Why the coffee in Chile is so bad?

I might be hated for this post, but I lived in Chile for 4 years and could not find decent coffee anywhere in the north of the country. And whoever knows me, is aware that I love good coffee. And the coffee in Chile is really bad.

To get the record straight, none of the photos in this post are coffees in Chile.

I haven’t always been a coffee lover. I used to start a day with a cup of green tea, then more tea. I would occasionally have a cup of coffee with a friend as a pretext to treat myself to the sweetest, biggest chocolate cake you can imagine…with an extra chocolate coating.

My love affair with coffee started when I first went to Spain and saw around me celebrations of coffee and old cafes that looked more like meeting points for locals. Then I went to Italy and France. The same story. While I was wandering around rainy Paris, savoring flamenco sounds in la plaza de las Pasiegas in Granada or getting lost in the labyrinths of Venice, I knew there was something not quite right… When I was absorbing the enchanting atmosphere of little old streets, fruit markets, and squares dominated by music players and artists I felt in my bones that something was missing to complete my experience of those places and its life.

I look here, an old man sank in the lecture of today’s newspapers slowly sipping black sweet coffee, there pipe-smoking gentlemen playing another game of chess with a company of black espresso. Cafes with tables outside full of coffee lovers, and elegant Italian ladies catching up on gossip over a fluffy cappuccino. That was it! I was immediately hooked!
Our love affair has been going on for a few years now. It’s not only the coffee itself that I adore so much, but the atmosphere of little idle cafés, where I can hide with a good lecture or the ones that are bursting with en energy of young people and suited office workers click-clicking on their laptops.

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Reality of ordering coffee in Chile

Here I am now, in a place where coffee-drinking culture seems to be non-existent. I am in a small local bar ordering “completo” (a hot-dog sandwich) and a cup of coffee. I ask for “café con leche”. How weird, he? Why would someone ever ask for milk with their coffee?

The stares of the clientele, and the “I am speechless” mode of a waitress say it all: I am an alien and ask odd questions. She needs to consult it with a manager and on her return after a few minutes she says that they don’t serve coffee with milk. I give up at this point, and drink what I got, brownish instant hot liquid. I was still full of hope trying again and again over the next weeks. Cappuccino with no milk but 3-inch-tall whipped cream (not optional)? Proper coffee Costa-like? I wish!!! Espresso? What is it, some kind of bird? It is not surprising anymore.

See also:

Caleta Buena. In search for penguins and discovering hidden gems of Chile.

Keep calm…and go to Chile. What you need to know before your trip.

A quick guide to San Pedro de Atacama

Wine, sun and art. Visiting Mendoza, Argentina.

I got used to the fact that I am an alien, but still dearly miss that magic of adoring the mighty black liquid gold in a charming café in Montmartre or in the Elephant House in Edinburgh where Harry Potter was born. Living an expat life means sacrifices sometimes. It is inevitable to miss some things, little details of everyday life. It makes you appreciate them more eventually. It is not exactly losing something, but rather enriching your life with new experiences, new, those small and little things you might fall in love with as you travel and live abroad. Eventually, you become a person of many cultures.

Thank you for reading. What are you missing during your travels?

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