• Home
• /
• Opinion

Europe's coffee culture has an Arabic flavour

The real first coffee culture was created in the 15th-century Arab world as Sufi ascetics drank it for the stimulant powers that proved useful in improving concentration during long prayer sessions. The finest coffee bean is still known as Arabica.
Yet it found its richest expression in Europe where coffee culture would become integral to the way of life and later give rise to international chains that in turn spread the love of enjoying coffee to the traditional tea-drinking cultures of Asia.
Today the word cappuccino is known worldwide, but it originated in Italy, named for its colours resembling a Capuchin monk's habit.
Coffee took Europe by storm when it arrived. Composer Giuseppe Verdi termed it "a balm of heart and spirit", while in 1732 Johann Sebastian Bach composed his "Kaffe-Cantate", an homage to Honoré De Balzac, who lovingly wrote about his addiction in The Pleasures and Pain of Coffee.
Ludwig van Beethoven's daily routine included brewing his beverage with great care, selecting and counting 60 coffee beans for each cup. Voltaire was said to have consumed up to 40 cups a day while writing his works. He paid exorbitant fees to have luxury coffee.
Considered a refreshing new innovation today in some regions of the world, it is an old tradition in Europe that began in the mid-1600s when cafes sprouted across the continent as free-spirited places that helped nurture creativity and ideas, inspiring artists, writers and philosophers as they sipped a steaming and stimulant cup of coffee. To single out just one such enclave, the Caffè Florian in Venice was patronised by Goethe, playwright Carlo Goldoni and Casanova, who was attracted to it because it was the only coffeehouse that allowed women. Lord Byron, Marcel Proust, Charles Dickens and later Ernest Hemingway were habitué of the legendary café.
Some 2.25 billion cups of coffee are now consumed daily worldwide. And Europe still leads the way as the biggest per capita consumer. Of the most caffeinated countries in the world, the top 20 are all in Europe except for Canada at No 10.
And various versions are enjoyed. Norwegians prefer light roasts with a tangy flavour, "sort kaffe", black coffee with no cream or sugar. Germans love their kaffee, drip-filtered and sometimes covered with whipped cream.
If the French are devoted to their café au lait, Austrians sip their wiener mélange, fresh coffee topped with frothy milk. To Italians, coffee is a sacrosanct espresso, the pure distillation of coffee beans, a concentrate of no more than one ounce of pure sensorial pleasure. And that concept would fuel development of a coffee culture that spread across the world.
In 1884 Angelo Moriondo of Turin patented a machine to use both water and steam, a method that would lead to espresso. But it was Milanese engineer Luigi Bezzera whose ingenuity found a way of quickly brewing coffee directly into a cup in a matter of seconds. His patent was later purchased by Desiderio Pavoni, who began mass production of an espresso machine that was presented at the 1906 Milan Fair to great success.
It remained an Italian delight until 1910 when businessman Pier Teresio Arduino began exporting machines across Europe that made espresso. Milanese café owner Achille Gaggia invented a high-pressure machine in 1948 that helped us discover the "crema" - the foam floating over the coffee that is the defining characteristic of a quality contemporary espresso. Today Italian espresso machines are found in even the remotest countries on Earth.
"The espresso is the symbol of the modern cosmopolitan and evolved consumer, and the compass leads us more and more towards the Middle and Far East, where consumption is becoming Westernised," says Maurizio Giuli, president of UCIMAC, the national association of Italian producers of espresso coffee machines.
"Seventy-five per cent of production is destined for foreign markets, where we are leaders."
The sector is so robust in Italy that 34 separate industries play a part.
And it would again be in Milan where another seminar moment happened that would greatly spread the culture of coffee. Inspired by the many Italian espresso bars in the city when on a business trip, Howard Schultz founded ubiquitous Starbucks 35 years ago in Seattle.
However widespread it becomes, drinking coffee remains an intensely personal rite. King espresso is enjoyed by majority of Italians as all-day sidekick. The perfect shot requires the four Ms: macchina, the espresso machine; miscela, the blend and roast; macinazione, the proper grind according to both the machine and weather; and mano, the hand of a trained barista.
Like the coffeehouses of old, the café remains a place of conversation, conviviality and sometimes even crucial communication. With a burst of enjoyment, a cup of coffee in its various forms offers a break from worldly cares, a respite from daily life. No wonder its warm, invigorating culture has spread far and wide. It seems irresistible.
But let's not forget that European coffee culture is a cultural borrowing.
The words coffee and café both derive from the Arabic term 'qahwah'.
"The wine of Arabia" expanded to Turkey in the 1400s until the Grand Mufti of Constantinople banned it in 1500s. It made a comeback during the Ottoman Empire, but it was thanks to Pope Clement VIII that the Western world accepted the drink. The pontiff tried it and loved it. Coffee mania was just starting.
Mariella Radaelli and Jon Van Housen are editors at the Luminosity Italia news agency in Milan