Coffee is one of the most widespread and popular drink all around the world. Similarly to Hungarian palinka it has become more and more popular in the past few decades. Coffee offers many ways for consumption and these ways vary from nation to nation and from continent to continent.
People drink coffee with sugar, without sugar, with different kinds of natural sweeteners, honey, with milk or pure, with cream or milk foam. The number of varieties is endless.
In many cultures – just like palinka – coffee became part of the everyday life. Coffee drinking is an important part of almost every family gatherings, professional meetings and conferences. And since coffee is such a ‘cultural drink’, different cultures formed their own coffee consumption habits and traditions.
Coffee, similarly to palinka is a unique drink but in order to understand how these two seemingly incomparable drinks create great harmony in one cup, one must dip deeper into the history and variety of coffee.
According to records, coffee comes from Ethiopia and due to the extensive and rapid development of trade and shipping, it soon became widespread all around the world. Basically, coffee – a rather interesting plant – managed to conquer to world and got a huge number of fans in almost each and every part of Planet Earth.
The two main varieties of coffee are the so called Arabica and Robusta. The Arabica variety originates from Ethiopia and produces a rather mild, aromatic coffee with lower caffeine than Robusta.
Arabica is the most widespread coffee type among consumers. Unlike Arabica, Robusta is mainly grown in Africa, some parts of Asia and mainly Brazil and it has approximately 50 % more caffeine than Arabica.
Due to its strong, characteristic bitter taste Robusta is less favoured among coffee lovers but it usually does not served in itself. Robusta is mainly used in blends. One of the most popular coffee blends is 80 % Arabica and 20 % Robusta. These two perfectly complement each other.
Many people do not know but coffee lovers and baristas say there are the so called ‘alcohol-free’ coffees and the ‘alcoholic’ coffees.
These categories are based on national preferences. For instance, Madras or Indian filter coffee, Javanese coffee and Turkish coffee are considered to be ‘alcohol-free’ or ‘non-alcoholic’ coffees.
On the other hand, the most well-know Irish coffee, the Limoncello-coffee, the Angels’ kiss and Russian coffee prepared with vodka are considered to be the ‘alcoholic’ ones.
Just like many other alcoholic beverages, palinka is suitable for making fantastic cocktails and even coffee cocktails. The strength of palinka that we use depends on the strength of the coffee.
There is no exact recipe, only our imagination can set the limit. The most popular palinkas for coffee cocktails are apricot, plum and sour cherry. We can drink it as an espresso or latte, with or without sweeteners. We can decorate the glass with fruit that matches the palinka’s flavour. It is a perfect drink for special occasions, birthdays and even for Christmas.
