TRAVEL

The Best Euro Life Hack for Coffee Drinkers

These people know how to do it right

I am just back from an incredible trip to Montenegro, a tiny European country the size of Connecticut that used to be part of Serbia and part of the former Yugoslavia. It was a personal trip, my first plane ride since I spent a year solo in my New York City apartment. I went for love and came back with something almost just as good: a new way to drink coffee. (I also came back with love. He flew back with me and moved in. It was a pandemic romance birthed with a masked walk and nurtured via WhatsApp from 4,500 miles away. It’s a story for another time.)

They do coffee differently in Europe. In Montenegro, they don’t have tall, grande, venti. There is no Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino. And there are no to-go cups. Why would you walk while drinking coffee? How unciviled. In fact, there isn’t a Starbucks to be found. Not one. Yes, “Want to go for a coffee?” is an hourly refrain. Coffee houses abound. Even during the pandemic, most have outdoor seating and are serving small cups of joe all day long. But when I asked my new boyfriend why there are no Starbucks in the country, he replied, “We would never pay that much for coffee.” And they don’t. They drop a euro coin or two on the table to cover an hour of coffee talk.