Marzo en Brasil - NY Times "Cafecitos, etc."

Day Out Rio de Janeiro
In a Coffee-Mad City, the Bitter With the Sweet

John Maier Jr. for The New York Times
By GREGORY DICUM

Published: March 25, 2007

IN Rio de Janeiro, every street corner offers an opportunity for refreshment: juice bars, açaí stands, open-air bars and of course botequins. These neighborhood institutions are part café, part lunch counter and part bistro; the place for a quick salgadinho, one of the salty snacks like fried balls of salt cod, and a cafezinho, the little cup of coffee beloved by Brazilians.

A cafezinho at Café Gaúcho, for many Brazilians only one of a day’s several. Bright with mirrors, cool tile and loud signs in red and yellow lettering, the botequins have a retro feel. Café Gaúcho, in downtown Rio, is a classic. It opens to a busy street corner, making the most of the city's joyful culture and tropical air. Commuters step off the sidewalk to the cashier, offering a few coins in exchange for a chit, which they then take to the coffee counter.

At Café Gaúcho, the counter is a circular island where patrons stand, a typical arrangement that is said to have been invented here. A man in a crisp white shirt stands in the center, working a stainless steel contraption of pipes and tanks, one tank for coffee and one for milk, kept warm by a bath of hot water. Cups and saucers steep in the water too, and after he takes the chit, the operator opens a steel door and pulls out a set, placing it, wet, on the stone countertop. Then he fills a stainless steel pitcher with dark, steaming coffee from a tap at the base of the tank, and with a fluid motion, splashes it into the tiny cup.

Coffee in Brazil has always been a world unto itself. For more than a century, Brazil has been by far the planet's largest coffee producer. And Brazilians themselves drink coffee enthusiastically: total consumption is second only to the United States. But quantity and quality are different things: nearly all the best coffee is exported.

Like samba and the Portuguese language, coffee is easy to mangle, but that being said the Brazilian coffee culture still has a transcendent quality. Cafezinho is the very soul of the botequim, and the botequim is a direct link to the golden age of Rio. In his classic 1931 samba “Conversa de Botequim,” Noel Rosa, who spent much of his short, dissolute life hanging out at a botequim right around the corner from Café Gaúcho (there's a mural of him there now), describes the sociable scene with swinging wit.

During a recent visit to Café Gaúcho, I chose to have my cafezinho black; other options include Carioca (“Rio-style” with added water), media (with milk) and pintado (just a few drops of milk). Sugar goes without saying in Brazil. I leaned on the cool stone, listening to the clatter all around me, watching the whiteness of the sugar vanish into the black coffee. After a quick stir with the doll-sized spoon, I raised the cafezinho to my lips.

It was terrible.

EVEN if the beans at Café Gaúcho had been the best available, botequins often manhandle the brew, heating it for hours and driving off any flavor. Cariocas (people who live in Rio) told me over and over that to get a good cafezinho at a botequim, it is essential to get there first thing in the morning. Given Rio's unparalleled nightlife, that turned out to be impossible, even for coffee enthusiasts like my wife, Nina, and me, co-authors of a book about the addictive bean.

But at its best, Brazilian coffee has a full, mellow flavor. Unlike the brightly acidic Central American and Colombian coffees that are popular at trendy cafes in North America, Brazilian “naturals” have a round taste that evokes a time when coffee was a simpler matter.

Think vintage 1970s Chock Full o'Nuts. “Brazilian Arabica naturals are good all-day coffees,” said Manoel Corrêa do Lago, a Rio coffee trader who works with huge international buyers. When coffee first came to Brazil in the 19th century, the steep hillsides all around Rio were planted with the dark bushes. They quickly depleted the soil, and the hot climate affected the taste (a “Rio-y” flavor is still considered a defect), so production moved to the highlands in the state of São Paulo. Nonetheless, Rio became the cultural capital of Brazil, with a distinctly European sensibility: when the Portuguese royal family fled Napoleon by moving to Rio in 1808, the city became the only New World seat of a European monarchy.

So it's no surprise the city also developed a sophisticated café culture reminiscent of Paris or Vienna. Confeitaria Colombo, downtown, is the grandest example. The huge, elegant space opens up to a canopy of stained glass that washes filtered light onto huge mirrors. Their dark, carved frames are of the same ornate style as the opulent wood-and-glass cabinets towering above the counters. Marble tables and heavy cane-seated chairs are spaced generously around the tile floor, and orange-aproned waiters roam the noisy space carrying cakes and luxurious drinks on gleaming silver trays.

We had sublimely fresh pineapple juice spiked with green flecks of mint, a garlicky empada (a pastry filled with minced hearts of palm and salt cod), a fudgy brownie and assertive espresso. Nina pronounced it “quite good.”

This was not our first espresso in Rio. Espresso from Illy and Lavazza has already replaced the cafezinhos long served to visitors at many of the city's shops, as well as at many cafés and restaurants. In November, Brazil's first Starbucks opened in São Paulo. Though the beans in virtually all of these blends are Brazilian, they have been transformed into a globalized product. Cafezinhos are traditionally complimentary at the end of a meal. But espresso is never free. Mr. Corrêa do Lago, whose gaze turns dreamy when he thinks of the perfect cafezinho — “I love them,” he says — is also an economist. Because it's not usually free, he says, espresso in Rio is more reliable. So far, there's no sign of a gourmet cafezinho.

Rio's espresso scene is most developed in fashionable enclaves like Leblon and Ipanema, as well as more bohemian districts like Santa Teresa, a hilltop neighborhood of majestically shabby old houses, art galleries and restaurants served by a rickety yellow tram from downtown. There, we sat under leafy mango trees on the terrace at Largo das Letras, a small cafe in a big, old mansion that also houses a bookstore and a dance studio. Looking out over Rio's chaotic expanse, we enjoyed an ineptly but enthusiastically pulled Lavazza.

Later, near the other end of the tram, in Rio's old center, we found one of the best shots of espresso in the city. “Here you drink better quality than we send to Finland,” said the owner, Oswaldo Aranha Netto, referring to one of the most demanding coffee markets in the world. Mr. Aranha, a lifelong coffee trader, opened Café Rubro on the ground floor of a building occupied by some of the country's most venerable coffee traders (including Mr. Corrêa do Lago's). Though the small, sparse espresso bar is hard to find, Mr. Aranha says a thousand people make their way there every day. As we spoke, we each polished off a large mug filled with rich black espresso made with beans from the Sur de Minas region, north of Rio.

Fat tropical raindrops began to fall in the fading evening light outside, and Mr. Aranha, a true coffee lover deep in the caffeine thrall, leaned in close to us. “Brazil is different from the rest of the world,” he said, his English tinged with Brooklynese from his days living in one of the world's other great coffee ports. “It's the only country that can produce anything you want.”

VISITOR INFORMATION
Café Gaúcho, at Rua São José, 86, in Rio's Centro (21-2533-9285), is a classic botequim. Get a cafezinho because you must (0.80 reais, or about 40 cents at 2.1 reais to the U.S. dollar), but be sure to sample the classic sandwiches like pernil (marinated roast pork) and rib roast (4.50 reais). Or for a lighter snack, get the classic combination of media (cafezinho with milk) with pão na chapa com manteiga (grilled buttered bread) for under 3 reais.

Confeitaria Cavé, at Rua 7 de Setembro, 137, Centro (21-2221-0533; http://www.confeitariacave.com.br/), is the oldest in Rio. The interior is a little cramped, and the fluorescent lights dispatch any remaining charm, but the cakes are delicious. Try the signature ratinho, a playful mouse-shaped pastry flavored with marzipan, or the succulent, eggy rabanada.

Also in Centro, at Rua Gonçalves Dias, 32, Confeitaria Colombo (21-2232-2300; http://www.confeitariacolombo.com.br/) has been on every visitor's itinerary since it was founded in 1894. In the magnificent space, it's not hard to discern the echoes of generations enchanted by this city.

Armazém do Café is a local chain with eight locations in Rio. The original opened 10 years ago in Ipanema, at Rua Maria Quitéria, 77 loja G (21-2522-5039; http://www.armazemdocafe.com.br/). Coffee blends reflect the range of beans available from different parts of Brazil, and the place is often hopping.

Largo das Letras, in a big mansion at Rua Almirante Alexandrino, 501 (21-2221-8992; http://www.largodasletras.com.br/), epitomizes Santa Teresa's theatrical decay. Flip through a small but well-chosen collection of books about Brazilian history, art and culture, and sigh before the vista of Rio spread out below.

Some of the best espresso (2.20 reais) in Rio can be found at any of the three locations of Café Rubro. As you sit in the small, gleaming shop at Rua da Quitanda, 191, Centro (21-2516-0610; http://www.rubrocafe.com.br/), coffee blenders are hard at work a few floors above you, in rooms rich with the earthy smell of green coffee from all over Brazil.