Learn Spanish (Latin America): El café que pidió estaba amargo, pero lo tomó de todos modos. - The coffee that he ordered was bitter, but he drank it anyway.

It acts as a concessive marker meaning "anyway" or "regardless." It shows that he drank the coffee despite the negative fact just mentioned (that it was bitter). You could also use de todas formas here with the exact same meaning.

Why use estaba instead of era with amargo?

We use estaba to describe how food or drink tastes at a specific moment. Even though coffee is generally bitter, estaba amargo emphasizes the state of this particular cup when he tasted it. If you said era amargo, you would just be describing the general nature of coffee.

Why are there two different past tenses (pidió, tomó vs estaba)?

Pidió (ordered) and tomó (drank) are in the preterite tense because they represent completed, specific events in the past. Estaba is in the imperfect tense because it sets the scene by describing the ongoing background state of the coffee while those actions happened.

Why is the verb spelled pidió and not pedió?