Coffee made it's first appearance in Italy in Venice around 1570. It was very expensive, so only rich people could buy it and it was sold in chemist's shops. Then, in 1640 the first coffee shop opened in the same city and expanded to other cities including Turin, Genoa, Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples. And the rest is history!
The coffee beans are not grown here, but they are blended here in famous Italian torrefazioni. There are two main types of coffee: Arabica, from Coffea Arabica, and Robusto, from Coffea Canephora, generally stronger. Each coffee is different, with a different mixture of types and beans from different countries. It's really like wine in that way, there are even such things as coffee tastings.
Here's a list of the different types of coffee you can get in Italy (I'm pretty sure this is not a complete list, but I think I got most of them):
- Caffè - espresso, a small cup of very strong coffee
- Caffè Macchiato - espresso "stained" with a drop of milk
- Caffè Corretto - espresso "corrected" with a shot of liquor
- Caffè di Orzo - espresso with Barley, no caffeine
- Caffè Freddo - iced coffee (not very common here)
- Caffè Latte - half espresso, half hot milk
- Latte Macchiato - hot milk "stained" with a small shot of espresso
- Cappuccino - espresso with hot milk and steamed milk froth on top
I'm not a coffee drinker, so I haven't tried most of these (I think an espresso would be way to strong for me). We do have a coffee vending machine in school buildings though and I tried a cappuccino with ginseng once, it was good (I think because the sugar was set higher).
Oh! I also added another recipe for Pasta al Ragu that we ate for dinner tonight. Vivaldo told me how to make it, and it was amazing :D
Caitlin
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