Order Coffee Like a Local on International Coffee Day

International Coffee Day (29th September -1st October) is celebrated across the world to highlight coffee’s journey to your local shop. The day honours the men and women who grow and harvest the coffee we enjoy at home, so raise your mug to International Coffee Day!

“Coffee plays such as big role in people’s lives – it brings people together to socialise, has been linked with productivity at work and can be a comfort when travelling to unknown places.”– said Dan Lyon, MD of FreshGround.

We have created a new interactive tool to help you get your caffeine fix abroad! The tool reveals how to order coffee in the local languages from 8 different countries across the globe, along with helpful tips about each destination’s cafe culture and history. Take a look around the tool here.

Here’s a quick overview of our favourite brews, coffee facts and cultural tips from around the world:

Try something new

If you fancy indulging in something special and a little unusual, take a trip to India where you’ll find Monkey Parchment coffee. Costing roughly $300 a pound, the unusual beverage is brewed from beans that have been chewed up and spat out by Rhesus monkeys in the jungles of India.

If you’re not feeling that adventurous, but want to try something new – Yuanyang may be for you. Popular in Hong Kong, Yuanyang translates to “coffee with tea.” It’s prepared by mixing three parts coffee with seven parts of milk tea.

European café culture

Holidaying a little closer to home? Order like a local in France and ask for a café crème. The drink is very similar to a cappuccino – an espresso topped with foam milk in a small bowl.

If you enjoy your coffee sweet, try a café bombón in Spain – espresso mixed with sweetened condensed milk in a one-to-one proportion. You’ll find different variations of the drink across Asia known as Kopi Susu Panas or Gafeh Rorn in countries such as Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. Pair with churros for the ultimate Spanish indulgence.

Known for their café culture, Italy is the perfect destination for coffee lovers. If you want to blend in with the locals, don’t order a cappuccino afternoon! Italians only drink milky coffee (cappuccino, caffé latte, macchiato) in the morning and never after a meal. You will never see an Italian drinking a cappuccino after dinner, it’s just not the done thing.

Despite their prominence in modern coffee shops, flavoured coffee is not a new concept. Long before caramel macchiatos and mocha frappuccinos came the Irish coffee – a warming concoction of coffee, Irish whiskey, and sugar. Best served topped with thick cream, the first Irish Coffee is said to date back to 1943. The drink was served during the night to disembarking passengers of a Pan Am flying boat to warm them up.

From further afield

Coffee is an integral part of Icelandic life. In fact, the average local consumes a whopping 8.3 kilograms of coffee beans per year, making Icelanders the world’s fourth-largest coffee consumers per capita. Due to the nippy climate, of course, there’s nothing Icelandic about coffee itself. Most of the beans originate from the southern hemisphere such as Colombia, Brazil and Indonesia. Try pairing your coffee with a Matarkex biscuit, an everyday favourite.

We can’t discuss coffee abroad without mentioning Brazil. Arguably the capital of coffee, Brazil is responsible for about a third of all coffee, making the country by far the world’s largest producer. When you visit, you’ll be offered a cafezinho. Try it with a side of Quindim, a popular Brazilian baked dessert, made from sugar, egg yolks, and ground coconut. Coffee plays a huge role in both Brazil’s economic activity and their culture.

Little known facts

Our tool also shares a number of interesting, strange and surprising coffee facts. For example, did you know:

Legend suggests that coffee was discovered during the 9th-century by Ethiopian goat-herder, Kaldi, after he found his goats energised after chewing bright red berries of a particular bush?

Or that Turkish coffee is so essential to Turkish culture that UNESCO confirmed it as an “intangible cultural heritage of Turkey”? Did you know that Denmark boasts the most winners of the World Barista Championships?

In Iceland, superstition suggests that accidentally serving guests coffee in an unmatched cup and saucer (locally known as þrælapar in Icelandic) means the guest will have an affair or remarry.

Friend’s fans will be interested to know that in the 236 episodes of the sitcom, the clan drank a total of 1,154 cups. Phoebe drank the most – a whopping 227 cups!

In Canada, Tim Horton’s dominates the takeway coffee market, boasting 3,692 locations across the country. That’s almost double the number of McDonald’s, totalling roughly one for every 9,000 Canadians.

Worldwide, coffee is big business and the market continues to grow. World coffee exports reached 9.94 million bags in November 2016, up from 8.74 million the previous year.

Despite being known as a nation of tea drinkers, Britons drink approximately 55 million cups of coffee per day. On the high street, café culture has continued to boom. 80% of people who visit coffee shops do so at least once a week, whilst 16% of us visit on a daily basis.

Coffee in the workplace

Coffee is also playing a major role in workplaces across the world. In Finland coffee is so integral to the working day that by law, the Finnish are entitled to a ‘coffee break’ at work twice daily for 10 minutes. Across the pond in the USA, 77 percent of employees have access to a workplace coffee area.

Serving quality office coffee is increasingly important for employers looking to attract top talent — especially in competitive fields like tech. According to a recent survey, 48% of Millennials said that if they were looking for a new job, they would weigh company perks (like coffee) in their decision.

Coffee has also been linked to productivity in the workplace. While many associate caffeine with an energy boost, it has actually been shown to block receptors for adenosine, a compound in the brain that makes you feel sleepy. Giving you that more alert feeling.

Bring the benefits of coffee to your workplace with one of our coffee machines.