Coffee the Italian way, more or less

At the counter

Most coffee in an Italian bar is drunk standing at the counter, al banco: ordered, drunk in a few sips and gone. In busy bars, especially in cities, you often pay at the till first and put the receipt on the counter when you order. Sitting at a table is a different, slower thing, with table service.

In some places, more often in the south, a small glass of water comes with the coffee. Drink it first and it clears the palate.

The words

Ask for un caffè and you get an espresso. Everything else is a variation: ristretto is shorter and thicker, lungo is longer, doppio is two. Macchiato has a spot of milk foam, and latte macchiato is the opposite, a tall glass of milk with coffee poured in. Ask for “a latte” and you may well be handed a glass of milk.

Corretto is an espresso “corrected” with a splash of spirit, often grappa or sambuca. Caffè d’orzo, roasted barley, is there for anyone avoiding caffeine. The glossary has the rest.

Milk and the time of day

Cappuccino is generally a breakfast drink, with a pastry. Plenty of Italians would not order one after a big meal, when a small black coffee is the usual way to finish. Nobody will stop you, and in tourist towns nobody will notice.

From one city to the next

Every region has its habits, and a few are famous. In Naples, there is the caffè sospeso: paying for an extra coffee that someone who cannot afford one can later ask for.

In Trieste, where I grew up, the bar words are different: many people ask for un nero for an espresso and un capo for one with a little milk foam, and capo in b if they want it in a small glass.

In the Salento, in the heel of Italy, summer coffee is often poured over ice, sometimes with a little almond milk. None of this is a rule, and habits shift from one bar to the next.

Coffee at home

At home the moka pot is the everyday coffee in a great many Italian kitchens. It goes on the stove first thing in the morning, again after lunch, and whenever someone drops in. Offering a coffee to a guest is close to automatic, and saying no is perfectly polite.

Before the moka there was the Neapolitan flip pot, the napoletana, which some families still keep for Sundays.