Although neither Christianity nor coffee originated in Italy, these folks have become a considerable authority on both. So, I asked my Italian friend "What's a good coffee?". "A good coffee .. " he started off, but then paused with a deep breath as if the description was beyond words. He looked at the vending machine coffee and with a smile he said " .. definitely not this".
There are several kinds of coffees around here, some with two teaspoons full coffee served in a very tiny cup that can be barely held - the espresso or the licho: something you can sniff out of the cup. Add a drop of milk to this to create a machhiato. Half a glass of milk more makes it latte macchiato. Capuccino with the froth on top of it. And the story goes on. To feel like a real Italian, one should drink a macchiato for the breakfast and a licho without even a single drop of milk as a dessert after lunch. A capuccino is acceptable for a breakfast, but definitely not after lunch. There are so many ways of preparing a capuccino: if you get a capuccino with a chocolate topping - Switzerland, cinnamon topping - US, no topping - south of Italy. If you ask for a capuccino and get a latte machiato, you are in the north-east of Italy where the names, as I heard from my friends, are interchanged. A capuccino thus serves as a kind of a coarse grained GPS for identifying your position!! At the risk of sounding like a sexist, I should point out this hilarious video on macchiatto from "Italian Spiderman !!".
Well, starbucks definitely is responsible for the coffee revolution in the US. One of the mistakes new comers in US do is to use starbucks as a landmark before they realize there is a shop every street corner. As can be guessed, the most popular coffees in the US are about 300 ml to 400 ml compared to the 30ml espresso. And they are usually loaded with sugar, and many times ice. I only had the 'brain freeze' drink once. I caught a bad cold for one week after that and I decided to give up on iced coffee. Coffee is definitely very popular there as you can get a mug full of coffee and finish of your work as the person attending to you refills it regular intervals. And one thing an americanized person will miss in the Italian side is the luxury of taking your coffee to go with you!
In India, at least when I was growing up there a few years ago, coffee is a very unique and not many variations exist. Ask for coffee, you will have a cup-full of wonderful drink on your table in a minute. The closest american and Italian counterparts to this drink are cafe latte/latte macchiato. You will not be grilled with questions such as - hot or cold; ice or no ice; sugar or no sugar; tall or grande; without milk or with milk (whole milk/skim milk) or with soymilk; for here or to take it go and finally are you paying with a starbucks card today?? Without those questions, that's definitely a more enjoyable experience. Slowly the americanized coffee shops are mushrooming in the big metros.
Espresso machine at work place seems to be one of the basic amenities in the Italian region. People help themselves liberally with it. I stayed late at work one evening and saw my Italian friend drink a coffee at 10pm. I asked him "dont you have trouble falling asleep??" "nope" he replied. I laughed and said "I forgot, coffee and s*x are good at any time of the day." "Well, I am not really sure about the second one, though !" he replied instinctively !!
The famous mathematician Godel used to say that mathematicians are machines that convert coffee to theorems. Seeing so many smart people at my work place get a regular coffee every few hours, I am not only convinced of it but am also thinking of trying it out in greater proportions myself .. !! Let me try my luck with a boost of caffeine.
2 comments:
what about the 'Kauphy' variety? you forgot to mention that. :-)
those macchiatos are the real deal. Granted most of the ones I had were with homax in the german and french parts but I could go back to swissland just for that. But then I'm a caffeine fiend ;-)
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