In large towns and cities that we visited in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, it was fairly easy to find espresso shops and enjoy delicious espressos, cappuccinos, lattes, and usually mochas. One of the surprises was that one could order a shot of liquor to be added, as well as flavored syrups.

More common, though, was café con leche, drip-style coffee with hot milk. Sadly, in many parts of Ecuador, this consisted of a glass of hot milk, a spoon, and a jar of instant coffee. Early in the morning, this was probably better than nothing, but not worth a second serving.

Often, the café con leche was covered with a thin skin of milk, something seldom seen in the USA and not easily accomplished. As we picked it off day after day, we wondered why someone would go to that much trouble. It did not make sense to us.

It was only after traveling for eight weeks that we learned that this was part of the coffee cultural tradition. The main character in a story which I read in Spanish lifted the milk skin with her spoon and chewed it with her front teeth, recalling how her mother had done the same!

We had occasionally noticed the women servers in breakfast places glance at our leavings of milk skins and we had wondered why. Once we learned it was to be enjoyed, we did just that.