ILCNEWS / FOOD
Bye -‐ Bye Nescafé Enjoying the Chilean coffee shop You just can’t beat chillin’ out in a sidewalk café enjoying a cup of joe. This is not an experience to take lightly here in SanCago. It wasn’t all that long ago that there was a percepCon out there about Chile’s coffee scene being somewhat lacklustre.
By Susan Taylor
biggest and best coffee producers in the world, how can you not get a decent cup of coffee in Chile?
Unlike Brazil and Colombia, coffee has never been a tradiConal hot drink down here. It really has been in the last 50 years or so that it has started to take hold A couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have blamed visitors (more on this point later). Before that, tea and a drink for bringing beans from home. Going into a restaurant, called “ulpo” were the choices; Ulpo got its start when at Cmes, meant you got some hot water and some the Spanish conquistadores brought wheat to be Nescafé instant coffee. Thankfully, the Cmes are grown in the south. The Mapuche toasted the wheat, changing in this regard. A couple of weekends ago, I ground it and added it to hot water with some honey. happened to come across the 1st Annual Cafe Expo This was very popular in the countryside, and in some held in Espacio Juventud in Providencia, where coffee parts it sCll is. baristas got to demonstrate the art of making wonderful la?es and espressos. Could it be that About 50-‐years ago, a group of business men got SanCago is finally shedding this age-‐old reputaCon of together and decided they would really like to have a bad coffee and is embracing a new atmosphere of place to go in the aPernoons and have their espresso. coffee bean supremacy? A new business was born, Café HaiC, which was soon to be known as the first café con piernas (coffee with You may be thinking like I did when I first got here: legs). This wasn’t any ordinary business as it was a When you are on the same conCnent as some of the coffee shop where the female servers all wore very Photo: Ricardo Salcedo
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