In Europe, Italy is considered the motherland of coffee – or “caffè”, as the Italians call it. But why actually? Mamis Caffè dives into the history of coffee in Italy with you.
The discovery of coffee: thanks to the goats
All sorts of legends surround the origin of coffee. The most well-known is about an Ethiopian herdsman named Kaldi, who grazed his goats in the Kaffa region. Accordingly, he observed that the animals always jumped around particularly cheerfully when they had eaten from the fruits of a certain bush. That’s why Kaldi tasted the coffee cherries and discovered their stimulating effect.
Whether the goatherd was really the first person to ever taste coffee is uncertain. However, many sources show that coffee actually spread from Ethiopia, first to North Africa and then to the entire Arab world. There, people drank it with pleasure for many centuries before coffee finally came to Europe.
The coffee goes to Italy
The origins of coffee in Europe are clearly Italian. The Venetian physician Prospero Alpini, for example, got to know the coffee plant on a trip to Egypt in the 16th century and learned from the local people how to roast the beans and use them to prepare the aromatic drink.
In 1570, thanks to Alpini, the first beans reached European soil in Venice. Initially, coffee was sold in pharmacies as medicine due to its beneficial and stimulating properties. In addition, the black gold was so expensive that only rich people could afford the luxury. Coffee quickly became a popular and valuable gift among aristocrats, a symbol of love and friendship.
Church and coffee: love at second sight
Not everyone made friends with the brown pick-me-up straight away. The stimulating drink from the Arab world was considered by many to be a stimulant for unbelievers, and Catholic clergy initially condemned it as “the devil’s stuff”. Some even called for coffee drinkers to be excommunicated and called on Pope Clement VIII to officially ban coffee consumption.
Clemens VIII, however, decided to try the controversial drink himself first – and was enthusiastic about the taste of the frowned upon luxury food. “This drink of Satan is delicious,” he is said to have exclaimed. The Pope then decided not only not to ban coffee, but even to define it as a “Christian drink”. Since then, no coffee drinker in Catholic Italy has had to have a guilty conscience – and coffee has been able to begin its triumphal march unmolested.
Caffè Florian in Venice: The first coffee house in Europe
In the heart of Venice, under the arcades of the spectacular Piazza San Marco, Europe’s first coffee house opened in 1647, a forerunner of today’s famous Caffè Florian. The café, based on models in Alexandria and Constantinople, was very well received and quickly found imitators: just a few decades later there were already more than 200 cafés in Venice alone. The new fashion quickly spread to other Italian cities, including Padua, Turin, Rome and Naples. Coffee also became popular in many other European cities at this time.
The stylish coffee houses gained increasing prestige. They became the meeting place for well-known writers, philosophers and statesmen, who engaged in stimulating discussions over an invigorating cup of coffee. And to this day, the cafés are the favorite meeting place for Italians.
Milestone: The invention of the espresso
A milestone in Italian coffee history is the invention of the espresso. In 1901, Milanese Luigi Bezzera patented the first machine that used steam to prepare the little black one.
Contrary to what is often assumed, the Italian term “espresso” does not mean “fast”. There are two explanations for the name. On the one hand, the meaning “explicitly” or “specifically”. Because in the early years, the “caffè espresso” was only brewed on express request. So the little black one was a coffee “expressly or specially prepared” for the guest.
Another explanation relates to the then new method of preparation with steam and brings espresso in connection with steam locomotives – also known as express trains at the time. Incidentally, the Italians themselves usually refer to the pick-me-up simply as “caffè”. They still prefer to drink it neat, with a fine crema or as a cappuccino for breakfast.
