#coffee in Italy

[thecrankyprofessor]

In Italy even the sugar supply has a screen - and a news crawl.

[travelbodyblog]

Coffee and Italy! Why? From where has it come?

Photo was stolen from Internet 😉

First of all, amusing information. Have you known that Italians consume coffee not at the highest level in the world.

Finland has the highest per capita coffee habit at 11.4kg 

Italians drink much less per year consuming 5.8kg

In the UK we are relatively light coffee drinkers at 2.8kg                                            (Source: International Coffee…

[behungryforever]

Starbucks Plans To Enter Italy And Many Are Foreseeing A Challenge

Starbucks Plans To Enter Italy And Many Are Foreseeing A Challenge

The world’s beloved global coffee chain, Starbucks just announced plans to take on the Italian coffee culture by opening branches of the chain across Italy. This will be the first time Starbucks has forayed into Italy and, according to market and food experts, it has its work cut out for it.

Starbucks’ Italian Venture

Along with their pasta and pizzas, Italians are especially particular about…

[notturnofelsineo]

No fancy lattes or such in Italy, sorry.

So, this happened the other day at work: I was clocking off, and an American family I had previously helped looking for a book came to ask me a question. We’re in Italy, they knew I spoke English because I served them earlier, and I didn’t mind helping them at all, so I said  “Sure, how can I help?” “Where can we get some coffee around here?”

I was puzzled for a couple of seconds, since we were IN a bookshop with a coffee shop, a bar and a restaurant, but, I think, maybe they didn’t notice, so..

“Well, here! You can sit at the tables just outside our shop, or go to the bar if don’t want to stay long.” I see the dad doesn’t look convinced, so I add “Or, you know, there’s a nice café just down the road, and they have amazing pastries and cakes.”

Mom shakes her head: “Aw... we went to the bar, but that’s not what we were looking for. We were wondering if you could point us to the nearest coffee place... like a Starbucks, you know?” “Oh! I get it, but unfortunately we don’t have Starbucks in Italy.” “You don’t?” teen daughter looks sad. Mom again “That’s ok. We’re just looking for a place where we can get something like a chai latte or a frappuccino...”

I now start to see the problem. “I’m afraid there is no such place, I’m sorry. Those kind of drinks are not...” I look for the right word “...very popular around here. Maybe you can get a milkshake with coffee ice cream, or have a iced coffee... But that’s as close as we get.” I see that they look puzzled and kind of embarrassed, and I’m so sorry, because they are genuinely nice people and I didn't want to make them feel awkward or... I don’t know, not internationally savvy.

We talked a bit more after that, I walked them to my favorite ice cream place, and turns out it was their third day in Italy, and they had noticed how cafés and bars were actually really different here, but they just thought it was because the had not run into any “normal” coffee shop yet. They thought it was just because they were in touristic zones and maybe only “traditional” coffee shops and cafés were allowed there for image reasons. I ended up pointing them to the only place in my town that does something remotely similar to what they were used to (even if there are no take out walking cups, no frozen drinks and no fancy lattes), and teaching them the fundamental difference between latte, caffè macchiato and latte macchiato, before saying goodbye. Walking home I was still really surprised about how much we give things for granted even when we travel. Even if we go to different places exactly because they are different from our usual day to day routine, we still expect to find the exact same stuff. Italians do pretty much the same when they look for pasta and pizza places while abroad and act all surprised and outraged when what they eat doesn’t even remotely taste or look like what you can eat in Italy.  Now that I think about it, Italians act all outraged and superior when they talk about coffee shops in the UK as well, for examples “Ooh, that broth-like stuff they serve is not coffee! Bah!” and often pack a moka coffee maker to take on holiday... Which i find honestly ridiculous, but, hey, to each their own.