Cafe Bombon

[Simon Tan]

How common is this style of coffee in Spain? In SE Asia, it is the default if you go into a classic coffee shop or kopitiam. Essentially coffee with condensed milk at the bottom. You stir it to get the desired sweetness.

[sunday]

Not much.

 

Spain was not traditionally a coffee country in the sense that Italy is, despite using the same kind of pressurized coffee machine.

 

Coffee in bares, the national equivalent to pubs/taverns is mainly served in four ways:

 

Café solo: coffee only in a coffee glass (capacity of a small cup).

Cortado (o café manchado in Madrid): half a c.g. of coffee, milk to the rim

Carajillo: same as cortado, but with brandy instead of milk

Café con leche: usual glass with a dose like of café solo, and milk to the rim

[RETAC21]

It's quite common in the Canaries only, in some places in the peninsula you can ask for it, and they will serve it.

 

Small correction though, a cortado is an expresso size coffe (small cup) 50/50 milk/coffee, leche manchada is 25% coffee, rest milk on breakfast size cup.

 

Don't forget also that there's an iced variety, café con hielo

 

Quality varies a lot, hotels usually have decent coffee, in other places it's a toss.

[Juan Sosa]

The bombon is a complete bomb. A couple of weeks ago I had one in a little tapas place in Calle 8 here. It had my heart racing for the rest of the day. They serve it with very very strong expresso. The combination of the caffeine and the intense sugar rush was too much for me. I'll stick with my cafe solo thank you very much. Maybe some ice if it is hot outside (and it always is hot in Miami).

 

As for how common it is in Spain, I had never seen it ordered or offered anywhere that I've been to.

 

Retac, my understanding of the coffee menu in Spain is similar to yours, although I take my cortado with just a splash of milk. Never heard of the leche manchada name.

Edited November 16, 2012 by Juan Sosa

[RETAC21]

if there's interest, I´ll take a snapshot of the work coffee machine, it has all varieties.

[Simon Tan]

Do share.

[SALADIN]

The cortado in Spain is way better than the stuff i have tried elsewhere and i am a" convert"

In SE Asia , my fav for many years was :""Butter coffee" , coffee with a dollop of frozen butter.Viet coffee is great too.

[Mr King]

I have heard of butter coffee. The whole idea of a pad of butter in my coffee makes me queasy, but I would still give it a try, I imagine between the fat and the caffien it would really get your "innards" going. Now Cafe Bombon on the other hand, sounds just delicious.

[SALADIN]

Butter coffee has got a slightly salty, greasy taste.Yes it is an acquired taste .Quite rare to find it nowadays alas

 

NYT artictle

 

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/travel/in-singapore-drinking-in-the-kopitiam-experience.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[Simon Tan]

Fu-yoh.....old school. I believe it was when Cold Storage started to bring in butter and it was seen as a luxury item. My aunty used to eat it by the small blobs.

What is not well known is that kopitiam coffee was actually pan roasted in big woks and that they used butter and margerine in the process.

Today, most of the 'condensed milk' in SE Asia is in fact something known as Sweetened Beverage Creamer, whose fat content is mainly vegetable fats and skim milk powder. SBC cannot be called Condensed Milk but the tinnies are almost identical. Most people are not aware of this.

[SALADIN]

Home for me in the 60s and early seventies was a cramped 25 square metre room shared with 4 younger brothers , parents and grandad..Dad was perhaps earning a grand total of US $30 or 40 per month.

BUTTER was a luxury item , had only on the most special of days ..So a lot of the older folk here have it" hardwired" into them that butter added to anything (including coffee) made it special.

[Simon Tan]

Even today, butter on your toast is a surcharge.

[RETAC21]

As promised:

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Juan Sosa]

The infamous coffee machine!!!

 

They had those at Instituto de Empresa while I was there. The best I can say about them is that they did provide a needed shot of caffeine in between classes. Whenever possible we walked to the bar down the block in Maria de Molina for a proper cafe solo or cortado.

 

I'm a little sad for you Retac if that is all you have available. What area of the city do you live/work in?

[RETAC21]

Nope, plenty of cafeterias, but the coffee machine is free, even though the coffee is only good to wake up. I work at Ayala with Velazquez, walking distance from the IE.

[Juan Sosa]

When I go back to Madrid I spend most of my time and stay in that neighborhood. We should meet up for a proper coffee when I'm in town. Lots of options in that area.

[RETAC21]

Sure, just give me a shout, though I am travelling a bit as of late, depending on the time of the year we can even link up with Ken Estes for an I&I

[ramontxo]

Whenever i have to cook in any one of my two "sociedades" i usually give just two options "cafe solo", black coffee, and "cafe Baileys" wich is like a "cortado" but with the liquor instead of milk...

[Mr King]

I have been eating low carbs for the last couple of months. Something that is a "thing" on this diet is bullet proof coffee that people swear by. You take coffee and add a tablespoon or more of extra virgin unrefined coconut oil and unsalted preferably organic grass fed butter. Then you blend them together. Taste pretty good, and gets the old intestinal track moving in the morning real well.