THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT: COFFEE

Italy is one of the countries with the highest consumption of coffee in the world, and as a result the widespread use of tools to prepare it: it is very rare to enter an Italian home and not find at least one coffee maker inside. The tradition of espresso in the Bel Paese is so deeply rooted that Italians often, even when they move abroad - whether for vacation or for work - pack the inevitable moka pot, because the aroma of fresh coffee in the morning is one of those traditions we just don't want to give up.

The two types of home coffee makers most loved by Italians - and therefore the most widespread - are the Neapolitan coffee maker and the traditional moka coffee maker.
The Neapolitan coffee pot, also called cuccuma in the dialect, is probably one of the oldest ways to prepare coffee.

The Neapolitan coffee maker was originally invented in France by Morize around the beginning of the 1800s. However, it became very popular in Naples, where it took the name of cuccumella and improved here to then be spread as a standard preparation method throughout Italy.
Its operation, practically opposite to the traditional moka, allows to obtain a very full-bodied espresso with a rather robust flavor.

The most common home coffee machine is the mocha coffee maker. More recent than the Neapolitan one, this coffee maker was invented in the 1930s by Alfonso Bialetti, founder of the company still famous today for the production of coffee machines.
The success of Moka Bialetti, due to the simplicity of the beverage preparation process, is such that it is the most used coffee maker in all of Italy, as well as one of the best known in the world.