Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site
Main
Page This family-friendly site celebrates Italian culture for the enjoyment of children and
adults. Site-Overview
Coffee stimulates
not only the mind, but it can stimulate obsessions too, about
coffee. I tried to explain this to a woman as I was teaching her
to prepare espresso with a Moka. I told her, to her obvious
disbelief, that an Italian man would marry any woman who knew how to
make the perfect espresso. Just at that moment, an Italian man
passed through the kitchen (to check on the coffee making, I
suppose). He looked over our shoulders at the Moka just about
ready to go over the low flame. He murmured his approval and then
whispered longingly, "Marry me!" After that moment, I
was a god in that woman's eyes about everything Italian.
While Italians use the Moka at home, they all admit that the best
espressos are made at the neighborhood coffee bars by trained and
diploma-holding baristas. It mainly has to do with the
freshly ground beans, and the temperature of the steam.
Coffee Bars are about the only places in Italy where fast service is the
rule. Barista with diploma making the best espresso Part of what
makes it so good is that the beans are ground the moment you order the
coffee. Grinders aren't so expensive now, and you'll taste the
difference immediately in the coffee you make at home from freshly
ground beans. Here is a link to a grinder at Amazon.com with price, so
you can see what I mean.
My list of Grinders at
Amazon.com
Supposedly, and I'm really not a god about this: The price varies with
design and brand name. But the quality of coffee is generally
the same. Only some keep the espresso hot longer than others.
Bialetti is considered the top Italian Moka maker. Remember, you really should drink the Moka cofee right away--espresso! My list of Mokas at
Amazon.com Some people like to take the first drops of coffee that come up and
pour it out quickly into an espresso cup, add a spoon of sugar, and stir
it to make a sugary foam, then pour in the coffee when it is
ready. Bialetti has a "cappuccinomaker" that has you put the coffee,
water and milk
in the Moka to get your cappuccino. It's called a Mukka Express
Cappuccinomaker. I like the cow print one.
But I think Bialetti's more original design, is the one that allows
you to make your Moka like a Barista. You can see the coffee
steaming out directly into your cup! The same item via Amazon.com is more expensive, but includes the two cups
that are the just the right size so there are no splatters on your stovetop.
If you want to dream, or have plenty to spend on espresso machines,
look here at my collection of
luxury espresso machines. And Visit my Coloring Pages for
images of a Moka for children to color. Lavazza is the most popular coffee brand in Italy in the home
market. The bars prefer Segafredo. I prefer Illy.
Each has a slightly different blend or roast. Lavazza is
slightly bitter. Lavazza, Italy's home favorite, a sharp flavored
coffee blend. The Lavazza Store at Amazon.com My list of Lavazza at
Amazon.com
Illy is smooth and almost sweet. Illy Caffé, a smooth Arabica bean roast,
my favorite. Illy has an online
store that sells coffee makers and coffee and cups in the U.S.
Segafredo
is somewhere in the middle between smooth and bitter. Segafredo
is the Coffee Bar's favorite.
One reason Lavazza is the number one brand in Italy is their
highly creative television advertising campaigns that have been
entertaining Italians as long as commercials have appeared on Italian
TV. The earliest TV commercials were shown during what was called
the Carosello, or carousel, that would appear at the end of the
television viewing evening (which was early in the early days of TV!). There is a whole generation of Italians who knew it was
bedtime when the Carosello came on TV. The late actor Nino Manfredi starred in a series of comic commercials for
many years for Lavazza, but was eventually replaced by a group of
famous Italians including Bud Spencer of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer
fame. The wonderful Nino Manfredi from his popular TV ad campaign
for Lavazza coffee The current series features two men who die and go to an
Italian's fantasy heaven. It's a place where you can drink coffee
in perpetuity and never suffer any adverse side-effects. That is
St. Peter showing them the ropes in the photos below. And of
course, the coffee you drink in heaven is Lavazza! Lavazza's latest TV ad campaign featuring an
Italian idea of heaven, a place where you can drink Lavazza coffee all day
long with no adverse side-effects Here's a clip of a Manfredi Lavazza commercial for you to
enjoy via YouTube. Click on the lower left arrow to play the
video.
Here's one from the new series.
The
company has one of the most creative websites I've ever seen.
Each item you select, and there are many, is a multimedia show in
itself. Click here
to go
to the opening window of the Lavazza site. Once
there, just click on their coffee cup to start the show. There are not many tea drinkers in Italy, at least not at the level
of coffee drinkers. Herbal teas are growing in popularity, but
herbal everything have always been available in Italy at the Erboristerie. A woman in Torino told me the story of a
friend of hers who married an Englishman. The first time her
friend entertained the man's mother, she prepared a pot of tea that she
had learned how to make just for that occasion. What she didn't
realize was that the milk served with tea should be served cold, unlike
the warm milk served with Italian coffee. The result? She
succeeded in severely scalding her new mother-in-law's mouth! The
poor woman couldn't taste a thing for the rest of her visit to Italy. Italians do drink hot chocolate, however, and it is made by the
knowledgeable barista in a very special way. He uses the
milk whipping canister and adds two spoonfuls of pure powdered chocolate
and one spoonful of white flour to the whole milk. Then he whips
it with the steam nozzle on the espresso machine (on the stove you
just whisk it) until the drink blends
and thickens. You add the sugar to taste after it's served.
It is a cross between a hot chocolate and a chocolate pudding, and it's
the best thing to warm you up on a cold winter's day. Yes, it does
get cold in winter in some parts of Italy. You can learn a lot about chocolate in Perugia, Italy,
where, of course, the barista always uses Perugina chocolate.
The factory
is now owned by Nestle who have a site that can tell you everything
you might want to know about Perugina and Baci, Perugina's
chocolate kisses each wrapped in
a famous quote,
including where to buy their products. Click here to go to the opening page of the Nestle site.
And if you want to purchase some, but don't have an Italian store
nearby, here are some available from Amazon.com. My list of
Perugina at Amazon.com
You can use this Search tool to check Amazon.com for all
brands of coffees, or other specialty food items, if you'd like. And here are two a direct links to books all about coffee.
Just
enter 'Gourmet Food' in the 'Search' field, and the name of the product
in the 'Keyword' field. Then click on the 'Go' button. (The
coffee makers and grinders are under the 'Kitchen and Housewares'
'Search' category.)
Italian
Coffee, Tea and Chocolate, Coffee Brands, The Moka
Introduction
The Moka Versus the Bar - How to
Use
How to Use the Moka
Lavazza, Segafredo, Illy...
Lavazza Ad Campaigns
Tea and Chocolate
Italian Specialty Foods
On-Line
