El Gran Café de la Parroquia

El Gran Café de la Parroquia is probably the most interesting coffee shop in the Americas! Founded in 1808, it is a requisite visit if you are in Veracruz! In fact they say, "Visiting Veracruz without a visit to El Gran Café de la Parroquia is like not visiting Veracruz at all".

Here is the old bar with the espresso machines.

You order Cafe' Lecharo. You can order other coffee's, but what's the point? You are given a heavy, ribbed glass with a large shot of espresso in it.

You then start clanging your spoon loudly on the side of the glass to attract the waiter who brings over a kettle of steaming hot milk and starts to pour.

He then raises the kettle up in the air as a thin stream of hot milk lands, perfectly centered, in your glass.

The finished product! Enjoy!!

This same ceremony has gone on dozens (hundreds) of times a day for decades! The cafe is full of happy customers, tourists and locals alike, happily clanging their glasses. Cost? I am not sure as we had a guacamole salad to share as well but the coffee was less than 40 pesos ($3) each, less than a Starbucks coffee at home.