Page 17 - #63 eng 电子版

I begin my day with a brewed

at home coffee then I

make my way to a café and

continue the ritual.

Think about one ofe the social drinks, wine. People nomer as only humble amounts are grown in this country,
don’t drink wine only to get drunk. Similarly, many people early Italian culture welcomed the drink as if it were their
enjoy coffee for more than just an early-morning or late- own and did much to advance its status all around the
night boost, according to Andrea Illy, the CEO of the Ita- country.
ly-based Illycaffè coffee company. “People were drinking At Bars (how Italians call their coffee shops) the
lousy coffee with sugar and milk in order to get the caffeine consumption of the beverage has been playing a real
kick in the morning. There’s no time any longer for that. social role: “We call ‘ coffee break – 5 minute’ and usual-
Now, people enjoy the preparation, they enjoy the places ly workers do it each 2-3 hours, drinking coffee fast in a
where coffee is served, they enjoy the extensive range of stand-up counter,” says Davide Cobelli. Coffee has never
preparation and origins that you can taste,” Illy told Business been expensive for Italians, until the 80s the price was
Insider in a recent interview. But before becoming a social fixed by government, and for decades has been the cheap-
drink coffee had to find its way to become the second most er product at Bars. As Davide shared, this is why Italians
valuable commodity. We decided to look dipper into histo- think of espresso as something that should cost less than
ry of three coffee trend-setting countries: Italy, United States 1€, also because the drink is really short usually.
of America and Japan, to understand how coffee became Coffee has never been a stranger to Italian families,
home drank beverage and a tradition. For this we asked it is family’s meeting point. As in the past Italian families
International Sensory Judge, Davide Cobelli, Sherri Johns have been very big, coffee was always in the centre of all
from WholeCup Coffee Consulting and Yoshiharu Sakamo- home activities. Little Moka pots were providing the whole
to, founder of Act Coffee Planning. family with energy and mood boost. Nevertheless, mod-
ern lifestyle needed to rethink coffee consumption at
Italy home, that’s why many Moka pot were replaced by Pods
and capsule machines, loosing romanticism and gaining
Coffee in Italy has a long history: the first coffee house practically. Capsule or pods are easier to manage and
in Europe was opened in late 700s in Venice. In its recent machines for them are cheap, fast and user-friendly.
history (last 100 years), coffee has become a really status Moreover, a single served beverage like capsule coffee is
symbol for all the Italians, after inventions of first Bar just cheaper, costing only €0.40, while a coffee in a bar
Espresso Machine in early 1900 and Moka pot in 1933, that will be €1.00.
became commonly used in all the Italian houses for decades.
Historically most Italian coffee is brewed strong, and fast USA
in the form of espresso, which is perhaps why this country
developed various milk based coffees such as the cappucci- On December 16, 1773 a boat arrived into Boston
no and latte. The incentive to develop this type of coffee carrying a large tea shipment from England. At that moment
was not due to its superior taste, but a shrewd 18th Centu- the USA was known as a few North American colonies still
ry Italian businessman who sought to reduce the time his governed by England. The King had imposed a large tea tax
workers spent on their morning coffee break. Thus a lever which the colonists refused to pay. That evening, a group of
driven machine was developed to force water through tight- men boarded the ship and threw the tea into the harbour as
ly packed ground coffee, incidentally creating a stronger a sign of protest. From the incident a famous quote emerged,
more aromatic brew. Although the strong association be- “no taxation without equal representation”. The colonists
tween Italy and coffee can be deemed somewhat of a mis- refused to drink tea because of the unfair tea tax and turned

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