Andalucia Impressions: Coffee time in Andalucía

We always drank café con leche and the price varied from €1.10 (Bornos) to €2, but it was usually €1.20/1.40. It was always piping HOT . Obvious? Well, no, considering the amount of lukewarm cappuccino I've drunk in Italy. Once, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, it came, mysteriously, with ice in a separate glass. Sometimes it was served in glasses, sometimes in cups, amounts varied, twice in two months (Bornos and Alicante) there was a little biscuit with it. Sometimes we sat down to have coffee (San Jose) while other people were still lunching on fried fish in the same café, but when we asked if it was possible just to drink a coffee it always was. Mysteriously, sometimes on a cafe menu 'cappuccino' cost 2€ and café con leche €1.50. There's a franchise called Garnier which do coffee plus cake special offers and they always have a jug of water and plastic cups for you to help yourself. Other cafés and cake shops also do coffee and cake offers. Cakes are much cheaper than in Italy or the UK. There's nothing really irresistible to our tastes on a par with Cannoli siciliani forse example, but various types of cheesecake are popular and good and the ones we ate in Vic and El Bosque were some of the best ever. Our favourite sweet snack was  Tortas de aceite de Ines Rosales , a thin olive oil wafer dusted with sugar. Originally intended to accompany jamón serrano, we found it the perfect light choice with coffee or to end the meal when eating in.

Malaga deserves a section of its own because cafés in Malaga, in particular Café Central in Plaza de la Constitución, serve 10 different concentrations of coffee and milk, from Solo which is just coffee, through Mitad, about half and half to Sombra and Nube which is just a dash of coffee in a glass of milk, all in different quantities from small cup to large. Ideal if you are a fussy coffee drinker, much more fun than just asking for café con leche, but don't ask for a Sombra as close as Torremolinos because they won't understand you!