UEFA European Championship 2016 – Group A and their coffee
France plays host to the second biggest international football tournament this summer (the World Cup being the biggest), and to celebrate the fact that this is the largest European Championships ever, now featuring 24 European nations, we are going to highlight the favoured coffee of each nation in the build up to the biggest sporting event of the summer.
We might even admit who we think will win the tournament this time round…
Group A
France – ‘café’
The host nation is famous for Parisian coffee shops. The coffee of choice in France is “café au lait” which literally translates as “coffee over milk”.
But this is not simply a traditional white coffee.
Café au lait differs in that the milk is hot or heated, as opposed to cold milk when served as what we know as a white coffee.
Unlike the latte, the serving style does differ slightly, with the more Italian caffé latte served in a kitchen glass and always prepared using an espresso machine. The French do prepare espresso machines in cafes and bars since the espresso machine was made available in the 1940s.
This French variation is served in a porcelain cup or bowl and could be espresso based or even dark coffee based.
Romania – ‘cafea’
Romania has not had much of a starring role in the international football scene for some time now, with the 1998 World Cup squad almost banished from memory, apart from the hilarious shaved head bleached blond hair incident.
The small former Soviet controlled nation has some interesting coffee recipes, and as a Romanian favourite, the Marghilomana Coffee is their gift to this competition.
Made in a similar manner to that of Turkish coffee drinkers, the Marghilomana is named after a wealthy politician, Alexandru Marghiloman, after he asked for a coffee but his servant had to improvise and use brandy instead of water whilst hunting.
To make a Marghilomana all you need to do is simmer 100ml of brandy (or rum), add two teaspoons of sugar, then once the brandy is boiling just add 3 teaspoons of coffee.
No wonder the Romanian players struggled to qualify for a major tournament if they were knocking back the ‘coffee’…
Albania – ‘Kafe’
Albania have never qualified for a major tournament until Euro 2016, which is to be lauded when you consider that the nation only has a population of approximately 3 million people.
As for their coffee drinking habits, much like vast swathes of Eastern Europe, Albania prepare their coffee much like the Turkish.
Using a small pot, known as a cezve, to prepare their unfiltered coffee and then served in a small cup.
This method does not boil the finely ground coffee beans, but just simmers them.
Superstitions say that the grounds left after drinking Turkish coffee can be used for fortune-telling, although not Mystic Meg, I would almost be banking on the Albanian minnows to be knocked out of the group stages without a single point.
Switzerland – ‘café or Kaffee’
Much like their French speaking counterparts, the French-speaking portion of Switzerland refer to their coffee as café. But unlike France, their signature coffee serving is known as the “café renversé” which means “reverse coffee”.
To make a Swiss-style reverse coffee, one must add the milk first as a base, and then the espresso or coffee is added.
Maybe it’s the Swiss way of sticking one to the French?
Sacré bleu!
As for the German speaking element of the Alpine nation, the reverse coffee is known as die Schale or macchiato lungo.