a coffee cup will be bitter.

Even though coffee has been a well accepted drink throughout Indonesia and the Pacific Islands (where it is invariably served with milk and sugar), tea and rice wine have remained the most popular beverages of Japan and China. In the last twenty years, however, fashionable coffee bars have begun to appear in such cities as Osaka, Tokyo and Yokohama in Japan and as well as in Peking, Shanghai and several other Chinese cities. According to a recent market survey, espresso and instant coffee are now equally popular, especially with young people, in both countries.

In no place, however, has coffee become as indispensable to life as in the Middle-East. Just a little over a century ago, the American author Mark Twain made a trip to Jerusalem. While there he observed that "the people drink coffee on awakening and then continue drinking coffee through the entire day. No business deal can be closed, no one can become a friend, and no one can be seduced without the presence of coffee. With the good lord as my witness, they even serve coffee at their funerals". Not much has changed in the ensuing hundred years.

© Daniel Rogov