A genius and passion history

Carmine Mereu

Summary

This work aims to trace the main passages of the Italian coffee history. It began centuries ago and it is characterised by many discoveries and creations. Some of these have become symbols of Italy as well as part of the daily habits of many people all over the world. The variety of available coffee drinks found in the coffeehouses nowadays is mostly due to Italian tradition. Example, espresso, cappuccino, latte macchiato are a part of the Italian vocabulary in coffee understanding which gives clear evidence of this recognition.

Thus, this elaboration intends to expand the awareness of the readers and get familiar of what we drink. As well as, to inform about the history that characterised coffee.

-THE ITALIAN COFFEE,

A GENIUS AND PASSION HISTORY-

THE HISTORY OF COFFEE

THE ARRIVAL OF COFFEE TO ITALY

COFFEE FOR ITALIANS

6 Discovery

6 Arabs

7 Dutch

7 Venetians

9 Venice

10 Trieste

12 Rome

12 Naples

14 What coffee represents in Italy after centuries of tradition

Starting from Mocha coffee spreads all over the world

The birth of the coffeehouses

Not only a drink, it is passion

-TABLE OF CONTENTS

-

COFFEE TASTES, A LITTLE TRIP INSIDE ITALY

THE ITALIAN BLENDS

ESPRESSO AND MOKA COFFEE

HABITS ABOUT COFFEE

17 Milan and Lombardy

17 Venice and Veneto

18 Turin and Piedmont

19 Rome and Lazio

20 Naples and Campania

22 The beans used to reach the perfect taste

26 Coffee makers

27 Moka, the tool that never lacks in the Italians’ houses

28 Espresso machine, an Italian tale

30 Caffè Sospeso

31 Caffè dell’amicizia

32 The figure of the “The Caffettiere” in Naples

33 Women and coffee

Coffee, a population’s expression

From North to South, the incredible diversity

Products of the Italian Genius

Coffee enters in society

6

The history of how coffee spreads all over the world is very fascinating, but its discovery is still not so clear. What is certain is that the coffee tree, originated in the Horn of Africa, in Ethiopia, or in Yemen and it is believed to be found by a goatherd that was im-pressed by the strange behaviour of his goats after chewing the coffee berries.

This is only a legend; however, according to J.K Francis coffee was being cultivated by Arabs from the 14th century. The knowledge of the energising effects of the berries began to spread and soon reached the Arabian Penin-sula. From the port of Mocha began the journey that brought the beans first in Persia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey and gradually expanded all over the world. The Arabs were the first that began not only its cultiva-tion but also its trade.

The Arabs

Coffee quickly became a fundamental drink for Arabic population, presumably due to its abstention to alco-hol, as the Koran precepts, so coffee worked as a good substitute drink.

At that time all the Arabian cities were characterised by their many coffeehouses, called in the local language as “qahveh khaneh”. The first were opened in Mecca.The coffeehouses were an innovative place, where peo-ple went not only to drink coffee, but also to converse,

The legend says that there is a mountain called Gebel-Sabor in Yemen, where Allah imprisoned the “giunim”, evil spirits in its bowels which rebelled afterward. They covered the whole mountain with fire destroying everything.

Years later the vegetation resurfaced the moun-tain and a group of monks decided to build their monastery in a top of the mountain. They ate cereals, fruit and drank milk, the last provided from a goat flock. One day the goatherd was shocked by the tense behaviour of his goats so he referred to monks. Yahia found the wise solution to discover the reason: he proposed to follow the goats during the night to see what they consumed. They discovered that the goats ate the red fruits of a tree with white flowers that grew near the abyss where the “giunim” were imprisoned.

Yahia was attracted by the yellowish, slimy and hard seeds contained in the fruits and he decided to make an infusion with it. First he put leafs, flowers and seeds in the water but he did not taste anything drinking the liquid. Then, unconscious-ly, Yahia put the coffee seeds near the fireplace and, perhaps with inspiration from Allah, he decided to put the roasted seeds in hot water.

Subsequently, he drank the infusion and he felt lightweight, alert and coldly excited. He found the magic enemy of sleep.

(C.Aguglia, 1962)

°THE HISTORY OF COFFEE

VENICE

ROME

NAPLES

TRIESTE

TURKEY

SYRIA

PERSIA

MOCHA

EGYPT

Starting from Africa coffee spreads all over

the world

7

VENICE

ROME

NAPLES

TRIESTE

TURKEY

SYRIA

PERSIA

MOCHA

EGYPT

THE HISTORY OF HOW COFFEE SPREADS ALL OVER THE WORLD IS VERY FASCINATING,

BUT ITS DISCOVERY IS STILL NOT SO CLEAR.

listen to music and enjoy dances. They even became soon the political centre of people’s activities but they were suppressed to avoid the development of conspira-cies. They quickly reappeared. They already were part of the Arab habits and tradition. The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the XV century, in the Sufi monasteries of the Yemen in southern Arabia

A certain evidence attesting the use of coffee as a drink, is contained in the report made by Gian Francesco Mo-rosini in 1585. He was a Venetian ambassador who lived in Constantinople and he stated that Turkish citizens “most of time were seated in the coffeehouses or on the street drinking a hot black water, extracted from a seed called cavee’, famous for its power to maintain people awake” . The cultivation of coffee was jealously protected by Arabs that imposed a strict policy trade not to export any fertile beans, so from that could not grow any tree of coffee anywhere else. They succeed in this mission removing the outer layer of beans (coffee seeds), making it infertile.

Dutch

In 1616, Pieter van der Broecke, a Dutch merchant succeeded in taking some of the guarded bushes from Mocha, in Yemen, and he brought them to Amsterdam where they were cultivated in greenhouses.

The Dutch traders from these trees obtained the seeds that they exported to their colonies, which quickly became the main producers of the Europe’s imported coffee.

Venetians

Although the Dutch were the first who imported the coffee tree in Europe, the Venetian traders were the first that imported coffee beans, in 1615.

Traders, travellers and adventure people by following the boat routes initiated the diffusion of coffee in Europe, nonetheless, scientists, doctors and illustrators contrib-uted on the same purpose. Coffee was a remarkable new product and they filled pages over pages of written and drawing about it. It was rapidly protagonist of a vast diffu-sion all over Europe as it is observed in Arab world.

8

VENICE WAS THE FIRST ITALIAN AND EUROPEAN CITY THAT KNEW

THE AROMA OF COFFEE.

COFFEE COMES TO ITALYThe birth of the coffeehouses

9

Venice was the first Italian and European city that tasted the aroma of coffee. From Venice coffee reached all the European cities. In Italy coffee became soon a precious and estimated product. It represented a special gift for friends or lovers; the suitors used to send to their lovers trays full of coffee and chocolate. The combination coffee-sugar is also nowa-days an appreciated welcome present between relatives and friends.

However, the establishment of coffee in Italy encountered difficulties as in the Arab world: some priests asked for its prohibition to Pope Clemente VIII, believing that it was an evil drink. The Pope wanted to try the drink before deciding for its excommunication and he liked it so much that he even dubbed it as a “Chris-tian drink”.

~ The birth of coffehouses

Venice

In 1720 a great event left a mark in the Venetian coffee-houses’ history. On 29th of December Floriano Franc-esconi opened in Piazza San Marco the “Caffè della Venezia Trionfante”.

At a later time was called “Caffè Florian” taking its name from its founder. This is one of the world’s most ancient historical coffeehouses, and it is still open for business.(A. Gattegno, 1991)

In 18th century a lot of coffeehouses were opened in Venice. In some nights of the summer Piazza San Marco was a unique and huge coffeehouse. Venice, hundreds islands’ city, with its canals, was the floating stage of Europe. A cosmopolitan crowd used to stroll under the Portici, attracted by the magic atmosphere evoked of the old walls of Palazzo Ducale and by the golden cupola of San Marco. The writers Goldoni and Casanova described this worldly spirit; they were the intellectuals of coffee. Even nowadays Venice offers the similar atmosphere as it was in the past. The many tourists who are crowd-ing the city everyday contribute to preserve it. Coffeehouses scattered in the city still remain as one of the most appreciated attractions.

FROM VENICE IT REACHED ALL THE EUROPEAN CITIES.

10

Trieste

Caffè Tommaseo is the expression of the coffeehouses in Trieste. It was the first opened one and it still repre-sents a historical piece of the city.

In a back room there is a plaque saying “in 1848, from this coffeehouse, centre of the national movement, the flame of happiness spread due to the Italian freedom”.

It exists from the beginning of the 19th century and in 1860 the young waiter, Guglielmo Oberdan, who worked there for several years, became the owner. When he received the keys of the local two patrons gave him a pendulum clock. That clock did not stop running for a century, except for the day when Oberdan was hanged. That fact represented the reaction of the Austri-an empire that reoccupied Trieste until the 1918, when it came back to Italy.

When we take a coffee in a local as the Tommaseo cof-feehouse we touch history with our hands; we probably sit in the same chair where Italo Svevo used to read, write or speak with his friend James Joyce.

In the 1700 the port of Trieste began to receive ships laden with coffee coming from the Ottoman harbours of Smyrna and Alexandria and it quickly became the most important port of the Habsburg Empire. Later, during the 19th century, the high price of the

EVEN NOWADAYS VENICE OFFERS THE SAME ATMOSPHERES WE FOUND

IN THE PAST. THE MANY TOURISTS THAT CROWD THE CITY EVERYDAY CONTRIBUTE

TO PRESERVE IT AND THE MANY COFFEEHOUSES

WHICH ARE SPREAD OVER THE CITY STILL REMAIN AS

ONE THE MOST APPRECIATED ATTRACTIONS.

WHEN WE TAKE A COFFEE IN TOMMASEO COFFEEHOUSE

WE COULD BE SIT ON THE SAME CHAIR WHERE ITALO

SVEVO USED TO READ, WRITE OR SPEAK WITH

HIS FRIEND JAMES JOYCE.

11

A PLAQUE IN CAFFÈ TOMMASEO SAYS: “IN 1848, FROM THIS COFFEEHOUSE, CENTER OF THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT, THE FLAME OF HAPPINESS SPREAD DUE TO THE ITALIAN FREEDOM”.

roasting process led to the birth of the first coffee roasters in Trieste, followed by companies specialised in importing and trading coffee, and since the 20th century coffee is not only a social ritual for Trieste; it is one of most important factors of the economic and cultural growth.

The great development of the coffee chain made Trieste the capital of the international market of the Italian coffee. In this city coffee has a very important economic role where the privates and the Institutions cooperate in coffee scientific research to develop this sector.

A considerable example is the collaboration between the University of Trieste and some research institutions such as the Ernesto Illy Foundation, the SISSA of Trieste and many others. They offer a Master Degree to stu-dents who want to explore the main aspects of coffee and they also carry on an intense research activity on sustainability, healthy properties of coffee and other themes.

In the near future Trieste is going to be more and more the landmark of the Italian coffee. In fact, the Illycaffè coffee roasting company of Trieste, is going to be the official partner of Expo 2015 in Milan and it is going to represent the Cluster Caffè. With the participation of the International Coffee Organization Illycaffè is pre-paring the biggest coffee celebration of the history.

If you want to know something more about it,visit this web-site: www.triestecoffeecluster.com

-

IT IS NOT ONLY A COFFEE IT IS AN EXPERIENCE OF LIFE

-

12

Rome

The German writer Hermann Kesten says about Rome that it smells of incense, olive oil and violets. The perfume of roasted coffee coming from the count-less coffee roasters and from the evocating coffeehouses completes this magic essence. Coffeehouses appeared in Rome in the 18th century, when a lot of artists and foreign poets came there to study the ancient art discovered by Winckelmann. Caffè Greco was the first coffeehouse opened in Rome and it is still open today in Via Condotti near Piazza di Spagna.

Since its foundation Rome has been characterized by a huge flow of people passing through it. In the past the capital of Italy, centre of the national political life, was also called “Caput Mundi”. The meeting between different cultures affected even coffee, which, however, was mostly influenced by Neapolitan tradition.

Naples

Being the first not necessarily means being the best. Neapolitans affirm, indeed, that even if they didn’t invent coffee drink they make the best one. Pasta is another example: it was imported from the Arab world but it reached the perfection in Naples. Neapolitans are convinced that creativity is not only inventing but also modifying, reworking, redesigning something that already exists, leading it to excellence as they have done with coffee. The list of artists that used to frequent the several Neapolitan coffeehouses increases their pride even more; Goethe, Tolstoy, Byron, Nietzsche are only a few names of the personalities that loved Neapolitan coffeehouses.

At the beginning of the 19th century a new figure appeared in Naples: the “Caffettiere ambulante”, an am-bulant coffee vendor who became part of Neapolitans’ daily routine, waking them up to sell coffee and milk with his loud voice, reminding people to celebrate the Saint of the day.

Naples is also the city of “caffè sospeso”, suspended coffee, which could be considered as an act of charity of a kind consumer who took one coffee but paid for two, making a gift to the first less fortunate person who casually walked in the bar. The bartender would say: “would you like a coffee, sir?” meaning: there is a coffee paid for you, if you can’t afford one. The benefactor remained anonymous, as true act of charity requires.

13

Still today, in the Italian’s minds, Naples remains the city that offers one of the best coffees of the country; its an-cient tradition and the Neapolitans’ love for coffee have preserved its reputation. Small and medium size coffee roasters play an important role in this preservation. We find lots of them in this area and they succeed in the difficult mission of satisfy-ing the sophisticated demand of Neapolitan consumers.

NEAPOLITANS SAY CREATIVITY IS NOT ONLY INVENTING, BUT IT IS ALSO MODIFY, REWORK, REDESIGN SOMETHING THAT ALREADY EXISTS AND MAKE

IT THE BEST.

THIS IS HOW THEY MADE THE BEST COFFEE!

14

COFFEE FOR ITALIANSWhat coffee represents in Italy after centuries of tradition

The culture of coffee has affected the whole country for centuries, and now coffee in Italy is not only a drink, it is an important part of daily life, a cornerstone of the country’s quality of life.

Nothing more then a good cup of coffee re-minds to Italians of their country, and when they are abroad they look desperately for an espresso which tastes like the one they usually drink in their favourite bar in Italy.Italians abroad frequently start their conversa-tions by discussing coffee and sharing nostalgia for their loved espresso as well as for pizza or pasta.

Italians love speaking about coffee: every time they take one they follow a contemplation ritu-al, observing its “crema”, and when they finish sipping their cup, they judge it. They choose their favourite bar on the quality of its coffee.

Although they know there are a lot of methods to prepare a coffee, they consider the espres-so the best way to use the beans of this plant. They also love the coffee made with moka, which is usually drunk at home, where there is any espresso machine, even if nowadays more and more families have a little one in their house.

COFFE IS NOT ONLY A DRINK, IT IS A PASSION

15

If we say “would you like a coffee?” in any European city we should receive the simple answer “yes”, but this rarely happens in Italy, where we could listen to more creative and personalised answers like “macchiato caldo” (with hot milk), “macchiato freddo” (with cold milk), “al vetro” (in a cup of glass), “corretto” (with some spirits). This aspect shows the importance that Italians give to coffee and the tradition that character-ised this product in Italy. This long tradition makes this country one of the most important players in the interna-tional coffee market.

We generally observe that the northern part of Italy likes more a delicate coffee where the Arabicas are the absolute protagonists of the blends, whereas the South of the coun-try prefers a coffee with a stronger body, char-acterised by a thicker and brown “crema”.The cup of coffee appears lower and its taste is quite bitter.

In the centre of Italy coffee could not be compared neither to the northern nor the southern kind, but it could be superficially considered as the result of the meeting be-tween the two.

EVERY ITALIAN REGION DEVELOPED A PARTICULAR BLEND ACCORDING WITH THE TASTE OF ITS INHABITANTS.

Italy can be considered as the bridge linking the producer countries and the importer countries. In this passage coffee turns from a simple seed of a tropical tree to the most popular drink of the world. This transformation comes from a very ancient passion that started in the 17th century, when the Venetian traders first imported coffee in Europe and they made it one of the symbols of Italy. After Venice, coffee reached all the Italian regions and each of them developed a particular blend according to the taste of their inhabitants.

16

COFFEE TASTES, A LITTLE TRIP INSIDE ITALY

Coffee, a population’s expression

17

IN MILAN COFFEE IS A FAST PLEASURE THAT SHOULD BE

QUICKLY DRUNK

VENICE IS THE MOTHER OF THE ITALIAN COFFEE.

Milan

According to the Futurist movement, moder-nity is velocity and dynamism which are the characteristics of the biggest city of northern Italy: Milan. The rhythm of Milan affects Peo-ple living there; they are always in a hurry.

This state of mind affects all the social and cultural aspects, including coffee. The typical lunch break of workers is a sand-wich or a ready-made meal and, obviously, a coffee.

In Milan coffee is no more a meeting social ritual, it is a fast pleasure that should be easily drunk. This is the reason why people prefer a delicate coffee that happily matches a light lunch.

Venice

In 18th century Venice was a trade city whose Piazza San Marco gave lessons of elegance to all Europe. Its long tradition allowed coffee roasters to develop a deep knowledge about fresh coffee and blending; we can still appreciate the value of this tradition in the Venetian bars.

They use a light roasted coffee that is delicate, modestly bitter with chocolate and vanilla per-fumes. The result is a balanced and sweet coffee, with a modest acidity and fruity and spicy aromas.

Venice was a very important seaside city, but the influence of the Veneto countryside in the coffee is clear. This coffee reminds the simple rural cooking, characterised by dishes as “po-lenta” or boiled meats.

If you want to know something more about it, visit this web-site: www.assaggiatori.com

18

Piedmont and Turin

Piedmont is the region that produces some of the most popular Italian wines: everyone knows the value of the “Nebbiolo grapes”, from which “Barolo” and “Moscato” wines are produced. We find the same mastery used to produce these excellent wines also in coffee.After all, coffee should be the perfect end of a meal consisting in these wines too. How could it not be excellent? The owners of the coffeehouses used to roast the coffee on their own with passion and patience. They chased the coffees that could improve the freshness of their blends, and that way they obtained a coffee characterized by a marked acidity. The same acidity, together with flowers and fruit traces, has survived nowadays. Piedmont coffee is also characterised by a faint bitter taste and a shapely body.

IN PIEDMONT COFFEE TASTE IS CHARACTERIZED

BY A MARKED ACIDITY

If you want to know something more about it, visit this web-site: www.assaggiatori.com

19

Rome

Roman coffee has been influenced by the typ-ical cooking of the city. The dishes are usually poor, made with simple ingredients, but ex-tremely savoury. After such courses only an intense coffee can be the perfect end of the meal.

This coffee is also influenced by the Neapolitan one, which is considered the best espresso. We find many similarities between the two, such as their strong body and their quite bitter taste, obtained using blends where the Robusta cannot lack and washed Arabicas are preferred to the natural ones.

Its brown “crema” is one of the most important elements that characterises the Roman coffee, where we also note traces of dried fruit.

AFTER EXTREMELY SAVOURY DISHES ONLY AN INTENSE COFFEE CAN BE THE PERFECT END OF THE MEAL.

Romans usually prefer drinking coffee in the glass cup: in this way they can evaluate its “crema”, which should be thicker and highest possible. Then it should pass the sugar test, which consists in pouring the sugar in the cup of coffee, where it should remain in the surface for a certain time. The longer it remains the better the test will be.

DRINKING COFFEE IN GLASS CUPS ALLOW ROMANSTO EVALUATE HOW GOOD IS THE “CREMA”

20

Naples

Neapolitan espresso could be considered the symbol and the ambassador of the Italian espresso in the world. It is the result of the Neapolitans’ creativity added to their constant searching for good living, and coffee is considered a fundamental part of their good living.

During the Italian Colonialism period, a very high quality coffee arrived to Naples from Ethiopia and other colonies. However, some batches did not have the same quality, but the extraction of the coffee was not so strong and the flaws could not be tasted.

Later, during the Second World War, coffee was requisitioned by the Army in Italy but it continued to circulate in Naples as a smug-gling product, coming from the unsold stocks of the port. As the war went on, older and older coffee beans, stocked in 1939, were masterly blended, prepared and sold by the old women in the black-market, where coffee was directly pre-pared with the Neapolitan pot.

In 1945 the war ended and the coffee trade restarted, but by that time Trieste had become the port where fresh coffee arrived. Thus, the Neapolitans left with their trucks and be-gan to transport coffee from the North East of Italy to their region. Unfortunately this cof-fee had sometimes a phenolic smell, and even if they tried to sell it in other regions, some of it remained in Naples, unsold.

However, at that precise time the habit of tak-ing coffee with some drops of anisette began to spread: in this way the balsamic flavour cov-ered all the flaws.

NEAPOLITAN ESPRESSO IS THE SYMBOL OF THE ITALIAN

ESPRESSO IN THE WORLD

DURING THE ITALIAN COLONIALISM PERIOD, A VERY HIGH QUALITY COFFEE

ARRIVED TO NAPLES FROM ETHIOPIA AND OTHER COLONIES.

21

The coffee we find in Naples is intense, dark, and aromatic. The dark roasted coffee obtained from blends with a high percentage of Robusta con-fers to the Neapolitan Espresso its typical strong body, its bitter taste and the brown “crema”.

The other fundamental factor that characterises a good espresso in Naples is the bartender, who should be a professional coffee maker that con-trive any possible device to do coffee in a better way. An example is the quantity of coffee used to make an espresso.

Even if the fixed quantity to make an espresso is 7g per cup, they usually have a little spoon near the coffee grinder-dispenser with which they add a tip of spoon more to reach the perfect quantity to make the excellent espresso.

NEAPOLITAN ESPRESSO IS INTENSE, DARK AND AROMATIC; IT HAS A BITTER

TASTE AND THE BROWN “CREMA”

22

The history and the diversity of the Italian blends are at least as fascinating as the whole coffee’s history.

The background that characterises the Italian regions has led to a chopped country, where every part is easily distinguishable. We find the same diversity even in the Italian coffee blends, even if the Brazilian Arabicas are the base of most Italian Coffees.

THE ITALIAN BLENDS

We can imagine Italy as the Ancient Library of Alexandria where every book is a coffee roaster. Everyone is different from the others. Everyone contains a different history and a different method. Everyone contains his own idea of blend.

From North to South, the incredible diversity

23

With their particular aromas, their sweetness and their delicate bodies and flavours they are perfect to be combined with coffees character-ised by a strong personality.

Brazilian Arabicas are appreciated everywhere in Italy, but especially in the north-eastern part. On the other hand the north-west part of Italy appreciates more aromatic and acid tones, reached mainly by adding Central and Colombian Arabicas. As we move to South we find an espresso with a stronger body, obtained from Indian coffees, Robusta and Arabica, or more rarely from Afri-can and Asian Robusta. We can also find particular combinations, like a Robusta blended only with washed coffees or 100% washed Arabica blends.

Anyway, this is just a superficial description of the real complexity of the Italian blends. If we only try to think about the more of one thousand small and medium size roasters spread all over Italy, which have their own jealously protected recipe used to produce their own blend, we begin to touch the essence of this theme. Even the visual aspect of coffee changes from region to region.

While observing the coffees served in different part of Italy we notice a sort of affinity with the people living there. A longer beverage us-ing a lighter roast is typical of the North, where people used to be taller and fairer, whereas a small concentrated dark roast is typical of southern population, shorter and darker. It seems that in Italy coffee lived an anthropo-morphic process during its history which led it to look like the people who drink it.

According to Vincenzo Sandalj, in reference to his article “The art of Italian Espresso”, the magic formula to achieve the mainstream Italian taste should be 40% Brazilian, 30% washed Arabicasa-nd 30% Robusta.

EACH REGION IS CHARACTERISED BY ITS OWN FOOD, WINE, CULTURE, COSTUMES AND DIALECT THAT SOMETIMES IS A TRUE LANGUAGE.

24

ESPRESSO AND MOKA COFFEE

THERE ARE SO MANY TYPES AND VARIANTS OF COFFEE IN ITALY THAT WE CANNOT THINK ABOUT IT AS A SIMPLE DRINK

The products of the Italian genius

25

MOKA COFFEE IS USUALLY CONSUMED AT HOME

ON THE OTHER HAND ESPRESSO IS USUALLY

DRUNK AT THE BAR

When we talk about coffee in Italy we cannot think about a simple drink obtained fromthe coffee beans, in fact there are several variants. However, two main types of coffee can be distinguished: the moka coffee and the espresso.

The first one is usually consumed at home in the morning, before going to work or after lunch by people eating at home. It is also drunk in the afternoon or after dinner, depending on the family’s habits. In the Italian houses the morning coffee represents a sort of pleasant alarm.

The aroma coming from the mocha spreads in the rooms and it means that it is time to get up: it is time to drink a good coffee.

On the other hand espresso is usually drunk at the bar, so it could be taken in the morning with a croissant, or during a break from work, with colleagues, after lunch or simply at every break taken outside the house. Thus, we find espresso in restaurants, pubs and in all the public places.

The birth of espresso and moka coffee is fruit of the technologic innovation process developed in Italy during the 20th century, which led to an innovation race to improve the efficiency of these machines, especially the espresso one. In fact, the moka pot by Bialetti, the most popular and first manufacturing company, still maintains the design of the first patent in production (1933) and represents the firm’s main product.

However, many other coffee makers have been designed before the Moka and the espresso machine. Its history is nearly long as the coffee’s one.

26

Coffee makers

The first coffee makers were probably manufactured where coffee was born, in the Horn of Africa. One of the most ancient instruments used to brew coffee is the Jebena, from Ethiopia. It has a bigger spherical base that terminates in the upper side with a narrow neck connected to the base by an handle. Coffee exits from a little spout placed in the base. It is usually made of pottery and it is still nowadays the traditional container used during the coffee ceremonies.

In Turkey we find the Ibrik, still used to make and serve coffee. It has a larger base that narrows in a long neck and ends with a larger porthole where coffee exits. All the components are connected to a long handle that allows to grab the tool.

From 15th to 17th century, the method used to make coffee was boiling coffee grounds, and dividing grounds from coffee became a problem that lots of coffee maker manufacturers wanted to solve.In 1819 the Parisian Morize invented the reversible cof-fee pot, from which the Neapolitan coffee pot has probably derived.

The “Napoletana”, even called cuccumella, is the Italian, or better, the Neapolitan version of the reversible coffee pot invented by Morize. It is formed by four elements. It has a bottom part containing water, above which the filter part is placed. This part consists of a filter screwed to a little container, filled with the coffee grounds. The last part is placed above the others and contains the coffee that will be drunk.

The bottom part has to be put in contact with a source of heat until the water boils; at this moment the pot must be turned upside down to let pass the water through the coffee grounds. In this process the coffee is brewed using gravity.

The Napoletana was made of cheap aluminum, and its affordable price allowed most of the Italian families to make homemade filtered coffee. In the 20th century the substituted of the Neapolitan coffee pot was finally invented: the Moka.

THE “NAPOLETANA”, EVEN CALLED CUCCUMELLA, IS THE ITALIAN, OR BETTER, THE NEAPOLITAN VERSION OF THE REVERSIBLE COFFEE POT INVENTED BY MORIZE.

27

The Moka, the tool that Italian houses never lack

Espresso made Italy famous all over the world, but in the country the most used coffee is that brews with Moka, the instrument used to make coffee at home. The name Moka takes origin from Mocha (or Mokha) city, in Yemen that was the most important coffee mar-ket place from the 15th century to the 17th century.

Alfonso Bialetti introduced the Moka Express in 1933. It is not just a home tool, it is a design object displayed in the most popular modern art and design museums, such as MoMA and Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, and the London Design Museum. After 80 years Bialetti Industrie still produces the same model. It consists of three main parts. The bottom part is filled with water, whose level has to reach the safety valve. The funnel-shaped metal filter is inserted above it and filled with coffee grounds. When the bottom part is heated, the steam pressures forces water to pass into the filter which contains coffee grounds and the resulting drink reaches the third part of the Moka, the upper chamber where coffee is contained.

Alfonso Bialetti was a gifted engineer, but according to “Deconstructing Product Design” by William Lidwell and Gerry Manacsa he did not take the inspiration of the Moka design in his studio, but in his house while his wife was doing laundry.

At that time the primitive washing machines consist-ed of a bucket, heated by a fire, and a lid with a tube coming out of it. The bucket filled with soap water was sealed with the lid. When water boiled, the steam pres-sure pushed it up through the tube and expelled on to the laundry. Bialetti, interested on this process, thought that he could use the same system to brew coffee, and he manufactured the Moka.

It is known of Alfonso Bialetti that he was mainly an artist and worked not for money, but above all for his own pride. At night he usually fell asleep smoking his cigar and holding the hardest produced piece of the day. This was his great satisfaction. His son Renato, moved by his own trade soul, began to produce industrially the Moka, exporting it all over the world.

Alfonso Bialetti introduced the Moka Express. It is not only a home tool, it is a design object still produced nowadays as it was designed at time. The logo l’omino coi baffi” was created by the artist Paul Campani.

28

After few years, Alfonso Bialetti wanted to protect his own product from potential imitations, so in 1953 he commissioned a mascot to the Italian artist Paul Campani. The mascot designed was “l’omino coi baffi”, the mustachioed little man and was printed in every Moka produced in their factories. It should be a carica-ture of Renato Bialetti.

Nowadays the Bialetti Company is the leader of the Moka’s manufacturing, and most of Italian people, thinking about a Moka pot, have the image of Bialetti Moka Express in their mind.

The Espresso machine, an Italian tale

The espresso is the coffee obtained by forcing hot water to pass through coffee ground in short time. Its history began in 1884 when Angelo Moriondo, from Turin, invented and patented the first espresso machine.

It was probably invented to speed up the process of making coffee: workers could not wait five minutes to have one, so inventors started looking for faster methods to brew coffee. They understood they could use the steam power to do it. The origin of the term “espresso” is still not clear, but the hypothesis that it could mean “quick coffee” seems to be the most reliable. The first espresso machines used steam instead of water, but the taste of the resulting coffee was not good because of the high temperature used to brew it, that should not exceed 95°C or 203°F. In 1901 Luigi Bezzera found a solution to this problem and designed and patented a new machine, which was manufactured in 1905 by Desiderio Pavoni. He was the founder of “La Pavoni” Company, the first to put espres-so machines on the market.

Angelo Moriondo, in 1884, invented and patented the first espresso machine.

These new machines still used steam like the old ones, but this time it never reached the coffee. The steam pressure at the top of the boiler was used to force water to pass through the coffee grounds contained in a metal filter basket, placed in a portafilter which was attached to a Brew Head. The water, after passing through the ground, became coffee that poured from the spouts. This system permitted to reduce the brewing time from 4 minutes to 30 seconds.A more modern machine was manufactured in 1948 by Achille Gaggia, who designed a manual piston: the spring that powers the piston is compressed by a lever, forced down by the bartender.

Few years later this machine was replaced by a new model that began to produce the modern espresso, and the term “caffè crema” died out.

The new machine was the “Faema 61”, produced by Faema in 1961; it has no more a piston between the boiler and the brewing group. Now, there is an elec-tric pump that pushes down water through the coffee ground. The “Faema 61” introduced the double espresso, which has the double quantity of coffee drink with the identical concentration and taste.

29

THE FIRST ESPRESSO MACHINES USED

STEAM INSTEAD OF WATER BUT THE TASTE

OF COFFEE WAS NOT SO GOOD

The new Gaggia machine introduced the era of the “crema”. The legend says that the first patrons who tried the Gaggia espresso did not think it was so good, and they asked “what is this foam on my coffee?” and Gaggia smartly answered “this is the caffè crema” instead of the espresso. The crema is a natural layer of foam produced by the single piston mechanism, from the oils contained in the coffee ground.

Gaggia 19

48

Faema 19

61

(Curiosity) (From cup to demitasse)

Italian people are well known from their habit of doing things in a slow manner, at some extent with a lazy attitude. For example, if we think about Italian meals we usually imagine a long table with a lot of relatives and the oldest member of the family sitting at the head of the table. The meal could easily go on for three or four hours. Linked to this relaxed attitude there is Italians’ lack of punctuality: most of them just seem not to care about time at all.

After these considerations about Italian habits we wonder: why coffee is so short in Italy while in the other countries (apparently less relaxed) is so long?

The answer is linked to the process of innovation of the espresso machines. Before being a small one ounce drink, espresso used to be a 2½ ounce demitasse or a 5 ounce regular cup of coffee. But the Gaggia machine used a manual piston and it has a one ounce pressurization cylinder which could only hold that precise amount of water, because otherwise the arm strength required to compress the spring would have been prohibitive. Later the Faema61, with its electric pump, had no more such limit, but people got used to drink the “little cup” and kept requiring it.

After the “Faema 61”, espresso machines have been drastically improved, with electrical components, computerized measurements and other components that have contributed to make the preparation of coffee a process more and more automatic.The last super-automatic machines automatically grind the coffee, tamp it, and extract the espresso shot.

Technological innovations have allowed the manufacturing of increasingly little and light espresso machines that can be used even at home. Nowadays this market has become very lucrative and companies are producing machines that can be considered true objects of design.

Some examples are the machines proposed by Illy, Lavazza, Gaggia, De Longhi, Saeco, Rancilio, Cimabali and La Pavoni. Moreover, there is also another technologic wave that is promoting new manual machines that allow more precision in brewing temperature and pressure giving to the bartender the possibility to show in a better way the different coffee’s characteristics. The professional machines used in bars are still manual.

30

HABITS ABOUT COFFEE

SINCE COFFEE ARRIVED IN ITALY, THE INFLUENCE THAT HAD IN THE ITALIAN SOCIETY WAS SO INTENSE THAT IT INVOLVED THE BIRTH OF PARTICULAR JOB FIGURES AND GESTURES THAT IN SOME CASES WE CAN STILL FIND NOWADAYS.

The “Caffè Sospeso”

The suspended coffee was probably born after the Second World War in Naples. This was a very delicate age for the Italian people, especially in the South of the country. The war had left only ruins and poverty; most of people had lost everything and they could not even afford a coffee, so this habit appeared to allow them to have at least this little pleasure.

People who had experienced good luck or simply had the resources to do it, used to ask for a “Caffè Sospeso”. It consists in taking one coffee and paying for two. The second coffee was offered by the kind patron to the first poor who passed in the bar, which would be asked by the bar tender: “would you like a coffee?”

This gesture has spread all over the world, and some companies have developed the idea of carrying on chari-ty initiatives based on the suspended coffee model.This costume is still present in Naples.

Coffee enters in the society

31

The “Caffè dell’amicizia”

When we travel around Italy, we observe a significant diversity among its different areas, a diversity involving also the way of approaching people. Although a sort of behaviour code (the one which, for example, teaches us to address older or important people with fixed titles) is still present in the whole country, but in the South it is felt in a deeper way.

The deference habit affects even the coffee moment: in Sicily for example, the act of refusing an offered coffee is seen as a kind of insult.

Thus, people began to share the cup of coffee to avoid the neurotonic effect caused by too many coffees. The guest would take the first sip, then the person offering the cup would take the second, and at the end the guest had the privilege to finish the coffee. This sharing gesture has been called the “friendship coffee”. It represents a sign of a very close relationship between the people sharing the coffee.

CAFFÈ DELL’AMICIZIA: PEOPLE BEGAN TO SHARE THE CUP OF COFFEE TO AVOID THE NEUROTONIC EFFECT CAUSED BY TOO MANY COFFEES

IN SOUTHERN ITALY PEOPLE GIVE MORE CONSIDERATION TO THEIR EXPRESSIONS OF DEFERENCE

THE USE OF PRONOUNS SUCH AS “VOI”, YOU-3RD SINGULAR PERSON, INSTEAD OF THE MORE COMMON “LEI”.

32

THE AMBULANT COFFEE SELLER CALLED “CAFFETTIERE AMBULANTE” WAS USED TO HAVE TWO RECEPTACLES, ONE WITH COFFEE AND THE OTHER WITH MILK.

The figure of “The Caffettiere”

The Street trading is an important socio-economic element in the daily routine of Italian people. It still represents, especially in the South, one of the most common ways to trade food.

In some cities, open markets are a meeting place where people go to do grocery shopping but also to tattle with friends or simply to speak with the vendors.Historically, women have the task to go to the market, but nowadays there is no more a sharp division of roles. Another important expression of the street commerce are the street vendors who go through the city bringing their own products.

One of this is the “Caffettiere”, a historical figure appeared in Naples in the 19th century. Every morning, when the sun had not yet risen, the phrase “O latte te l’aggio fatto roce roce. ‘O caffettiere cammina Nico” - “I have prepared your milk with sugar, the coffee man walks, Nicola” interrupted Neapolitans’ sleep.The phrase was the same every day, with the exception of the first name at the end, that changed according to the Saint of the day.

In this way the “Caffettiere” reminded people the Saint’s day, that is still a very important celebration in Naples.He walked through the whole city with two receptacles, one with coffee and the other one with milk, and a basket where he kept cups and sugar. He started his job in the early morning, first serving coffee to the working class, then to the middle class working in offices.

THE PHRASE WAS THE SAME EVERY DAY, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE FIRST NAME AT THE END, THAT CHANGED ACCORDING TO THE SAINT OF THE DAY.

33

Women and coffee

In modern society there are no evident differences between men and women in relation to coffee, since the present situation is the result of a long process of civic evolution which affected even this product in its social role.

However, in the past the two genders were linked to coffee in a different way, and the widespread habit of drinking coffee in Rome a few decades ago represents a perfect evidence.In the capital the after lunch coffee was a sort of daily ritual. In fact, until the 1970s most of the businesses used to close for the lunch break; in this way people could go home to have lunch, and at the end of the meal the ritual began.

Men used to go to the bar to take an espresso with their friends before going back to work, and this represented a social moment far from children and wives’ ears.On the other hand, housewives met each other after washing the dishes, in one of their houses, different every day, or in the courtyard of the block when the weather was good, and they used to drink Moka coffee. They drank it because at that time the typical espresso with the “crema” could only be drunk in bars, as no home espresso machines existed.

These places were mostly frequented by men, above all in those areas where the “good moral code” was more felt. There were no rules that prevented women from entering a bar, but it was seen as a men place.

In addition women (mostly of them were housewives) had the task of preparing coffee at home and this ancient habit has strengthened the connection between women and the Moka pot.

HOUSEWIVES WERE USED TO MEET IN DIFFERENT HOUSES EVERY DAY DRINK-

ING MOKA COFFEE, WHILE MEN WERE USED TO DRINKING IT TO THE BAR

This booklet is made by people loving coffee who are aware of communication importance nowadays. After my graduation in Food Economics and Culture at the Agriculture Department of the Università di Perugia, in Italy, I had an internship experience at International Coffee Organization, in London, where I wrote an essay about the Italian coffee history. While I was researching and writing the contents part, Daniele Musio and Cecilia Della Longa, two designers graduated at Politecnico di Milano, followed the graphic and editorial part of the project.

I would firstly thank Daniele and Cecilia, who have greatly supported this idea since I proposed it to them, and Dr. Lilian E. Volcan who gave me very suitable guidelines, as supervisor, during the elaboration of the paper.I want to thank also Prof. Fabio M. Santucci, who gave me the possibility to live the experience of internship in a such important organization, where I had the opportunity to work in contact with very professional people. During this period in London, I met many people with whom, in some cases, was born a very close friendship. I am very grateful to all of them for the moments spent together, especially to my internship colleague Paulino A. Quifica and my friend Giulia Zanin, who were great fellows supporting me in this experience.

-ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

-