The Art of Italian Coffee

Italians raise the beverage coffee to an art form.  You cannot simply enter an Italian eaterie and ask for a coffee, nor for a latte.  If you ask for a “coffee” you clearly meant an espresso.  If you asked for such an odd beverage as a “latte”, it raises the question of why you have such an affinity for pure, warm, frothy milk. To get what we call a “Latte”, you MUST ask for a “café latte”.  To get what we would call coffee, that is clearly a “café Americano”.  Sometimes you get a choice of warm or cold milk for your coffee, and mostly typically brown or white sugar, if you want to go all the way.

“Taking a coffee” is extremely popular in England and Italy.  It seems to be the height of sociability. taking one coffee can give you your caffeine fix for the day too.  It can be quite strong!

Sociability is important. We negotiate, we persuade, we evangelize in social settings.  In England this is done in the pub, but in Italy it seems to be done more often over a coffee.

One of my American professor friends, Sam M wrote a short essay about evangelizing during many shared coffees.  I can see that for him and also for many Italians.

Let's you and I take a coffee one of these days and chat about The Christ.  What do you think?