"This place was founded in 1939 under the name ‘O Chinez’ by Mr Couto. Since 1989, it's been my mother, Maria da Conceição Soares Campos Dias, who has dedicated herself to keeping the business alive, respecting all the details of other times," says Alcinda. Even today, Cafezeira continues to honour the rituals of coffee, without losing its essence.

Cafezeira also offers teas, spices, pulses, honey and chocolates, arranged in wooden boxes and sold in bulk. It's a veritable treasure trove of flavours and textures, but the real highlight is the coffee and its historic mills. Customers take part in a unique ritual that begins with choosing the origin of the coffee and ends with grinding. ‘Brazil is a very aromatic and light coffee, but more liquid, while Ethiopia is fuller-bodied, aromatic and with little acidity,’ explains Alcinda. Then the grind is adjusted to the preparation method: ‘each machine has its own grind,’ she confides, while the sound of the grinders - witnesses of several decades - announce that the coffee is ready.

The whole process is done by hand, culminating in the handwritten name on the label after sticking it on the packaging. ‘Customers who venture to try it rarely go back. After that, it's very difficult to return to the world of commercial coffee,’ she says.

The future of Cafezeira is uncertain, but the desire to continue this tradition remains: "This is a unique space in the city of Porto, and we want to keep this memory alive."