The best coffee in Rio
Mmmmm, crema…
On my last visit to Melbourne I was reminded of a couple of things. Firstly, Australians are obsessed with coffee (a little too obsessed in my opinion, but I guess that just makes me a coffee philistine). Secondly, Brazil produces more coffee than any other nation on Earth (this was mentioned on a poster in some uber-cool coffee shop I visited). So you’d think coffee would be a big deal back in Rio, right?
Hmmm, not so much actually. That’s not to say Cariocas don’t drink coffee – they do, gallons of the stuff. But if picky antipodeans (Kiwis are at least as bad as their Australian cousins in my experience) come over here expecting decent flat whites in every street café they’re in for major disappointment. While the general standard of coffee here isn’t bad – at least it tends to be reasonably strong, not that wishy-washy ‘diner coffee’ that I’m told is quite common in the US – it’s usually pretty forgettable.
Then not so long ago my friends Isabelle and Helena told me about a place that they confidently proclaimed to serve ‘The Best Coffee in Rio’. Not only that, but the establishment in question was doing something rather interesting with its business model.
Curto Café
They say the best things in life are worth making an effort for. Well Curto Café requires a reasonable amount of effort to track down, but once you arrive I think you’ll be glad you did the extra legwork. It is located in Edifício Garagem Menezes Côrtes in Centro.
Not the fanciest shopping centre in Rio but head inside for caffeine treats.
My mum was staying with me a couple of weeks ago and as she drinks a fair amount of coffee it seemed like the perfect time to pay Curto Café a visit. Once we got inside the shopping centre we took various wrong turns before eventually finding ourselves in the right place. Before I can tell you what “the right place” is, I need to quickly deal with a terminology issue. Personally, I call the floor at ground level “the ground floor”; when I go up a flight of stairs, I call my new location “the first floor”. After various confusions and missed rendezvous I discovered that many Brazilians (and I think other nationalities) refer to the floor at ground level as “the first floor” and one level up “the second floor”.
Anyway, according to my terminology Curto Café is on the first floor (one floor up) – take the escalators near the entrance and you’ll find it in no time.
The open-plan layout of Curto Café.
As soon as you enter the space (it’s open-plan – no entrance doors or barriers) you’ll feel the buzz. Customers were hanging out and chatting, baristas were taking orders, making coffees and explaining the café’s concept. We’ll come back to that concept in a moment, but first let’s take a look at the coffee.
Staff were using 2 of these La Marzocco machines to make espressos and cappuccinos.
Double espressos, one for me and one for mum!
Once they noticed me taking photos they got the fancy cups out!
Now I’m not going go on for paragraphs about crema, extraction techniques or alliaceous aromas – partly because I find that stuff kind of boring and partly because I wouldn’t have a clue what I was talking about. What I will say is that both mum and I agreed that Curto Café make a superb espresso. Is it “The Best Coffee in Rio”? Well I don’t think I’ve tasted anything better here in Rio but I’m happy to hear your thoughts on that one.
Now let’s talk about their business model. I mentioned earlier that it required some explanation – that’s because there are no prices! Not having a price on display is quite common in Rio but this isn’t a case of sloppy staff. There are no prices for any of the products. Instead there is a blackboard which outlines all of the shop’s expenses – from beans and machine maintenance to their accountant’s fees, rent and tax.
Hopefully you can make some sense out of this. The costs of various outgoings are laid out for customers to read. At the bottom the text says (excuse my rough translation): “The space and the team that works here are sustained by the difference between what people choose to pay and the costs of the raw materials of the items consumed”.
I had heard of such schemes before (in fact Rio’s ‘Free Walking Tours’ work the same way: guests are asked to pay what they want) but I had never before actually used one of these ‘pay-what-you-want’ systems myself. I guess the odd person must take advantage of the possibility to pay little (or nothing), but faced with uncertainty (they wouldn’t even give me a guide price) I probably paid pretty generously as, I suppose, do most people. At the point of paying you also participate in their stock-take system by putting some counters into labelled containers to reflect what you consumed.
It’s all pretty interesting and given the great service (quick and friendly) and excellent product I wish these guys lots of luck. If you’re gasping for a decent coffee and find yourself in Centro then why not pop in and try it for yourself? We ended up buying a couple of bags of coffee beans to take home and they proved to be delicious!
Curto Café opens from 10:00 – 18:00. They serve just 2 types of coffee – espresso and cappuccino – with beans grown by small producers in the hills of Espírito Santo. In May 2015 they sold more than 16,000 cups of coffee! Find Curto Café on the first floor (or second floor – whatever…) of the Edifício Garagem Menezes Côrtes, a short walk from Carioca Metro station.
Great, i have a meeting near there on Tuesday and will park in that (extortionate) garage and give them a try
Excellent! Hopefully the coffee will justify the parking fees…
You’ve stumbled upon yet another of my many points of contention with the grittyless: Piso Térreo Avoidance Syndrome (PTAS). The first floor (primeiro andar) is right above the ground floor (piso térreo). Until the concept of a ground floor is abolished world wide why not stick to the program people? Meudeus! (and you know I’m upset when I start meudeusing). Also: an electrical engineer should be called engenheiro eletricista, and not engenheiro elétrico. Unless of course said engineer is somehow charged and giving you an electric shock upon touch, or has just consumed 10 cups of coffee and is all over the place – then you may call him engenheiro elétrico.
Anyway, what brand of coffee are they serving at Café Curto?
Hahahaha loved your post, it’s hilarious!
Ha ha!! Look out people, this is serious! Gritty has started meudeusing! :D Now if I understood correctly, you were agreeing with me there so I will definitely agree with your point about electrical engineers. I call it a reciprocal agreement deal.
As far as I can recall, they buy the coffee from small independent farms in ES. We did actually buy a couple of bags but they went pretty quickly and now I don’t recall whether they were actually branded. What I do remember is that they have 5 different roastings depending on how you like your coffee.
Hi Tom. The best coffee you can find in Rio is…. in São Paulo!! Until now, this is the very first time I see someone having a decent cup of espresso in Rio (and I agree, it looks absolutely delicious and spot on). However, after leaving Brazil for New Zealand (and now Australia) I can honestly say that in Brazil you can only have a decent espresso, nothing else. Capuccinos or lattes are a disgrace, and unless you come from UK, Australia or NZ, nowhere else in the world there is the disgusting concept of flat white. Who orders a drink that is already flat?? Ewww!!! I call it the extreme corruption of coffee. But luckly you can at least now enjoy a decent espresso in Rio!!
And I love the name, Curto goes both ways, “like” and “short” as in short black, very creative. Hope their business florishes.
Hi Eliana – wow, I’m not sure I’m going to get involved in dissing flat whites to that extent. I’ve got too many antipodean friends and family who’d have my guts for garters. Personally I’m pretty much against adding milk to coffee ever. I went off the idea when I got to Rio and found it was almost impossible to get proper fresh milk – just that UHT stuff which tastes vile. The only time I break my rule is when the coffee is really strong and then, on special occasions, I might add some cream. Hmmm, indulgent!
Apparently, the most sophisticated thing you can possibly order these days is the Starbucks short cappuccino, dontcha know?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11656741/What-your-coffee-says-about-you.html
At Starbucks? Here’s where I do my shock horror about the evil coffee empire. I remember my first visit to Melbourne saying I just wanted “a filter coffee” and people looked at me like I was a caveman. Now I gather filter coffee is cool again (as long as you call it “drip filtered”).
This again proves my point that if you stay still for long enough then fashion comes back around. Pretty soon my Global Hypercolor sweatshirt will be awesome again…
Ha, I remember those t-shirts. Get ahead of the trend, Tom. Wear your sweatshirt and go order your short cappuccino at Starbucks but remember to capture the moment with your Polaroid.
It’s all pretty insane but I have to agree with the article when it says:
“… every single cafe employee in Italy can make them perfectly without feeling the need to call themselves “baristas”, either. In truth, the cappuccino has only ever attained its full majesty in its homeland, where it is served in the morning (never after dinner!), in a nice china cup (never a paper beaker!)”
Hey! This is Luana, owner of Free Walker (Rio Free Walking Tours)! I always read your blog and I was verry happy to see our link this time! Thanks!!
Come to our tour when you get the chance :)
Luana
Hey Luana! Good to make your acquaintance and congrats on the tours. I’ll try to make it along one of these days. Hopefully see you then! Cheers! :)
haha… what do yo mean NZers take their coffee seriously ;)
Ha ha ha! You wouldn’t have any experience of that would you Rach?! ;)
Dude, você não voltará a postar? People miss me.
Ha ha ha! Well it’s been almost a month so I guess it’s about time I postei de novo. And yes, I’ve had a ton of mail from people saying how much they miss you…