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In Spain, a café is usually prepared with an espresso machine using a dark roast. There are a variety of preparation methods. The ones listed below are the most common:

• Café solo: small black coffee
• Café con leche: small black coffee infused with hot, often frothed milk
• Cortado: Like café solo, only with a small, often frothed shot of milk
• Café con nube: Coffee, with more milk than coffee
• Leche manchada: “stained” milk - hot milk dominates over a small amount of coffee
• Café con hielo: small coffee and a glass with ice cubes into which the sweetened coffee is poured
• Café del tiempo: for a hangover breakfast, a slice of lemon is served with the coffee and ice cream
• Café canario: Canarian speciality where the café is drunk solo with heavy condensed milk (milkmaid)
• Carajillo: alcoholic espresso drink. Brandy is added to the espresso, as well as other spirits such as rum, whisky or aniseed liqueurs or Licor 43. It is served in small, fireproof glasses. The simplest way to prepare a carajillo is to pour the brandy into the finished espresso. However, connoisseurs prefer the quemado (= burnt) version, whereby the brandy is caramelised with a piece of citrus sugar and poured into the glass. Finally, the still-burning mixture is placed under the espresso machine and extinguished with the coffee.

The cajón (Spanish: box) is a wooden box, originally from South America, which is used as a percussion instrument. Sitting on the box, you usually play with your hands, sometimes also with sticks or other objects. As with most drums that are played with the whole hand, there are four basic beats on the cajón: Tone, bass, slap and tip. The feet can also be used. It can be used as a solo or accompanying instrument. It was discovered 20 years ago as the ideal rhythm instrument for flamenco. The cajòn, at least the Peruvian form, is rectangular. One of the vertical sides serves as the striking surface, which is not glued but fixed with screws.

These are not fully tightened in the upper third, which produces a buzzing sound that can be amplified by strings stretched on the inside of the front plate. To amplify the bass sound, most cajones have a sound hole on the back. The idea of using wooden boxes as rhythm instruments dates back to the slave era of the 18th and 19th centuries. The slaves deported from Africa to America were strictly forbidden to own drums, as the white masters feared that they could use them to communicate over long distances in a secret language. As a result, cajas or cajones were made from frying pans, banjos and sartenes (percussion instruments used in Brazilian samba music) and transport crates of various designs.

Calimocho (from the Basque: Kalimotxo) is an alcoholic mixed drink consisting of 50% red wine and 50% cola, whereby the alcohol content depends on the red wine used. There are variations in which the red wine is replaced by white wine or the cola by lemonade. In some places, it is also drunk with a shot of blackberry or kiwi liqueur.

The capa or capote are the yellow and magenta-coloured cloths used in bullfights to distract the bull from the matador’s assistants when the bull is in danger.

Novella written in 1847 by the French writer Prosper Mérimée (* 28 September 1803 in Paris, † 23 September 1870 in Cannes). It was adapted into the famous opera of the same name by Georges Bizet (French Romantic composer, * 25 October 1838 in Paris, † 3 June 1875 in Bougival near Paris) in 1873/1874. The story of Carmen continues to provide material for dance and opera productions and film adaptations to this day. The story centres on the tragic love between the dragoon corporal Don José and the beauty Carmen, who works in a tobacco factory. After she injures another worker in a stabbing, he helps her to escape and ends up in prison.

Back on the loose, a fight breaks out with Captain Zuniga, who is also in love with Carmen, at the smugglers’ meeting place Lillas Pastiá, where Carmen sings and dances with her friends. Her friends disarm Zuniga at gunpoint, forcing Don José to flee with Carmen and her friends. Michaela, Don José’s fiancée, appears at the smugglers’ camp and after she tells him that his mother is dying, the two leave the camp. In the last act, Carmen appears at the corrida in the arms of Escamillo, the victorious torero. When she tells Don José, who now appears, of her love for the torero, he stabs her with his dagger in anger and, after a final embrace of his beloved, allows himself to be arrested without resistance.

In Spain, there are different types of beer that are served in different containers:

• Caña: A caña is a small (approx. 0.2 litre) draught beer. An even smaller version is called cañita.
• Copa: If you order a copa de cerveza in Spain, you get a glass of beer. It's usually a glass with a stem.
• Clara: If you order a Clara, you get the Spanish version of our Radler or Alsterwasser.

Chorizo is a Spanish speciality that – in all likelihood – originates from Extremadura. This ‘national sausage’ is available in thick and thin, raw or smoked, as a tapa with lots of lean meat or in the fatty version for stews or for frying. Depending on the type, fat and lean pork meat is minced in varying proportions and marinated for one to two days in a spice mixture of garlic, paprika powder (which not only gives it flavour but also colour), salt and herbs. The spiced meat is stuffed into casings using a sausage machine, tied and hung up to dry. In the humid north of the country, they are also often found lightly pre-smoked.

Churro is a Spanish shortbread made from choux pastry, which is deep-fried in hot oil until crispy and then partly sprinkled with sugar. Churros are usually bought at the churro stand, the churrería, which can often be found on main streets, squares and markets. The perfect combination is to eat the churros together with a thick chocolate. However, you can also dip them in latte. As a snack, as breakfast, at the start of a quiet festive day or at the end of a night of drinking, but also on normal working days, churros are ordered in portions by young and old and shared with work colleagues or friends. Not all churros are the same.

The “churros madrileños” characteristic of Madrid, for example, are finely ribbed rings in the shape of tears, made from a sugar-free flour mixture and deep-fried individually. In Castilla – La Mancha they are made in a similar way, but with small variations; they are thicker and larger in Toledo and elongated instead of ring-shaped in other cities. In the case of those known as “porras”, the dough is injected directly into the hot oil in the form of a giant spiral and then cut into pieces. The shape of these churros is therefore elongated and slightly curved, with a greater thickness, a smooth surface and a more airy structure.

Cobijos is a costume with a face veil that goes back to Islamic traditions. This chador (from the Persian) is a large, usually dark-coloured cloth that is wrapped around the head and body by women as a cloak, leaving only the face or parts of the face uncovered. It is worn in public over other clothing, predominantly by conservative Islamic women. In 1931, the costume was banned by the ruling Popular Front, as reactionary forces were using the disguise to transport weapons for terrorist attacks without being recognised. In Vejer de la Frontera, a portrait of a cobijada (veiled woman) can be seen in semi-relief on the façade of the Iglesia Merced monastery church in the Plaza de Padre Caro.

Bullfighting, or corrida de toros (running of the bulls), is a popular and highly controversial custom, especially in Spain, in which a torero (bullfighter) takes on and kills a bull weighing between 400 and 700 kg. However, bullfights also take place in Portugal, southern France and former Spanish colonies, as well as in Spanish-influenced regions in South America. Even in ancient times, the bull was regarded as a symbol of strength and fertility. Wall paintings and depictions on vases found on Crete, for example, show that bull cults already played a role at this time. Bull games were also a popular amusement in ancient Egypt. However, these were bloodless. In the Middle Ages, bullfights were part of court festivities, where knights and noblemen on horseback took on the bull, while the lower classes fought on foot from the very beginning. On the Iberian Peninsula, bullfights mainly took place on festive occasions.

They were already widespread at the end of the late Middle Ages and the beginning of the 15th century. Modern bullfighting has its roots in the 18th century. As already mentioned, bullfighting was initially reserved for the nobility. With the decline of the aristocracy, the grooms, whose task until then had been to hand the nobles their weapons, began to fight the bull on foot. The oldest bullring is located in Ronda, a town founded by the Romans in the Andalusian Sierra Morena mountains. It was here that the famous Romero family of matadors laid the foundations for modern bullfighting. The bullfighting season runs from April to October. The fights usually take place late on Sunday afternoons (5 p.m., 6 p.m. in midsummer), but almost daily during local festivals. The shady seats in the arena (sombra) are more expensive than the sunny seats (sol). Spanish bullfighting follows fixed rules. There are six bullfights in a corrida, usually involving three matadors.

The paseíllo, i.e. the entry of the toreros, is led by the alguacilillos (in period costume), who have previously asked the president (who presides over the bullfight and is assisted by a veterinarian and an expert in the art of bullfighting) for permission to start the bullfight. The president orders the trumpet signals with a cloth to start the individual phases of the bullfight. Three matadors (slayers) march in side by side, followed by the riders and their team (cuadrilla). The cuadrilla consists of 2-3 banderilleros (who back up the torero and thrust the banderillas into the bulls’ necks in the second third of the fight) and 2 picadores (who stab the bull with a lance in the first third to test the bull’s bravery and weaken its strength). The matador’s suit is called traje de luces (costume of lights) and is interwoven with gold and silver. He wears a capa, a cloak, around his shoulders, the end of which he wraps around his left arm. Before the actual fight, which takes place in 3 phases, the bull is let into the arena by the arena servant (Chulo de Chiqueros) and then the bull is presented. This means that the banderilleros begin to interest him in the capa, so that the matador, who is watching the spectacle, gets to know the bull’s peculiarities. This is followed by a series of veronicas (elaborate figures performed with the capa). The prelude is over when the president signals with a white cloth that the actual fight can begin, which consists of 3 parts. The first third is called the “tercio de varas”.

Two horses are led in and positioned with the armoured side facing the bull. The right eye is blindfolded. The riders are also protected. Under their right arm they carry the pica, an approx. 3 metre long lance with a 3 cm long tip. They use this to thrust it into the bull’s neck so that it lowers its head. This is the only way the matador can later kill the bull, as it allows him to get his sword over the bull’s head. The first third is over when the president hangs a white handkerchief over the parapet of the box. The picadors leave and the trumpet sounds, signalling the start of the next period.

In this second third of the fight, which is contested by the banderilleros, the bull is stabbed in the back of the neck with banderillas (sticks about 65 cm long, wrapped in colourful paper ribbons and with steel barbs at the tips), which further fatigues the bull and increases its aggressiveness. The handkerchief and a trumpet signal initiate the final phase.

The final third ends with the death of the bull. The matador dedicates the bull either to the president or to the people (in this case he throws his cap on the ground). If he throws it to the sunny side, he intends to kill the bull there, under particularly difficult lighting conditions, and dedicate the bull to the poor people. The capa is now exchanged for the muleta (a red cloth hanging in folds on a stick). This is followed by various figures of the matador with the muleta (faena de muleta), for which there are different procedures/sequences of steps (pases). The death blow is called estocada (from estoque, the bullfighting sword). The edge of the sword is 75 cm long, slightly curved at the tip and the front half is sharpened. The death blow is only delivered if the matador goes between the horns and strikes from above between the shoulder blades at a 45° angle. If the estocada is successful, the audience erupts in shouts of Olé and demands a reward for the matador: the tail, an ear (or both) or one or two rounds of honour for the matador.