Spanish Coffee Culture

When you order coffee in Gran Canaria or Spain in general, you will quickly find out that coffee is somewhat different from what you may be used to at home.


Some typical varieties of coffee in Spain:

Café solo - small, strong, black coffee. It comes somewhat close to espresso.

Café con leche - large coffee with milk but it's not the same as coffee with milk. There is quite a lot of milk in it! It is similar to the Italian caffe latte. Café con leche consists of strong coffee (sometimes it might be espresso) mixed with scalded milk in a 1:1 ratio.

Café cortado - a small coffee with a little milk in it.

Carajillo - an espresso with a dash of brandy or rum.

Cafes in Las Palmas

You will find plenty of cafes and bars to recharge your batteries in the centre of Las Palmas. Most of the cafes are serving not only coffee but also beer, alcohol and food. Here are some picture from a typical neighborhood cafe / snack bar in the Triana district of Las Palmas. My impression was that the cafes in Las Palmas are nicer and cheaper than the bars one would typically find in tourist places like Playa del Ingles and Maspalomas.

A typical Spanish cafe in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

The cafe con leche, Spanish for coffee with plenty of milk, was great! I finished it in seconds!