Recommended coffe shops in Rio

Taxi drivers usually hate making the trip!

Its usually incredible difficult to get a taxi to take you up there. Taxis generally refuse to go there but.

I have seen in many a coffee shop in Vila Madalena where you can buy beans/grounds that are incredibly good.

Starbucks - ewwww

Taxis generally refuse to go there

Actually there are plenty who do the trip every day... it depends which road though. There are a couple that are easy, the one directly under the arches (Ladeira Santa Teresa) and the other one right nearby (Rua Taylor) are both pretty punishing. Some drivers have no issues going up them for some reason!

If you want good coffee in the Western sense

Not unless by "Western sense" you mean "Carmel Frapalapachinolatte" etc. There are plenty of places that sell export-quality level beans, you just need to hunt them down.

Another great spot I ran into today with very nice beans: Beduíno Restaurante at Avenida Presidente Wilson, 123.

I'll rephrase that, in my experience trying to get a taxi to Santa Teresa has been impossible. You'll find one, yes, but you might have to ask 5-20 different taxis before one goes there. And have tried both those routes.

Those routes are the hard ones which they usually don't want to do (though offering an extra 'caixinha' sometimes helps)... the place where you can almost always get a ST taxi on the first try is the corner right near the Gloria metro station; "Rua Benjamin Constant." There are also "mototaxis" in that area that will take you up as well. Another easier one is "Rua Monte Alegre," across Lapa a bit, just south of the Cruz Vermelha circle.

Vila Madalena that trent mentioned sounds a good bet that I'll try to check out (though that's S.P. of course, not Rio). Any particular shops/brands recommended on taste? We've had nice coffee after our meal but I can't say it was better than (eeewww) Starbucks.

In Vila Madalena try Coffee Lab on Rua Fradique Coutinho.

Thanks, Trent. It sounds good!

Regarding taxis to Sta.T. in Rio, there are ways of doing things that don't always come automatically to visitors who are used to a slightly different culture. When saying where you want to go (if it's S.T.), it may help to remember that he may refuse, and that in a way he is being helpful if he accepts. My partner takes this to extreme with goodwill chitchat whereas I think in terms of politeness (which Brasilian-style does usually include a sense of mutually enjoyable chat before the smallest business, express an interest in his family or something) and giving a fair price for a fair service. Given the state of the road into S.T. just now, that usually means paying a little tip.

In Sao Paulo, people tend to be polite (and often helpful too) to the point of precision, and enjoy the same: Cariocas (Rio people) are effusively polite and enjoyment-focussed, but being a tourist destination Rio also has a fair share of sharks, so stay alert. If they try to arrange a ridiculous price or refuse to put the meter on, politely but firmly stop and walk away. Most taxi drivers are honest but it is not a given.

To be honest, the taxi thing happened with a group of us, and it was local cariocas asking to take us up to Bar Mineiro for lunch. Its just my personal experience trying to get a taxi up there - nothing more. The girls we were with kept saying the taxi drivers didn't want to ruin the tyres on the car - which is fair enough given it is their source of income. I wasn't too stressed we did find one eventually and it was all good. Just took a while.

Then again, I've stood on Rua Pompeu Loureiro and struggled getting taxis at all times of the day.

I thought I'd make a further post about coffee and how a question about "good coffee" can mean something totally different in Brazil to what is meant in Europe and America.

I was just chatting to my partner who starting laughing about it. "It's so hilarious," she says, "when you get on the plane to Europe, ask for milk with your coffee and they bring this little jug of cold milk!!" (Coffee with milk, or 'café com leite' is always served with hot milk in Brasil.) The other way of drinking it is a cafezinho, a little black coffee often used as a welcome (Brasilians, especially Paulistanas, love adding '-inho' or 'inha' to words: cafezinho is a "little coffee").

So a "good" coffee is mostly one that is served within that context. Barista coffee shops are more novel, and even if they use a steam machine for making expresso, you may get blank looks when it comes to latté. Starbucks are almost places to go to use the wifi. (In Sao Paulo, I've seen people sitting in some of them their for hours with their Macbooks.)

A European asking about good coffee is often mostly interested the beans. A UK supermarket will not only have beans from many diferent countries but possibly different roasts and several different price ranges and qualities of "Javan" for instance. It's as sophisticated (or pretentious, depending on your viewpoint) as wines. But someone from Seattle takes it a step further. Here's a very funny video as an Indian tries to get to grips with something as simple as ordering black coffee ("will that be slow drip or long drip?"). For a latté, the options are incredibly complex and I eventually found it easier to let a colleague order for me!

So in Brasil this thing about specialty beans is a bit of a specialty. If my partner says she wants a "good coffee" I think she maybe wants to go to a 'padaria' which is like a bakery cafe and they will maybe take a little more time to make your coffee nicely, whereas on my own I will maybe just head to a 'boteco' for a quick coffee or a 'botequim' for somethung a bit nicer. ('Boteco' is the sort of street bar where you have a coffee or beer or snack, often standing up, and they are often, but not always, slightly grubby looking; in Rio, they are almost synonymous with sucos bars where you get a fresh fruit juice; 'botequim' is a bit more upmarket.)

Rio doesn't do fancy and sophisicated the way Sao Paulo does, and I looked at a list of 'recommended' coffee bars and thought that the ones on the list that I had been to really weren't up to much if I was thinking in Western 'coffee' terms. So we get back to the emphasis on the experience, and knowing the coffee will be prepared well and served with attention and so on.

Here's a couple of places in Rio you could try:

Confeitaria Colombo (R. Gonçalves Dias 32, in Centro, near Carioca Metro)
http://www.confeitariacolombo.com.br/siteen/?p=69
This is a historic place and qiuite awesome in the middle of the jumble of shops in the city centre. Worth it just for the photos. (They also have a place in Copacabana, at the end of the beach in Posto 6, just before you turn the corner for Ipanema, though I don't think I've had a coffee there.)

Cafe Rubro (Rua da Quitanda 191, also in Centro
http://www.rubrocafe.com.br/
They roast their own beans. Their Centro cafe is on the more upmarket side of Rio Branco main street, which also has most of the better restaurants.

And one of my favourites: Arlequim
http://www.arlequim.com.br/
This is in between Tiradentes Palace and the market square and basically a connoisseur's music shop (DVDs, books, CDs) with a cafe inside. This is an interesting area as well, not just for the palace, but for a superb veggie restaurant, and getting a fast bus back to Copacabana or Ipanema (the buses stop in the big underpass across the square) rather than the traffic queues of Rio Branco.