Coffee in Europe

Last week, I traveled to Europe for the first time. I went on a study abroad trip with my college for a conference in Belgium. After the conference we traveled to Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. After a flight that left Toronto at 6pm and arrived in Brussels at 7am, consisting of 7 hours airtime and no sleep, I needed coffee. We put our belongings in a storage room in our hostel and went to a cafe called EXKi. After eating my croissant with Brie cheese (delicious) I decided I wanted to buy a coffee to sip while we walked around. I also wanted to see how Europe did their fancy coffee drinks, so I ordered a Mocaccino Frappé. Maybe it was the language barrier between me and the workers, but they seemed confused as to how they should be making it. The drink ended up being a highly concentrated chocolatey espresso drink over ice. In America, Frappé usually means it would be blended. I was confused but didn’t mind so I hoped for the best, paid for the drink, and left. Not that the drink was bad but it wasn’t the most enjoyable because of how strong the chocolate flavor was. My theory is that people don’t order those drinks often in Europe so they weren’t too sure how to make it. From there on out I stuck to regular coffee, or at least regular European coffee. Coffee in Europe is not your typical large cup of filtered coffee grounds. Instead they drink espresso. While I was a little confused how to order at first, I got down the pattern of asking for a coffee with milk, which I then expected to come in a cup that was 3 inches tall. I was not opposed to this in any way... I love me some espresso. Plus, drinking the bigger sized American coffee takes me a couple hours to finish whereas European coffee takes me about 20 minutes to finish. I started to branch out and try cappuccinos and macchiatos, and I truly enjoyed them. They were different from the ones I was used to but I liked it. They didn’t have all those flavor shots and sugars weighing down the true taste of the coffee. In Bosnia, the coffee was a lot more bitter. But in Croatia, I was able to find the best cup of coffee I had on this side of the Atlantic. We were on our way to explore the market and shops and stopped to grab breakfast. We stopped at a little bakery on the road closest to the Adriatic Sea and I ordered coffee with milk and a chocolate custard braided pastry. I would go to this place and eat this exact breakfast every day of my life if I could. The coffee wasn’t bitter and almost tasted slightly sweet with the milk that was used. I wanted that cup to last forever it was so delicious. This was only my first time in Europe, so I can’t wait to begin exploring more coffee shops in Europe, and beyond, the more I travel throughout my life. Until then, I’ll have to put up with American filtered coffee and ordering my oversized lattes and macchiatos with way too much sugar.