Do you fancy a cup of cappuccino?
Abraham Lincoln said: „If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee”. So maybe some cappuccino? This drink is very popular all over the Europe and many times is an alternative for those who say that coffee is too strong.
Cappuccino is a coffee drink made from espresso and steamed milk. In The history of cappuccino we read: „…the actual cappuccino was invented in Italy and the name was adapted to become ‚Cappuccino' (from ‚Kapuziner' - editorial note). It was first made in the early 1900a, shortly after the popularization of the espresso machine in 1901. The first record of the cappuccino we have found was in the 1930s” (https://www.thespruce.com/history-of-the-cappuccino-765833). Traditional cappuccino drinking was connected to the coffee shops culture, where people were sitting together, drinking and talking during long hours. It was mostly because of the fact that it was impossible to have a coffee mashine at home. They were too complicated and too bulky.
But what actualy the name cappuccino means? To get to know, we need to search in Italian language: „…from Italian cappuccino, from Capuchin in reference to the beverage's colour and its supposed resemblance to that of the brown hoods of the Friars Minor Capuchins” (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=cappuccino).
Some of the legends connect the origin of cappuccino with Marco d’Aviano, a Capuchin monk, whom pope Jean Paul II placed on the path to sainthood. „Marco d'Aviano, a wandering preacher for the Capuchin monastic order, is credited with rallying Catholics and Protestants on the eve of the Battle of Vienna in 1683, which was crucial to halting the advance of Turkish soldiers into Europe. He is also remembered by some as the man who, by legend, inspired the fashionable cappuccino coffee now drunk by millions across the globe. The monk, who was born in the city of his name in northern Italy in 1631, was sent by the pope of the day to unite Christians in the face of a huge Ottoman army. Legend has it that, following the victory, the Viennese reportedly found sacks of coffee abandoned by the enemy and, finding it too strong for their taste, diluted it with cream and honey. The drink being of a brown colour like that of the Capuchins' robes, the Viennese named it cappuccino in honour of Marco D'Aviano's order” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2979993.stm).
During the last years cappuccino developed. Nowadays, we can easilly prepare it at home. There are also planty of types of cappuccino. The question which stays is - if all of those drinks can be still called cappuccino? No matter how far away from real cappuccino they are, they are delicious. And let’s celebrate that, because today is National Cappuccino Day celebrated annually on November, 8 in the USA!
Photo by Benjamin Thomas
Daria Jaranowska
