By?Julia Engelbrecht (Kent State Unviersity)
?Vorrei un panino e un caffe macchiato, per favore?
The barista exchanges a perplexed look, and awkwardly continues with the request. After only being in Florence for a few short days, her reaction to my order seemed rude.
I continue to eat the panino and drink the caffe macchiato, as locals seemed to give the same perplexed look at my choice of lunch.
Little did I know, the difference between taking coffee in the Italy and the United States differs widely.
After two and a half months of residing in the city of renaissance, the differences relating to everything and anything ?caffe? are clearer than ever.
In the United States, coffee can be taken anywhere, anytime, with any kind of food. A preliminary mistake is one with drinking a coffee with a meal. While a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte may be the perfect addition to an egg over easy with a piece of toast at 4 pm in the afternoon, in Italy that is not the case.
Although I personally will always enjoy a hot, venti-sized pumpkin spice latte at anytime of the day, the Italian explanation makes perfect sense. After a discussion concerning the ways in which Italians take coffee, a professor put it in the simplest of terms: caffe is sweet (when sugar is added), but lunchtime food, such as a panino or an egg, is salty. It just doesn?t make sense to mix those two flavors.
That being said, there is always room for a coffee throughout the day, but only after a meal to help digest the food that was just eaten. If a cappuccino is ordered, that may still deserve a confused expression from the waiter.
As a student in Florence, I was told that it is unacceptable to drink a cappuccino after 11am. Whether or not this is true, I still order cappuccinos later in the day, and thankfully have not received any dirty looks just yet.
One of the many upsides to having Italian coffee is the plethora of places to find coffee, which are called bars. Every corner you turn, you can count on a red-neon sign with the word ?bar?, convincing you that yes, you do need a coffee right now, even though had one a mere hour ago. The people standing at the counter that seem to be crowded around in no organized fashion are not just hogging the space, they are simply drink their morning coffee as an Italian would, standing at the bar.
This is a concept that took some time to adjust to. In the United States, the coffee is either for takeaway, or consumed at a table with a copy of the New York Times.
After some thought, it is clear that the Italians have found the perfect balance in their practice of standing at the counter to drink their coffee. Take away exists but is rare, and a coffee at the table can cost twice as much as standing at the bar. Standing at the bar allows one to consume their coffee in a timely matter without the need of a takeaway cup. The size of Italian coffee, another large difference from American coffee, does not need a cup for the road simply because it takes only a minute or two to drink it.
In Italy, coffee becomes a break in the day rather than a culture that requires a take away cup or large amounts to keep people awake at work or school.
The bar becomes a place to eat una brioche e un caffe, and experience the true companionship between Italians that takes time to see between Americans. At first glance from the lens of an American student, the way in which Italians take coffee seems strange, particular, and hard to grasp, but after observation and time, it is clear that the importance of coffee in Italy shows the culture that exists between Italians. It gives a time in the day to talk with the other people at the bar, break away from work or school. In Italy, coffee becomes more than a drink, rather it becomes the culture.
Source: http://www.flonthego.com/2012/gourmet/11-28/the-art-of-drinking-un-caffe/
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