well, i start trying tea because my mother use to have tea from time to
time, although at home everyone takes coffee, in fact spain is coffee
drinker, there are 'cafeterias' or bars where having a coffee
everywhere. in fact i begun to take coffee because is one of those
things you are suppose to do, but never liked completely, and i tried
all the possible combinations. i like very much the smell, the morning
freshly made smell of coffee is quite warm, and then the taste is
another thing, although here we also use to have a dense coffee, as
italians and portugueses

but also my mother use to make her own mix, i have the memory of going
with her to the market, and there bought several packs of coffee beans
and mix them in 75%, 25% ['natural' and 'torrefacto', like natural
roasting and a stronger one] and then make the grinding and packing in
the moment. afterwards this shop was closed, there was not another
place to grind the coffee that way, so she begun to do the same at home
with a small grinder have been always at home, since i remember, i know
it's not the same wide variety of different teas, but it's not as
simple as it could seem go to the cafe and ask for a coffee. i'm now
remembering a shop to buy coffee in beans in the very center of madrid
and the coffee smell spreading all along the street... don't rememeber
the name, in preciados or carmen street...

but it's true that is not usual to find places in which you can ask for
a particular coffee... maybe is something related with an industry or
just likes and dislikes... first time i went to england and go into a
food shop, i searched among other things plain yogurt, and i couldn't
find it, there were flavoured yogurts in all inimaginable varieties,
but not plain, not sugared, not diet yogurt. it was astonishing.

regards from madrid,
bonifacio barrio hijosa
http://worldoftea.webcindario.com/
.... site in progress