What makes street coffee in Naples different from espresso?

Naples is known as a coffee city for two reasons: it is tied to the birthplace of the espresso machine, and its local drinking culture is unusually deep. Neapolitan coffee uses a specially made coffee cream to soften the impact of espresso, a drink known locally as caffè napoletano. The cream is dairy-free, which separates it from con panna or a latte.

The habit grew out of hardship. After World War II, Italian coffee imports were restricted, and many cities turned to lower-quality robusta. Dark-roasted robusta carries a harsh burnt bitterness, so shops in Naples and elsewhere added ingredients to make it drinkable. Cream, lemon and small amounts of milk all served that purpose, and how to make espresso macchiato belongs to the same family of fixes.

In Italy, the birthplace of espresso, not everyone can directly accept the intense bitterness of espresso, so people often add cream, lemon, or a little milk to balance the taste. Among them, Neapolitans use a special coffee cream to dilute the impact of espresso, and this drink is called "Neapolitan coffee." This article will take you to understand why Naples is hailed as the city of coffee, its connection with espresso machines, and how this unique dairy-free coffee cream is actually made. Front Street Coffee will also recommend related product information for you.

Even in Italy, the birthplace of espresso, not everyone gets used to the strong taste of espresso right away. Therefore, people use different ingredients to dilute the bitterness of coffee, such as con panna with cream, Roman espresso with lemon, and macchiato with only a small amount of milk...

Speaking of this, one cannot fail to mention Italy's coffee capital, "Naples." Locals use a specially made coffee cream to soften the sensory impact of espresso. And this unique espresso originates from Naples, so it is called by everyone: Neapolitan coffee "Coffee napoletano."

Before formally sharing, Front Street will briefly introduce Naples. Because the connection between this city and coffee is far deeper than everyone thinks. Naples Naples is also called Napoli, transliterated respectively from the English "Naples" and the Italian "Napoli." It is located in southern Italy and is the largest city in the south. Perhaps when mentioning Naples, the first thing everyone thinks of is pizza, since this is the birthplace of pizza. But as Front Street said earlier, Naples also enjoys the reputation of being the city of coffee.

The reason Naples is called the city of coffee is, on the one hand, that it is the birthplace of the espresso machine; on the other hand, it is because the city's coffee culture has a very deep foundation, and surrounding cities are all more or less influenced by it.

After the end of World War II, Italy's coffee imports were restricted, and many places were forced to use lower-quality robusta to make coffee. Dark-roasted robusta has an extremely strong burnt bitterness, and that bitterness makes it hard to swallow. Forced by circumstances, merchants in various cities could only add various materials to coffee to dilute the bitterness, including in Naples.

The specially made coffee cream mentioned by Front Street at the beginning was, besides lemon, another material used in Naples to dilute bitterness. In addition, merchants would also add a small amount of arabica for blending, in order to harmonize the flavor of robusta, even though arabica was very expensive at the time.

In the 21st century today, although coffee bean imports are no longer restricted, many places in Naples still continue this practice! Using a blend of robusta and arabica, then spreading on coffee cream that can dilute bitterness. All right, next let's first get to know just how special this specially made coffee cream really is~ Special "cream"? What makes this cream special? What makes it special is that it does not contain any dairy products at all! It is only because after stirring it presents a thick texture similar to cream that people give it the name "cream." And its production materials are only espresso and sugar, so it is called: coffee cream. Seeing this, does everyone think of a certain coffee dessert whose recipe and method are very similar?

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.