Espresso, short, long, glass, macchiato, cappuccino with or without sugar, coffee is always coffee, and should be considered more than a drink.

For many coffee is a real passion as well as a moment of reunion and friendship. It is through this perspective that the International Coffee Day should be celebrated. The date of birth of this holiday is quite recent, celebrated for the first time is October 1, 2015.

Every year the International Coffee Day has a different theme and this year it is dedicated to young people. Coffee has always been a fundamental part of the everyday life of an Italian, many times imitated all over the world from large chains like Starbucks to the smallest neighborhood bars. But what is Italian coffee in the end and why has it become such an important symbol?

The legend of the spread of coffee in Italy tells of how in the seventeenth century, it began to turn in Venice, through trade relations with the East. It was initially categorized as a medicine and sold in pharmacies.

Soon the drink became very popular. They created real coffee shops. It began to assume a social connotation, as the drinking of coffee was followed by intellectual discourses. With the increase in popularity, came the need for a fast and easy to prepare coffee that could satisfy several customers in a short time. This is the idea behind the espresso coffee, symbol of Italian coffee.

Having a coffee never means just having a coffee but has different sides and facets, which see at the base a pretext to disconnect and socialize.

With the decrease in costs, coffee also arrived inside Italian houses and not only in bars, through the moka. This is the modernized version of the Neapolitan born in the late nineteenth century.

But how does the mocha work?

To make your Italian Erasmus experience even better, here’s to you step by step how to make a coffee with moka coffee from real Italian.

The machine consists of three parts, a kettle below, a funnel-shaped filter in the middle and a binder at the top.

  1. If the moka is new, the first thing to do is to do "a passage to empty", that is, to put only the water in the kettle in order to remove all the mechanical and ferrous flavors of a moka just bought.
  2. Fill the kettle with water WITHOUT passing the valve.
  3. Fill the filter with coffee WITHOUT pressing it.
  4. Screw the two parts of the moka pot together, that is, the kettle and the holder.
  5. Put the mocha on the stove OVER LOW HEAT.
  6. As soon as the coffee boils, turn off the fire.
  7. Mix the coffee with a teaspoon and serve.