Coffee Blog: WHY HAS ESPRESSO BECOME A CULT? - A trip to Italy by Mr Schultz., perha ...

Who is Mr.Schultz.? Why, he is the founder of Starbucks! At one time a small-scale torrefactor from Seattle, he found inspiration on his Italian trip. Like Goethe whose voyage to Italy inspired Romanticism, Mr.Schultz 's inspired a new fashion. But what was it that so struck him? Expresso? But caffes run by Italian immigrants had been serving it for decades. Did he perhaps think that the anglosaxon culture of relaxation would embrace it as something new once it was reinterpreted? But as what?.. an expresso at table?... a conversational drink? These would be contradictions in terms!
Or did he think that a small ceramic cup, perhaps with a fascinating design, would be trendier than a mug? Or might he have believed that quick consumption, possibly standing, would lead to a new fashion? Or even that extracting the drink from an imposing machine, an impressive fixture in itself of the interior decor, would add
attraction to the locale.?
But why do we concentrate always and above all on espresso? Certainly, it is the initial element upon which the rest is based, but its versatility has allowed it to transform itself into other identities which from my point of view are the foundation of this world-wide passion for this beverage.
Mr.Schultz had his intuition when he was served a cappucino or perhaps a 'bicerin' in Piazza.Castello in Turin. Probably it was from here that his immagination took off and conceived the multitude of milk-based preparations which blend so well with expresso and which even have a fundamental role, immagine!, in 'coffee-to-go', it's absolute negation! Mocha coffee was born, nut-flavored, caramel-flavored, and then.. and then... The phenomenon spread to include ever-new levels of society, the young, the middle classes, traditionalists, health enthusiasts; it revolutionized the lives of milions of families. In the average North European family- in Italy it's different and of the why we might speak on another occasion- if you do not own an espresso machine, even perhaps a completely automatic one, you are not 'IN'.
But let's again ask 'Why?'. What is it that has so delighted about espresso and continues to do so?

Espresso is the emblem, but what delights is quite something else!

It is Italy that delights, its way of life, its warmth, and this magical little cup brings memories of a vacation, a romance; it is vital energy in its most essential form.
But Starbucks' coffees, for example, have nothing of the Italian; and so? But they are dispensed by espresso machines, marvels of form and technology, and served in fascinatingly shaped cups which are the perfect vehicles for that somewhat erotic beverage which is the cappuccino (I, by the way, see espresso as masculine and cappuccino as feminine); and these are an ideal base for a eneration of beverages that will be the future.