KNOW YOUR COFFEE

The word ‘coffee’ has a great many connotations:

• A dark, bitter and aromatic drink derived from the roasted and ground beans of a tropical plant.
  This is the classic cup of coffee, which is prepared with mocha or an espresso machine, either at home or in coffee bars. The Turks have a saying: “Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death and sweet as love.”

• The beans of the coffee plant
  Each single coffee bean tells a story: its colour, shape and degree of shine give us a good idea how the overall flavour of the beverage should be when it is ready to drink.

• Tropical plant
  The coffee plant grows in many regions of the world. It is an evergreen plant of the Rubiaceae family, bearing white flowers and scarlet berries, each containing two greenish seeds, or beans.
  These beans have to be dried and roasted before they are ready to be made into a cup of coffee.

• Coffee-coloured; dark brown, darker than chocolate
  The colour of a cup of coffee can tell a lot about the quality of the drink we are about to taste.

• The French word for coffee, ‘café’, is also a public place where coffee and other beverages are drunk; coffee bar
  Cafés have played a very important role throughout history, both ancient and modern; it is in cafés that revolutions and executions have been planned, and laws have been created and broken.

THE COFFEE CULTURE

The culture of coffee dates back to the 11th Century, when from its place of origin (Ethiopia) it spread throughout Arabia. This new ‘wine of Islam’ immediately aroused enthusiasm among the people for its stimulating effect, likened to that of wine, the consumption of which was forbidden by the Koran. Merchants of Venice brought the first sacks of coffee to Europe, where the tasty and stimulating drink quickly gained enormous popularity, and in all major European cities the first cafés began to open.
The bourgeoisie, with its characteristic common sense, welcomed the introduction of coffee for its ‘enlivening’ effects that transformed even the laziest employee into a diligent worker! Subsequently, Dutch and English sea merchants brought coffee to their countries’ colonies all over the world.
When, in 1683, the Turks were forced to break the siege of Vienna, they left outside the walls 500 sacks of coffee. A Polish shopkeeper with an eye for business used them to open the first kaffeehaus in the capital.

THE SECRETS OF COFFEE: CAFFEINE

Have you ever wondered what makes the aroma and taste of this beverage so special?
The secret of coffee lies in over six hundred different substances, many of which are formed by heat during roasting. When we drink coffee we consume a certain amount of potassium, a fairly high dose of antioxidants, traces of vitamins and, especially, caffeine, which is what causes the stimulating effect in the brain.
Caffeine, in fact, is a substance that is able to overcome the very selective blood-brain barrier and act on the central nervous system. Discovered in 1820 by the German chemist Ferdinand Runge, caffeine is the active ingredient of coffee, a natural compound that is also used in the pharmaceutical field, for example as an analgesic.
Thanks to its caffeine content drinking coffee gives you an energy boost and helps to maintain a higher level of attention and concentration.

THE RITUAL

Before it can be drunk, coffee must always be transformed in some way. To do this one or more utensils are needed, as well as an expert hand and compliance with a few basic but necessary rules. Even the simplest way of making coffee, such as with a mocha, for example, is a process that must be carried out correctly in order to satisfy a need that in our long-standing tradition is inextricably linked to the pleasure of the senses and the intellect. Ever since the late 14th Century, when the Arabs discovered the process of roasting coffee and invented the black beverage that is so well-known today, coffee has had a double life: private and public. It has always been associated with friendship and family life, while over the years it has also become synonymous with social and cultural pastime.
Coffee is a symbol of leisure, socialising and meeting.
‘Having a coffee’ means participating in a series of gestures and rituals conditioned by a certain atmosphere and series of tools that allow the ritual to be performed.