Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): A qualidade deste café é excelente, mesmo sem açúcar. - The quality of this coffee is excellent, even without sugar.

Deste is a contraction of de + este and literally means “of this” or “from this” (with este referring to something close to the speaker).

de + este → deste
So deste café = “of this coffee”.

In normal, modern Portuguese you virtually never write de este separately in this kind of phrase; you must use the contracted form (deste, desse, daquele, etc.).

What’s the difference between deste, desse, and daquele?

They all mean “of that/this”, but they encode distance (and sometimes time) in relation to the speaker and listener:

deste = de + este
- “of this (one here near me)”
- e.g. deste café – this coffee (in my hand / right here)
desse = de + esse
- “of that (one near you / just mentioned)”
- e.g. desse café – that coffee (near you / the one you just talked about)
daquele = de + aquele
- “of that (one over there / more distant)
- e.g. daquele café – that coffee (over there / from that place)

In everyday speech, people sometimes mix them up, but this is the traditional distinction in European Portuguese.

Why does the sentence start with A qualidade? Could I drop the article and say Qualidade deste café é excelente?

In standard European Portuguese, you normally keep the definite article with abstract nouns like qualidade when you’re talking about a specific instance:

A qualidade deste café é excelente. ✅ (natural)
Qualidade deste café é excelente. ❌ (sounds like a headline or note, not normal speech)

So:

A qualidade = “The quality” (a specific, defined quality)
Without A, it sounds incomplete or “telegraphic” in ordinary speech.

You can omit the article in titles, bullet points, or very informal notes, but not in a normal full sentence.

Could I just say O café é excelente, mesmo sem açúcar instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

O café é excelente, mesmo sem açúcar. = “The coffee is excellent, even without sugar.”

Differences in nuance:

A qualidade deste café é excelente
- Focuses specifically on the quality as a property.
- A bit more formal/analytical.
O café é excelente
- More direct, everyday praise of the coffee itself.
- Simpler and more common in casual conversation.

Both are correct; the original just explicitly highlights quality.

Why is é (from ser) used, and not está (from estar)?

Portuguese uses ser and estar differently:

ser is used for inherent, characteristic, or stable qualities.
estar is used for temporary states or conditions.

Quality of a product is normally treated as a characteristic:

A qualidade deste café é excelente.
- “The quality of this coffee is excellent” (as a defining characteristic).

Using estar here (está excelente) would sound more like a temporary evaluation, e.g. this particular cup today turned out excellent, even if the coffee is not always like that.

What does mesmo mean in mesmo sem açúcar? Does it always mean “even”?

In this sentence, mesmo means “even” in the sense of “despite that / nevertheless”:

mesmo sem açúcar = “even without sugar” / “despite not having sugar”.

But mesmo is very versatile. Some common meanings:

“same”
- a mesma pessoa – the same person
“itself / himself / herself”
- ele mesmo fez o café – he himself made the coffee
“really / quite / exactly” (intensifier)
- o café é mesmo bom – the coffee is really good
“even” (concessive, as in your sentence)
- é excelente, mesmo sem açúcar – it’s excellent, even without sugar.

So it doesn’t always mean “even”; the meaning depends on context.

Is the comma before mesmo necessary? Could I write the sentence without it?

Both versions are acceptable:

A qualidade deste café é excelente, mesmo sem açúcar.
A qualidade deste café é excelente mesmo sem açúcar.

The comma is optional and stylistic here.

With comma: it slightly emphasizes the contrast (“it’s excellent, even without sugar”).
Without comma: it reads more smoothly as one continuous statement.

In normal writing, many people leave the comma out, but using it is not wrong.

Can I move mesmo sem açúcar to the beginning of the sentence?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct and quite natural:

Mesmo sem açúcar, a qualidade deste café é excelente.

This version:

Puts more emphasis on the concession (“even without sugar”) right at the start.
Is stylistically a bit more “literary” or rhetorical, but still fine in speech.

Word order is flexible with this kind of phrase; the meaning stays the same.

What gender is açúcar and why is there no article in sem açúcar?

Açúcar is masculine in Portuguese:

o açúcar – the sugar
sem açúcar – without sugar

You often drop the article after sem when you mean something in general:

sem açúcar – without (any) sugar, sugar-free
sem sal – without salt
sem leite – without milk

You could say sem o açúcar, but that would be much more specific, like:

sem o açúcar que estava na mesa – without the sugar that was on the table.

In the coffee context, sem açúcar is the natural, generic way to say “without sugar”.

How is this sentence pronounced in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (with syllable stress in capitals):

A qualidade deste café é excelente, mesmo sem açúcar.
Rough guide:
- ah kwah-lee-DAH-dee DESH-t’ kah-FÉ eh eh-sse-LEN-t’, MÉZH-moo seng ah-ZU-kar

Key points:

A – very short, like “uh”.
qualidade – stress on -DA-: qua-li-DA-de.
deste – s between vowels/sonorants often sounds like “sh”: DESH-te.
café – stress on the last syllable: ca-FÉ.
mesmo – s between vowels is like “zh”: MÉZH-moo.
sem – vowel is nasal; often sounds close to seng.
açúcar – stress on the -çú-: a-ÇÚ-car; final r is soft in Portugal (often almost dropped or very light).

This is an approximation; real speech will be faster and more reduced.

Why do café and açúcar have accent marks, but qualidade doesn’t?

The accent marks show where the stress falls when it’s not in the “default” place.

In Portuguese:

Words ending in -a, -e, -o, -em, -ens are usually stressed on the second-to-last syllable.
If the stress is somewhere else, you often need a written accent.

café

Syllables: ca-FÉ
It ends in -e, which would normally give stress on CA- (CA-fe), but the real stress is on FÉ, so it takes an acute accent: café.

açúcar

Syllables: a-ÇU-car
It ends in a consonant (-r), where the default is last-syllable stress (a-çu-CAR).
Here the stress is on ÇU, so it needs an accent: açúcar.

qualidade

Syllables: qua-li-DA-de
It ends in -e, and the stress is on the second-to-last syllable (DA), which is the default.
So no accent is needed: qualidade.

Can deste café mean “from this café (coffee shop)” as well as “of this coffee”?

Yes, café can mean:

the drink – coffee
the place – café / coffee shop / small bar

So deste café can mean:

“of this coffee (the drink)”
“of this café (the establishment)”

The difference comes from context:

Talking about taste, smell, sugar, etc. → almost certainly the drink.
Talking about location, service, prices, staff → probably the place.

In your sentence, because we’re talking about sugar and the quality of “this coffee”, it’s naturally understood as the drink.

Would a Brazilian say this sentence differently?

Grammatically, the sentence is fine in Brazilian Portuguese too:

A qualidade deste café é excelente, mesmo sem açúcar.

Main differences:

Pronunciation will be Brazilian rather than European (e.g. clearer final r in açúcar, different vowel quality and rhythm).
Many Brazilians in everyday speech might more naturally say something shorter like:
- Esse café é excelente, mesmo sem açúcar.
  - Using esse instead of este is much more common in Brazil.

But the original sentence is fully acceptable in both varieties; it just sounds a bit more formal/neat in Brazilian Portuguese.