History of Cappuccino

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The consumption of coffee in Europe was initially based on the traditional Ottoman preparation of the drink, by bringing to boil the mixture of coffee and water together, sometimes adding sugar. The British seem to have started filtering and steeping coffee already in the second part of the 18th century and France and continental Europe followed suit. By the 19th century coffee was brewed in different devices designed for both home and public cafés.

Adding milk to coffee is mentioned by Europeans already in the 1700s, and sometimes advised.

'Cappuccino' originated as the coffee beverage "Kapuziner" in the Viennese coffee houses in the 1700s at the same time as the counterpart coffee beverage named "Franziskaner": 'Kapuziner' shows up on coffee house menus all over the Habsburg Monarchy around this time, and is in 1805 described in a Wörterbuch (dictionary) as 'coffee with cream and sugar' (although it does not say how it is composed). 'Kapuziner' is mentioned again in writings in the 1850s, described as 'coffee with cream, spices and sugar'. Around the same time, the coffee beverage 'Melange' is mentioned in writings, explained as a blend of coffee and milk, presumably similar to the modern day 'Caffè Latte'. Other coffees containing cream surfaced inVienna, and outside Austria these are referred to as 'Viennese Coffee' or 'Café Viennois', coffee with whipped cream. Predecessors of Irish Coffee, sweetened coffee with different alcohols, topped with whipped cream also spread out from Vienna.

The 'Kapuziner' took its name from the colour of coffee with a few drops of cream, nicknamed so because the capuchin monks in Vienna and elsewhere wore vestments with this colour. Another popular coffee wasFranziskaner, with more cream, referring to the somewhat 'lighter' brown colour of the robes of monks of the Franciscan order.

Cappuccino as we write it today (in Italian) is first mentioned in northern Italy in the 1930s, and photographs from that time shows the drink to resemble a 'viennese' —a coffee topped with whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon or chocolate. The Italian cappuccino evolved and developed in the following decades: The steamed milk atop is a later addition, and in the US a slight misunderstanding has led to this 'cap' of milk foam being named 'monk's head' -although it originally had nothing to do with the name of the beverage.

Though coffee was brewed differently all over Europe after the Second World War, in Italy, the real espresso machines became widespread only during the 1950s, and 'cappuccino' was redefined, now made from espresso and frothed milk (though far from the quality of micro foam steamed milk today). As the espresso machines improved, so did the dosing of coffee and the heating of the milk. Outside Italy, 'cappuccino' spread, but was generally made from dark coffee with whipped cream, as it still is in large parts of Europe even in 2014.

The 'Kapuziner' remained unchanged on the Austrian coffee menu, even in Trieste, which by 1920 belonged to Italy and in Budapest, Prague, Bratislava and other cities of the former empire.

Espresso machines were introduced at the beginning of the 20th century, after Luigi Bezzera of Milan filed the first patent in 1901, and although the first generations of machines certainly did not make espresso the way we define it today.

Coffee making in cafés changed in the first decades of the 20th century. These first machines made it possible to serve coffee 'espresso' -specifically to each customer. The cups were still the same size, and the dose of beans were ground coarse as before. The too high temperature of the boilers scalded the coffee and several attempts at improving this came in the years after the First World War.

By the end of the Second World War, the Italians launched the 'age of crema' as the new coffee machines could create a higher pressure, leading to a finer grind and the now classic 'crema'.

The first small cups appear in the 1950s, and the machines could by now also heat milk. The modern 'cappuccino' was born.[citation needed] In Vienna, the espresso bars were introduced in the 1950s, leading to both the 'kapuziner' and the by now new-born Italian 'cappuccino' being served as two different beverages alongside each other.

In the United Kingdom, espresso coffee initially gained popularity in the form of the cappuccino, influenced by the British custom of drinking coffee with milk, the desire for a longer drink to preserve the café as a destination, and the exotic texture of the beverage.