Despite the global expansion of coffee shop franchises, Spain has managed to retain much of its traditional coffee culture. Spaniards are discerning coffee consumers and the quality of coffee from motorway service stations to corner bars is uniformly high.

In the tough post-war years, the bitter café torrefacto dominated as this method of toasting gave the coffee a greater shelf life. Nowadays café natural is the one to go for.

Coffee in Spain is served in a bewildering number of variations so it pays to know what you are ordering:

• Café con leche: the most popular style of coffee, it has at least the same amount of milk as coffee. If you want to have more milk just ask for it to be “corto de café”.

• Café solo: an espresso café often used as a morning kickstart.

• Café cortado: Coffee with a dash of milk, popular as an after lunch coffee.

• Café manchado or leche manchado: effectively a glass of hot milk with a small amount of coffee

• Café con hielo: a summertime favourite. Originally an espresso with a glass of ice which are then mixed, but nowadays you can also ask for a café con leche with ice.

• Café americano: an espresso with a lot of water added to dilute the strength.

• Descafeinado: decaffeinated coffee which can be ordered in the same variations as normal coffee. Make sure to ask for “descafeinado de máquina” as it tastes better than “descafeinado de sobre” (sachets of decaffeinated coffee).