The real origin of BICA.

Bica means 'espresso' here in Lisbon.
Only in Lisbon. Not in the whole Portugal.

Inside A Brasileira

The origin of bica is from the cafe called A Brasileira.

When I asked around about the origin of bica,
some Portuguese people said it is the acronym of 'bebe isto com açucar,'
meaning drink this with sugar.
They said "When the cafe introduced coffee to Lisbonians,
the taste was too bitter so it wasn't popular.
That's why A Brasileira put up a sign saying 'bebe isto com açucar.'"

However, after reading a few books on Lisbon,
I found out that is not the real story behind BICA.
The birthplace of the word BICA is A Brasileira
but BICA means the tube they carried espresso.

At that time they didn't have such good espresso machines like nowadays.
And to serve the customers fast, they made espresso in advance and served it later.
So espresso didn't taste good.
One day, one of the customers complained about the lukewarm espresso.
The manger at that time made new espresso and brought it directly to the customer in a tube called BICA.

Of course, the espresso, which was hot and fresh, tasted much better.
So from then on, everybody wanted BICA.
Hot fresh good tasting espresso.
That's is the true story behind the word BICA.