“A coffee pot on the stove is enough to fill a room… (Erri De Luca)

At first, she didn't really like it. That novelty, which had come from came from no one knows where,had not obtained the favor of either the lords or the people.

Everyone for centuries had ignored the existence of those strange grains of an indefinite oriental origin, perhaps known, however, in the sphere of the Medical School of Salerno. And, probably, also at the Aragonese court, considering that around the mid-fifteenth century the ships of the kingdom regularly frequented the ports of the eastern Mediterranean and Naples maintained very intense commercial relations with those lands. In any case, that product and the drink made from it had remained unknown to most for almost two centuries. 

A date that is handed down in this story is 1614, the year of the transfer to Naples of the Roman musicologist Pietro Della Valle. From the city of Partenope, he left for a journey to the Holy Land, where he remained for twelve years, also dedicated to deepening his knowledge of the local population and its traditions. And there he experienced, telling his Neapolitan friends about it, a black drink, the khave, which was obtained from grains put to boil in jugs from which the liquid was poured into small glasses to be drunk after lunch. On returning to Naples, Della Valle brought the oriental beans with him, to make them known in the city. But without arousing any particular curiosity or interest.

From Vienna to Naples, coffee flavored by nobles

Their fate was different in other European cities. From the end of the 17th century, the drink by now known to all as coffee began to spread and conquer ever new admirers. So much so that clubs opened just to be able to drink it while entertaining with friends and acquaintances. Venice was the first to have a coffee shop. But the city that saw the rapid multiplication of coffee shops was Vienna, where the drink became trendy, as we would say today. And the Viennese success reverberated in Naples thanks to Queen Maria Carolina, daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, who arrived in Naples as the wife of Ferdinand IV in 1768 and also brought with her the coffee fashion. It soon spread among the nobles. To consecrate the use of the drink even on special occasions was a sumptuous ball organized in the Royal Palace of Caserta in 1771, entirely dedicated to coffee. Serving him on that occasion, for the first time, were servants wearing white coats and caps. And Maria Carolina always spread at court the habit of accompanying coffee with kipferl, a crescent-shaped cake, common in Austria-Hungary, filled with cream and black cherry. Basically, the ancestor of the croissant, for a mix destined to become the typical breakfast in Naples and in the rest of Italy.

The devil's drink become a collective ritual

Yet, no matter how passionate the nobles were, the people still didn't appreciate him. Indeed, that black color and oriental origin had made it identified as "nectar of the devil", even jinxed, therefore absolutely to be avoided. And the Church itself did not approve of it and discouraged its use. More time had to pass, until the early nineteenth century, for the Neapolitans to become passionate about what would become their favorite drink. And a song by Nicola Valletta also contributed, in addition to the author of “Cuoco galante”, the cook and gastronome Vincenzo Corrado, who cleared it definitively.

A turning point in the diffusion of coffee came with the introduction in the city of the coffee maker which today is still defined as "Neapolitan". Indeed, it was invented and patented in 1819 by a Parisian tinsmith, Morize, creator of the double filter system which replaced the infusion Turkish style. The coffee pot, originally made of copper, then of aluminium, was called coccumella and made people passionate about coffee, consumed rigorously in company, as a ritual of welcoming and sharing. It was also drunk on the street, thanks to the peddlers who went around with coffee, cups, a carafe with milk and a supply of sugar. The characteristic cries attracted the attention of the increasingly numerous enthusiasts of the tazzulella 'e cafè, which gradually took on increasingly Neapolitan characteristics in the methods of consumption and also in the taste of the drink. Around the middle of the 19th century, the practice of suspended coffeealso spread. It is a prepaid coffee for those who could not afford it. Then, in 1860, Naples also had its Gran Caffè, the first in the city, in the very central Piazza San Ferdinando, on the ground floor of the Palazzo della Foresteria. It is still there today under the name of Caffè Gambrinus.

A century after the “coccumella”, in the early twentieth century, the revolutionary espresso coffee machine spread. In line with the taste of the Neapolitans, a new roasting established itself, capable of maximizing the aroma of the coffee.  The intense brown color. A drink with an intense brown color like the "monk's mantle". This is how Eduardo De Filippo would later define it in the famous monologue of the comedy "Questi fantasmi " (These ghosts), in which the protagonist Pasquale reveals his secrets for a perfect homemade coffee. Meanwhile, other rules had established themselves together with the espresso. The drink is served creamy, strictly in a ceramic cup, white inside and without writing, heated and not humid, and accompanied by a glass of water, to be drunk first, to prepare the mouth to fully enjoy the taste of the coffee. Other habits, all Neapolitan, to sanction the now indissoluble love between the Neapolitans and the drink that came from afar and has become a city specialty.