By DAVID GRINSFELDER | Contributing Writer
The waiter stares at me like I just asked him to spit in someone’s food. Equally perplexed, I return his confused look, unknowingly doubling down on my faux pas. It’s a cultural standoff.
As it turns out, I am very much the one at fault. I have committed one of the cardinal sins of Italian culture: ordering a cappuccino after lunch. To “fit in” in Italy—or, at the very least, not stick out as an American tourist—one simply does not ask for a cappuccino after 1 p.m., even though it is perfectly normal to drink a caffé (espresso) much later in the day.
Why? Because although the cappuccino has a solid espresso base, it has approximately 20% warm milk. Italian ideology stipulates that this added milk makes it a replacement for a meal, and therefore off-limits for either pranzo (lunch) or cena (dinner).
Humbled but eager to learn, I take the opportunity to educate myself. I ask for an explanation about the relationship between Italians and their beloved beverage.
What I got was a miniature crash course in Italian coffee culture, all while other patrons wait expectantly for Alessandro, my server-turned-teacher. He began with a brief background on the ritualistic status of coffee, gesticulating in that magnificent style of which only Italians are capable.
Coffee in Italy is, for lack of a better word, sacrosanct. In a country where 96% of the population has been baptized Catholic, coffee is the only religion that amounts to any kind of competition to the Vatican.
To Italians, coffee represents an indispensable moment, a chance to prendere una pausa (take a pause) and interrupt the long work day, even if only for a few minutes. “Ci prendiamo un caffé?”—the colloquial Italian phrase meaning “should we get a coffee?”—is the Italian equivalent of America’s “let’s get lunch sometime,” except Italians are much more likely to act on their offer.
In Italy, coffee is not served in cafes (il caffe) but in bars (il bar), which are liberally distributed on every street corner of every village, town and city. One can see a slew of people, mostly on their feet, lining the banca (bar counter), chugging their coffee in two or three sips before heading on their way.
The process of paying for and actually drinking one’s coffee at an Italian bar also diverges noticeably from its American counterpart. First, you pay for your order at the cassa (cash register), then you flash your receipt to the barista, who will tear your receipt and prepare your order.
Coffee and pastry in hand, it is then customary to carry your items to a standing spot at the bar. Most establishments have a surcharge for table service (banca vs. in tavolo), so Italians opt to take their caffé on two feet. And since another sin in Italy is to sip coffee on the go, you won’t find anyone carting their lidded coffee cup in the street.
It would be difficult to give a full account of Italian coffee culture without referencing the plethora of coffee varieties. Fortunately, Alessandro is up to the task. He explained:
- A caffé literally translates to “coffee,” but in Italy, ordering one will get you an espresso.
- A caffé macchiato is a “stained” coffee, meaning it is spotted with a splash of hot milk.
- An americano will get you Italy’s best imitation of the American-style filter coffee, espresso with hot water added.
- A caffé lungo, or a “long” coffee, is like an americano, but it is infused with twice as much water when the espresso is being pulled through the machine.
- For the most adventurous folk, a caffé corretto, or “corrected coffee,” is any type of coffee in Italy that also adds a splash of alcohol (grappa, brandy, rum or anisette).
In total, there are about 15 varieties of Italian coffee drinks, with a limitless array of sub varieties based upon where you are on the Italian peninsula. Not only does the diversity of Italian coffee surpass any other country, but the rules, customs and etiquette ingrained in coffee culture are quite different here than anywhere else in the world. For Italians, the act of drinking coffee is a sacred ritual.
Despite regional differences in preparation and flavors, coffee is a powerful force that has done as much to unify the disparate regions of Italy as any political movement. Coffee shops of the Risorgimento (“Revival”) period of 1815-61 were the heartbeat that pumped a steady flow of new ideas and information through the Italian populace, ultimately culminating in the creation of the modern Italian state in 1861.
In the words of Piero Bargellini, Italian politician and mayor of Florence during the 1966 flood: “Coffee was the energy of revolutions that changed the destiny of an entire nation.”
David Grinsfelder is a graduate of Palisades Charter High School (2015) and UC Berkeley (2019). He currently lives in New York and Milan, Italy, working as a model and writing a series of travel stories for the Palisadian-Post. The Grinsfelders have been Highlands residents since 1989.
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