How Coffee Is Prepared Around the World

Great Big Story visited five different countries around the world to learn more about the regional coffee culture, specifically how the caffeinated beverage is prepared.

If there is one thing people everywhere love, it just might be coffee—more than 2 billion cups are consumed on this planet every single day. In this installment of “Around the World,” we travel to five different countries to sample five different kinds of coffee because, frankly, someone had to do it. From café de olla in Mexico to egg coffee in Vietnam, we still haven’t met a cup we didn’t like.

In Mexico City, Mexico, a woman name Giusy prepares a pot of Café de Olla, which incorporates panela (unrefined block sugar), cinnamon and orange rinds.

In Dima Atabala, Ethiopia, Dassu Tolas hand roasts Jimma coffee beans to make a big pot of for herself and her neighbors.

In Kåge, Sweden, Erica Hermansson enjoys her coffee with traditional homemade cheese, as milk spoiled more easily in the past.

In Hanoi, Vietnam the proprietor of Cafe Dinh prepares a cup their famous egg coffee. The egg was used as a substitute for milk during the dairy rationing of the 1970s and has been on the menu ever since.

In Istanbul, Turkey, vendor Cihan Zekioglu of Cafe 23 serves up a gorgeous cup of coffee that has been prepared over a pan of hot sand.