I've been overwhelmed with the amazing coffee I've had in Sofia.  The best part is not a single cup of it has been from Starbucks (and even if I wanted it, I couldn't get it. There's not a single Starbucks here and really why would you go when the other options are superior).  The thing is in the states, I am a serious coffee drinker but here I can't even keep up.

Last winter, I wrote a piece for a friend's blog on my love of the Americano.  I wrote about being disappointed one morning standing in line at my local coffee shop. Disappointed when a tall good looking guy ordered a grande vanilla latte with whipped cream.<span> </span>The point was that the drink you order says a lot about you--sometimes in a good way and other times, well it’s revealing in the way you don’t want anyone to catch you watching reality tv.

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I continued on in the post to explain that it's because of this, I drink Americanos in the states.<span> </span>It is, I think, the perfect drink: simple and strong.<span> </span>Espresso and water.<span> </span>You can add milk or sugar to it if you want but if the drink has been made with good beans, a clean machine and someone who knows what she’s doing—you don’t have to add a thing.<span> </span>It’s good just the way it is.<span> </span>This is way I am a firm believer that people who don’t like coffee just haven’t had a good cup (or they have bad taste but that’s another problem—one I can’t do anything about).<span> </span>

I've been in Bulgaria for six weeks and not once have I missed my Americano, not once have I longed for a Starbucks and not once have I had to add milk to my coffee (not that there is any available).  I am living in a coffee crazy country and it shows.  There is simply no need for any of these things and the choices are uncomplicated and straight forward.

There is the cafe espresso--a small strong coffee which you can add sugar to or not.  This is usually followed by the long coffee--something that I think is the smaller cousin of the Americano.  I tend to order one of these two drinks.  Mind you they are much, much smaller than the "short" size at Starbucks (which yes they still serve it's just not on the menu, you have to know to ask for it) but much, much cheaper.

In my neighborhood outdoor cafe, I can get a coffee espresso (or a long coffee) and a bottle of water for 1.80 leva and in a shop on my block the total is slightly more 2.10 leva.  Out of the coffee machine in my kitchen the prices are almost nothing--.20 leva--the only problem is that you've got to have exact change which is more of a challenge than I like to admit (see my earlier post on the cash economy).  And at school, they are making a killing on me.  I've gotten in the habit of having a coffee when I arrive before my language class and then again during the break.  At .40 leva a cup times two a day for most days that we've met the school is going to have a maximum of 12 leva of mine by the time the classes are over.

The thing is 12 leva wouldn't even support my weekly Americano habit in the US.  I can't help but wonder, how did I get so lucky to find myself for a year in a country that is committed to caffeine?!

In Washington DC, my friends and I used to joke that the Starbucks were strategically placed to draw you in.  The first one you can resist, the second one makes you think that a cup of coffee would be nice and if the third one in 8 blocks doesn't pull you in the fourth one will. And once you get in the habit it's that much harder to sit at your desk and slog through emails out it.

Here, it's worse, much worse. And I love it all the more for that.  There are no Starbucks but on every block there is a cafe selling coffee and offering place to sit down and in nearly every building I've been in there a coffee machine dispensing plastic cups to take your coffee on the go. There's no advertising--just the smell of coffee and everyone with one in hand.  I'd like to think that I am not one to follow the crowd but it's impossible not to have a cup or three a day.

I can't justify it and I am not going to try to.  Just know that if/when you come to visit me, you'll be indulging with me in my new coffee habit. Oh and if you don't come to visit me but plan on seeing me upon my return--give me a week or two I am going to be suffering from serious caffeine withdraw!!