[LINK] "As Espresso Rises, Will 'Greek Coffee' Be Left To The Turks?"

[rfmcdonald]

Alastair Bland's post at NPR's The Salt about the decline of traditional Greek coffee-drinking patterns caught my attention.

Greeks have loved coffee for centuries. Today, they drink more per capita than even the French and Italians, and almost as much as Americans, and they may spend hours each week in cafes. They're proud of their coffee too, and if you call their rich, gritty signature brew "Turkish coffee" instead of Greek, you're practically asking for a fight in the Greek islands.

But while coffee can be a matter of national pride, increasingly, the Greeks are sipping on a decidedly non-Greek brew: espresso. Chalk it up as one more sign of globalization.

From hipster-thick city centers to the remote hinterlands, espresso is booming in Greece. Mikel Coffee Co., a cafe chain focused on espresso-based drinks, has spread through the country. New restaurants in Athens are specializing in serving espresso — and training baristas to prepare it. Coffee-roasting companies have appeared, and in the midst of the trend, gritty Greek coffee has been put on the back burner.

And the tourism industry has also latched firmly onto espresso: Today, new hotels often install industrial-sized espresso machines in their kitchens, something they weren't doing five years ago, says Athens architect Yiannis Giannopoulos, who oversees construction and remodeling of hotels.

Chrysa Gerolymatou, the general director of the 6-year-old Mikel Coffee Co., believes Greek coffee lovers increasingly see espresso as a more cosmopolitan, modern choice. Whatever the reasons, she says, espresso is undeniably catching on in Greece. "Consider that until the early '90s, there were only two coffee choices — Greek traditional coffee and instant coffee," she tells The Salt in an email.