In a cheap place, in a bareto, a coffee costs between 1.20 and the 1.50 euros on average that you usually pay for a cup anywhere. At the airport or in one of those posh establishments that sell you roasted selections and vegan colored sugars, you can pay two to five for the bitter caffeine. But there are also some secret spots where the coffee remains faithful to the prices and tempos of (almost) always.
Either with milk (with or without cream, with or without lactose, oat, soy, almond…), chopped (or manchado, as they call it in Madrid) or a peeled espresso, probably the cheapest coffee that is served all over Catalonia and perhaps in Europe is the Hinojosa bar. It is in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, in the Fondo district, and costs 50 cents. Yes, 50 cents which is also not nothing because, alert, it is the 80 pesetas of before. Those from when a coffee cost 50 pesetas, that is, 0.30 euros and the average national salary was about one hundred thousand pesetas (six hundred euros a month!). When for a ten-trip bus card you paid 370 pesetas (2.30 euros), for a menu 300 pesetas (1.80 euros) and for a hardcover book the thousand pesetas or the 6 euros with which today everything lie down for a regular breakfast. With latte and a mini ham, which if it’s really good, you can forget about orange juice.
If for each shot in a professional coffee machine, that is, for each cup served, 8 grams are needed, from a kilo of coffee that costs around 18 euros, 140 cups are produced. At 13 cents each. You must then add 10 cents for each cube of milk and 7 for each bag of sugar. 30 cents! This is what a coffee costs today.
The remainder up to these 1.50 on average or the 50 cents of the Hinojosa bar? The light. The rent. The staff. And the obligatory tip with which Ayuso put so many waiters on a war footing. Little joke with the coffee. From the 80 cents of Zapatero’s imaginary coffee in the distant 2007 to Ana Botella’s relaxing cup of café con leche, passing through the recent coffee in Parla de Sánchez with those two young men who continue to be Mileuristas, the cafe has become a luxury of other times. The worst thing is that a linden is worth 2.45. And it’s better not to talk about the oil.
