The new generations are abandoning espresso. A brief history of coffee and how its consumption has changed

Coffee is one of the most debated beverages on planet Earth. Even the date of its "discovery" is disputed. From the Ethiopian goatherd Kaldi to the hermit al-Shadili, passing through the revelations of the Archangel Gabriel and arriving at the Prophet Muhammad, all these legends lead us back to the discovery of coffee, or at least its fruit. History tells us that the spread of coffee through the streets of Europe began in 1683 along the Singerstrasse in Vienna, where the Polish soldier Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki opened the first coffeehouse, thanks to the coffee left behind by the retreating Ottoman army.

Since then, up to today, coffee has undergone a series of restorations in terms of its meaning and the approach that we all have towards this beverage.

The slow time of coffee

We must understand that the meaning of coffee has always been linked to the concept of time. Before the advent of espresso, going to a coffeehouse meant taking part in a moment of conviviality rather than mere relaxation. The coffeehouse was the place where writers and artists met. The halls of coffeehouses were meeting places for insurers and politicians to discuss business and conduct propaganda. Coffeehouses were also places where, in the evening, one could sit and watch a dance performance, in Paris as in Naples. This continued until the early 20th century, when coffee was prepared using the filter method, in large cups and boiling hot. To be clear, we are talking about the era of the Neapolitan cuccuma and the French press. Some might say that, in terms of ritual, coffee at that time resembled tea: a ceremony requiring long durations and conversation.

The era of espresso: the fast time of coffee

In the early 20th century, the espresso machine, patented in 1884 by Angelo Moriondo, began to spread. But we are not talking about today’s machines. The first machines were gigantic, very dangerous, and operated by expert machinists who held the same licence required to operate locomotives. The barista was therefore a specialised worker. However, coffee, now "espresso," gained a shift in both time and space. Consumption became fast and often took place not seated but standing at the coffeehouse counter, marking the beginning of a new coffee era.

Pavoni

Coffee consumption becomes pop

Coffee consumption became mass-market. Many workers, on their way to work or back home, stopped at a coffeehouse for a quick espresso. The espresso machine thus became a war machine capable of preparing coffee more quickly and at a lower cost. The time for consumption was measured in minutes, and suddenly coffee transformed from a parlour ritual into a counter habit. The social function of coffee shrank both in scope and in time. In 1945, the first lever espresso machine was introduced, definitively marking the transformation of the coffee ritual from a drink of meditation to a drink of recreation. Coffee was now prepared in 30 seconds, became creamy, and started being suitable for takeaway. Meanwhile, as early as 1933, Alfonso Bialetti had patented the Moka pot, capable of reducing home coffee preparation times by at least threefold. Coffee officially became a pop phenomenon.

The "third place" of coffee

It was necessary to wait until the early 1980s to witness a new real revolution, thanks to Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks. Howard, inspired by Italian coffeehouses, completely rethought the coffeehouse format in the USA. Thus, coffee reclaimed its time, consumption returned to the table, but in an entirely new comfort setting. Coffee became once again a beverage for meditation, served in large cups and often accompanied by another important ingredient: milk. Coffeehouses, which were previously just stops on the way to workplaces, became workplaces themselves, complete with tables, sofas, electrical outlets, and free Wi-Fi. This marked the birth of what would be defined as the "third place."

Coffee today: the "third time" of coffee

We finally arrive at today and try to understand what coffee means in Italy. It is worth noting that the beverage, in terms of recipe and roasting style, has remained largely unchanged. The art of blending remains an icon of Made in Italy, as does the reverence for espresso and the figure of the barista. However, something is changing. The Neapolitan -style coffee is very popular among young people, as are coffees prepared with "new" tools like the Aeropress, Chemex, or Syphon, which have actually existed for decades but were only discovered in Italy thanks to the specialty coffee culture. Conversely, it is espresso, with its rapid preparation and limited experience, that is suffering from the abandonment of the younger generations.

Once again, however, it is a matter of time. Coffee is undergoing another revolution and is slowly gaining a new role at the table, thanks to a more careful selection of raw materials and an inexorable "culturisation" process in the food sector. What does this mean? Coffee is advancing in mixology, is often served in bakeries, and is becoming a frontier of food pairing. Thus, coffee increasingly takes on the guise of an ingredient, sometimes in a dish, sometimes in a drink; and finally, it is beginning to have its own menus, where one can choose between extraction methods, hot or cold drinks, countries of origin, or taste profiles. By moving beyond the concept of distracted consumption at the bar, yet also beyond that of a standalone meditative exercise or support for a work moment, coffee seems to be shouting its new dimension at us, what we could define as its "third time."

The times of coffee have all been surpassed. We are no longer satisfied with drinking coffee quickly at the bar, and coffeehouses are no longer workplaces, as smart working is now done from home.

Thanks to technology, we ourselves often become home baristas, only to be served shortly after by an expert brewer in a modern coffeehouse, and then return to being distracted consumers at the neighbourhood bar. The sensation is that there is no longer just one place or one way to describe the relationship between us and coffee, but that its forms are increasingly dictated by the time we choose to dedicate to it. It is in this third time, hidden between the fleeting minute of drink-and-run and the long afternoons spent in a coffeehouse, that the future of the relationship between humans and coffee is being written.