August 15, 2007

Cappuccino

Coffee is my comfort drink. I'm not addicted to it but I love the whole ritual surrounding coffee. Wanna partake in my morning ritual? Then read on :)

A cappuccino is espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream. Espresso itself is an Italian word meaning "pressed out" and called so as it's made in a coffee making machine (first invented in Italy in the beginning of 20th century) that presses water through fine ground coffee.

Cappuccino on the other hand had nothing to do with coffee originally. It comes from the Italian word Cappuchio that means "little hood" . The colour of the coffee reminded Italians of the brown robes of one of the Roman Catholic orders of monks, namely the Capuchins. The Capuchin order of friars was established in 1525 and they wore brown silken robes with pointed hoods.

Trivia: The name of this pious order was later used as the name (first recorded in English in 1785) for a type of monkey often having a hood like tuft of hair on the head. So we also have a monkey, a native of Central and South America, that's called Capuchin.

Sources: http://www.answers.com , http://www.billcasselman.com/
Pic: http://www.capuchinfriars.org.au/

7 comments:

Radha said...

interesting...!

Unknown said...

wow..really interesting..and this leads to my favorite coffee drink of Iced Mocha's origin..in this coffee crazy nation..

Follow this link for Mocha's origin
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9053127/Mocha

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

Thank you for the link yogesh. I love all these words for different kind of coffees.....including mocha, and cafe au lait..i love the way they roll off my tongue..the words i mean :)

and hey i like iced mocha too :)

Jas B said...

I could never really drink coffee!

Hmmmmm....the name "Capuchin" taken from "monks" (friars) to monkeys!!!!

AlterinG Abhishek said...

There so much monkeying happening around here that Now I need some coffee!!

Very interesting info indeed!!

Anonymous said...

10 past 10 and I really want a cup of coffee... There is hardly anything better than dipping Oreo's in a cup of coffee...

Thanks for placing the coffee seed in my head... (wink)..

Great site, btw.. :)

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

Jas: Arka cant have it either!!!

Abhishek : Have one for me too :)

Nate: welcome here!!! :)