How much pleasure fits in a cup of coffee? How much history does it carry in its foam and how much ideology drips into its grounds? The Cypriot - otherwise Greek, Turkish, Balkan, Mediterranean, or Eastern - coffee unfolds its secrets in a multifaceted study that seeks its roots, examines its culture, and deciphers the meanings in its consumption practices. With the traditional, male-dominated coffeehouse as a reference point, the daily, non-negotiable habit of Cypriot coffee serves as an occasion for historical review, archival documentation, folklore research, literary exploration, ideological observation, legal investigation, semiotic analysis, typographical commentary, and photographic wandering. The coffee conversations and discussions about the coffeehouse, with patrons and non-patrons alike, confirm the power of an outdated institution with a gender dimension in the contemporary European reality of Cyprus.