We are fond of the cafe con leche in Spain. In Italy having coffee with milk after breakfast marks you as a child or a tourist. In Spain there is some of that but it is not as strong.
In Basque Country you just order a cafe con leche and that’s that. As soon as we got into Cantabria they started asking if we wanted a regular or a grande. We noticed that on other Caminos as well, part-way through they started asking.
We have started a ritual where we go out around four of five and settle into a bar, grab a table and do our daily blogging. That is too late for coffee for us so we get decafs. Every time the decafs have been very good, as good as any of the regular coffees we have gotten. Of course, we are coffee heretics anyway what with the milk we use, so don’t listen to us.
Also, once we got into Cantabria, we started getting cafes in glasses instead of cups. In one place only the grandes were in glasses. This works unless the coffee is very hot. We like these regional differences.
Another thing we like is that every bar is unique, there do not seem to be any chains. No doubt private capital will swoop in soon and ruin that.
I’ve noticed that in America some places have started serving “cortados,” which seem to be cappuccinos with denser foam (I was going to say “less foamy foam”). Cappuccinos come in cups, cortados in glasses. Then, if you are in Britain, there is the “flat white,” which appears to be a milky cortado.