The Monk of Mokha

by Dave Eggers

He became familiar with the drinks, exotic twenty years ago, now standard. There was an espresso, which contained basically the same amount of beans as a cup of coffee, but finely ground and concentrated in a much smaller amount of water. There was a café au lait, half coffee and half steamed milk. There was a macchiato, a double shot of espresso topped with foam. There were the drinks borrowed from or based on drinks popular abroad. The espresso romano was a shot of espresso with a slice of lemon served on the side, not to be confused with the guillermo, one or two shots of espresso poured over slices of lime. Algeria gave the world the mazagran, a cold coffee drink made with coffee and ice, and sometimes rum or sugar or lemon, served in a tall glass. There were various coffees with cheese—cheese dunked in a cup of hot coffee and later eaten when the mixture softly congealed. In the Spanish-speaking world, there was guarapo con queso, made with Gouda or Edam. Among the Swedes it was called kaffeost and employed the Finnish cheese leipäjuusto. There was iced coffee and cold-brew coffee. There was Thailand’s black tie—a mixture of black tea (chilled), sugar, and condensed milk, crushed tamarind, star anise, orange-blossom water, and a double shot of espresso. There was Irish coffee (with whiskey), English coffee (with gin), and calypso coffee (with Kahlúa and rum). In Senegal there was café touba, where the beans were mixed with selim and other spices during roasting, and s...