BBC: why coffee is so bad in Buenos Aires, the city of the most beautiful cafes

Few cities in the world
They have cafes on their list of tourist sites. Buenos Aires is one of them.

Here they are
Tortoni, La Biela and
Violets, among a vast portfolio of beautiful spaces; full of legends, charismatic waiters and high ceilings, designed floors and carved finishes.

These are historical remains of a country that no longer exists: Argentina, power of the first half of the twentieth century.

These are the most beautiful cafes in America, but the coffee is rather regular.

Flor Migliorisi, an expert on Argentine coffee, said: "Neither the quantities of coffee and water, nor the time of extraction, nor the hygiene of the machines are treated with care".

And Sergio Mazzitelli, a food consultant from Buenos Aires, agrees: "Lack of culinary knowledge and commercial opportunism have led to a merger that has resulted in much of what we now know in the field. ".

The coffee that is found in the most popular cafes of Buenos Aires is bitter and requires the addition of sugar or milk and the accompaniment of soda or water to avoid the chills . In a word, it's ugly.

And this correspondent, a Colombian consumer of coffee, can not deny them. The coffee that is found in the most popular cafes of Buenos Aires is bitter and requires the addition of sugar or milk and the accompaniment of soda or water to avoid the chills . In a word, it's ugly.

A porteñismo

Argentina is not a big consumer of coffee: according to the figures of the Argentine Chamber of Coffee, Argentines consume on average 1 kilo per year and per person, a figure well below that of Brazil (6 kilos), Costa Rica (3, 6 kilograms) or Colombia (1.4 kilograms). The world average is 4 kilos.

But Argentina is not the same as Buenos Aires, where the culture of yerba mate does not monopolize the menu of drinks as in the rest of the country.

But more than that, which explains the paradox of bad coffee in beautiful cafes, according to experts consulted by BBC Mundo, is that this drink is not the reason why people visit them.

"The purpose of coming here is not to drink coffee, but to pay homage to the past," says Migliorisi, sitting in a traditional cafeteria, sipping a coffee that she can not finish.

At his side, there are several tables with singles who read or look at the horizon while accompanying their coffee with a half moon, the sweet and Argentine version of the crescent. It sounds a tango. And on the walls, football team flags and pictures of illustrious people from the past.

Migliorisi has devoted his political science thesis to the reason of being of these legendary cafes.

He argues that "in cafeterias, the use of the word, the meeting with other people and the informal reflection and discussion on random subjects in the public domain are the most remarkable activities" .

"Melting pot"

Something similar think Carlos Cantinim, author of the blog
Café Contado, which emphasizes that coffee shops "have never given importance to coffee, but to the meeting and to the physical space".

"It's a place to confess, think, fall in love, write, compose, whatever the drink," he says.

"Most European immigrants who arrived at the end of the 19th century were single men living in residences and, being a city without green spaces, the cafeteria became a place of sharing, in the living room of the house; a space with a very clean mystique, "he explains.

But this is not the only reason why coffee was not the hallmark of these places: Mazzitelli says that Argentinian cuisine is actually the Spanish version of Italian cuisine. A rare fusion that illustrates the fate of the "melting pot", or melting pot of cultures, which was the capital half a century ago.

"The Spaniards and Italians have contributed greatly to the gastronomic culture of Buenos Aires, but in the commercial gastronomy, the Iberians have seized the land and have begun to incorporate pasta, pizza, Italian pastries and, of course, the coffee in their business ".

It was the Spaniards who brought Torrado coffee to Argentina, a low-quality, sugar-toasted variety that now dominates the South American market.

According to Mazzitelli, for immigrants, "the art of preparing a good coffee" has never been a concern: they care more about belonging to an identity or an institution than developing a good gastronomic product.

Mecca of specialty coffee

Although there are few indications that cafes in Buenos Aires are changing their coffee methods, Buenos Aires is one of the cities with more specialty coffee specialty establishments.

Migliorisi, citing the existence of more than 100 people, devotes its visits to types of places where they sell coffee of origin, non-industrial, planted, roasted and subtracted with a meticulous hand. Most are found in the young and cosmopolitan district of Palermo, the Buenos Aires version of Williamsburg in New York, a typical scenario for finding places of this style.

"The Buenos Aires of nostalgia is a culture closed on itself that can not move forward," he says.

For her, showcasing specialty coffees, it's revealing an avant-garde, cosmopolitan and global city.

"Here is a stigma of the old," he says. "The idea that things can be better is blocked, we live in a cultural gerontocracy (the old government)."

But there is a problem, according to her: if Argentina does not let the economic problems plague it for decades, plan for the future is very difficult.

That's why he concludes, "The times of the economy mean that the times of politics, planning, that is, of the future, are suspended." The only safe haven for society is the past. The past was necessarily better, and it is false, because there is a possibility of a better future. "

By Daniel Pardo

BBC Mundo correspondent in Argentina

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