Coffee Shop Culture – A Guide to Coffee Shops

We LOVE coffee shops! Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world.

Coffee plants are cultivated in over 70 countries, mainly in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Africa, India and Southeast Asia. The two most commonly grown are Arabica and Robusta. Once ripe, coffee beans are picked, processed, and dried. Green ‘unroasted’ coffee beans are one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world. Once traded, the beans are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor, before being ground and brewed to create coffee.

Coffee is a brewed drink, prepared from roasted coffee beans, which are the seeds of “berries” from the Coffea plant. Brewing is either done slowly by drip or filter, French press or cafetière, percolator, etc. or very quickly under steam pressure by espresso machine. All coffee drinks are based on either coffee or espresso, in different strengths.

Coffee is slightly acidic and can have a stimulating effect due to its caffeine content.

Baristas prepare coffee in a variety of ways, including espresso, cappucino and cafe latte and it’s usually served hot, although iced coffee is also popular. Coffee beans come in different flavours and sizes. Coffee can be black or served as white coffee with a dairy milk or cream or a dairy substitute. It can be sweetened with sugar or sweeteners. Coffee can be decaffeinated. Coffee can also have alcohol or flavourings added to it.

Coffee shops have existed for over five hundred years.

With the invention of the Gaggia machine, espresso, cappuccino and cafe latte spread in popularity from Italy to the UK in the 1950’s, and with the rise in popularity of the Italian coffee culture in the 1980’s it spread worldwide via coffee houses and coffee house chains.

We are in the process of putting together a complete list of coffee shops. Please feel free to contribute to this list. Email us the name / address / website (if you know it) of the coffee shop you’d like to add to the list, along with the name of the city, and we’ll get it on here.