Corner Coffee · Sidewalk Tinto
Tinto
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Marvin David Del Cid / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
In one of the world's biggest coffee-exporting nations, the street version is brewed weak and sweet from the lower-grade beans left after the best ones are shipped abroad.
Tinto is black coffee, often lightly sweetened, sold from thermoses by walking street vendors called tinteros who pour it into tiny plastic cups on nearly every corner and plaza in Colombia. It's cheap, fast, and drunk constantly throughout the day rather than lingered over.
Why it's made this way: Despite Colombia's global reputation for premium coffee exports, tinto became the humble, everyday drink of ordinary Colombians and a genuine piece of street culture.
More from Colombia
Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
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