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| Lifestyle - Essays on Dysfunction | |
| Friday, 21 October 2005 | |
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The Great Cappuccino Debate
Scientific research proves it is OK to have a cappuccino after 10am.
This is an issue which constantly arises among tourists in Italy, so I thought it was worth it to reprint this research. It has been updated since it originally posted on 3LC in 2005.
A few years ago when I heard throngs of Americans raving about a book which advised readers that an Italian never drinks a cappuccino after 10am and neither should they, and other absurd declarations based on the author's one year spent in Rome, I had to do my own personal research. My friends are always alarmed when I start talking about "personal research" because they know that I am not at all scared to just start flagging people down to ask questions. The last canvassing I did was from the cash register of my husband's place of business. I was trying to convince him that we needed Sky at home so that I could feel "hooked into the world", so I asked every Italian customer who came in if they had Sky and if that made them feel as if they had a window to the world. My husband threw me out after about 3 'interviews', but I got Sky for Christmas a few weeks later. Likewise, I felt that I was capable of designing a 'study' that would strongly refute the assertion that Italians do not drink cappuccino after 10AM.
The Research
Hypotheses:
Considerations: Maybe by unwarranted arrogance, maybe by ignorance, I felt that I had quite a lot going for my hypothesis that this “no cappuccino after 10am” edict was a load of coffee grounds-- Starting from very rational observations like not everybody gets up in time to make it to the bar by 10am.
Method: Instead of going on coffee break at 9,30, I moved my break to after 10am. I rotated bars that were within a quick walking distance of my office, and I asked a series of questions of the barmen prior to ordering my cappuccino. These questions were something along the lines of, “If I order a cappuccino, will you think I’m weird?”, “Are you hiding your disdain for my cappuccino after 10am just to be polite, or is it normal to have a cappuccino after 10am?”, more directly “Do Italians order cappuccino after 10am, or only tourists?” and “What’s wrong with ordering a cappuccino after 10am?” I enlarged my sample to taxi drivers, lay citizens, and on weekends, I surveyed different bars in different parts of town to make sure that the answers I was getting weren’t geographically or socioeconomically influenced. I also performed half of my interviews in the afternoon, after 4pm, while ordering a cappuccino (to check the expression of the person serving me). I was so thorough and wide-reaching with my research that one day a colleague came to my office and said, "I had a cab driver this morning who asked about you." I said, "I don't know any cab drivers." She said, "Well, he knows you, because when I gave him the address here he said, 'You work with Kristina. Such a nice girl. Tell her I said HI.'" I also gained like 5 pounds.
The Results
Results: My hypotheses were validated. The first conclusion supported by my “research” is that there is no steadfast rule at all that you can’t have a cappuccino after 10am [It is not true that on average, Italians do not drink cappuccino after 10am]. The second conclusion, and more important one, is that Italians turn their noses up when a cappuccino is consumed in proximity to a meal, especially if the meal has a large dairy component (like a pizza with cheese or pasta with a cream based sauce). The most frequent example given was the consumption of a cappuccino as the beverage accompanying your meal, or immediately thereafter. Germans were cited as the biggest offenders of this unspoken rule as were Americans who are known to drink milk on its own (because it makes a body stronger). [If there is a cappuccino protocol, there is a reason that is wholly unrelated to the time of day.] Third, and the second most frequent answer I got was, “Why should anybody care what time you drink a cappuccino?” [If it is true in absolute, who cares. If you want a cappuccino after 10am, drink it and enjoy it.]
Conclusion: Some people may be concerned that my sample is not relevant, or maybe things are different in Rome, than in the rest of Italy. But they do say ROMA CAPUT MUNDI (Rome, Capital of the World)*... Further, I couldn’t find one single Italian person who believed that you can’t drink a cappuccino after 10am. And why 10am, they wanted to know? Hell, I don’t know why the guy wrote it in his book (or why it is faithfully mentioned in travel books), from whom he/they got this information. The closest I could get to a time was “after lunch it’s hard to find an Italian drinking a cappuccino,” but let’s be frank-- A cappuccino is like a latte macchiato which is like a caffelatte which are just three ways of saying milk and coffee. I married my husband after an intense courting period where every day after work for six months, he drank a latte macchiato while I drank tea or Coca-Cola, and I’m sure he wasn’t doing it to assuage my ignorance of Italian culinary peculiarities, or to make me feel at home. Sure, he’s just one person but during the months of my research, half the Italian people at the bar were drinking one of the aforementioned forms of milk and coffee (not just the single espresso with a bit of milk, caffe macchiato).
Discussion: If the point is "When in Rome, do as Romans do", I can only encourage you non-Italians to spy around the bar the next time you’re in one after 10am in Italy and notice what people are drinking, especially on Sundays. I can also encourage non-Italians to not care about these Italian food peculiarities, and there are lots of them, too many to be bothered with. If on the other hand, you’re scared of standing out, don’t worry about that either. They know you’re not Italian anyway, so that should take all the pressure off. After all, if it's your vacation you want it to be fun and memorable. Eat and drink what you want, when you want. It’s all going to the same place, my brothers used to say.
*A few notes about the introductory photo: The above photo is not my
receipt. It was left on the bar by the patron on 3 May 2008 at
11:04am). I picked it up and photographed it. The clock on the cash
register was not adjusted for the time change. The patron was one of a
series of people at the bar drinking cappuccinos. Even more recently
in a Roman neighborhood (7 May 2008). In the bar at 11:45am, of the 8
people who were served at the counter, three Italians ordered
cappuccinos. In neither case did anyone make a kerfuffle, roll their eyes, or even notice.
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