Burning like hell, black as the devil, pure like an angel but as sweet as love: that’s how real coffee should be.
How does this sound? For an Italian any time is a good time to have a coffee. Coffee in Italy is deeply rooted within its culture and traditions. Never expect to be served a cup of tea if you visit someone in Italy, unless you specifically ask for it.
I buy my coffee beans in Italy and grind them just before making coffee. In coffee-bars beans are always ground at the premises just before coffees are made, that’s because in this way they will maintain a more intense aroma than if they had been ground some time earlier.
Coffee is delicate, its taste gets affected by humidity, light and heat and once you grind it you will need to store it in a glass or in a sealed jar possibly in the fridge. With the heat the aroma slowly evaporates.
There are many types of coffee but we can think of two main ones:
Arabica coffee has a very round taste, slightly acid with a hint of bitterness and with a little “chocolatey” flavour. Its scent is intense and the cream has a reddish brown color. It has an elongated shape slightly S-shaped. Its caffeine content varies from 1.2 to 1,7%.
Robusta coffee has a higher content of caffeine ( it varies from 1, 6% to 3.2%) and it has an astringent, aromatic flavour and it is less bitter; it has a cream of a brown to grey colour. Its bean has a round shape.
I personally prefer a mixture of both of them.
A very important process is the roasting of the beans in the roaster which brings them to a temperature between 200 and 250 °C within a time which varies between 18 to 20 minutes; it all depends on the type of coffee you want to get and the result to be obtained.
Take a look now at how many types of coffees there are in Italy. Italians are quite complicated and very fussy when it comes to the “black gold” as it is also known: so would you like a macchiato, doppio, ristretto, lungo or perhaps a corretto??
From50 types of Italian coffee: espresso, cappuccino and many more by Charming Italy
Let's go back to how food used to be, made from wholesome, good ingredients. Let's embrace the slow food movement.
Taking time to cook yourself a decent meal should always come as a priority. After all we are what we eat! 
So many types of coffee! I’d love to make the coffee granita that can be found in Rome, it’s so delicious and refreshing!
Verissimo, noi italiani amiamo molto il caffè, io per esempio ho l’abitudine di concludere il pranzo con una tazzina di caffè ristretto, lo trovo eccellente! Molto interessanti le informazioni sui vari tipi di caffè! Un abbraccio!
Wow that’s sounds interesting Nora. I have never had it.
Oh wow, what a long list of coffee… that is amazing! I don’t even know how to drink a simple cup of coffee because I grew up not drinking. I should really start trying.
You are really sweet. But be warned: once you start you get hooked on coffee for life!
Though I don’t drink coffee, I do love to use it in the baking and I love the aroma too.
Carissima ma tu sei proprio una buongustaia del caffe’!! Io al massimo compro il lavazza per avere una qualita’ mogliore….. La prossima volta che sono a Roma andro’ da CASTRONI che e’ una popolare catena di negozi dove vendono caffe da macinare….e che aroma quando si entra !!!!!! CIAO
I don’t drink a lot of coffee, but when I have it I hope that its like your description. Wonderful!!! I have drank Arabic coffee and loved the thick and intense flavor. I also love the list of coffees you’ve provided. Who knew that there was so much to choose from!!!!
Si immagino l’odore del caffe’ appena macinato… quando vado nei negozi di caffe’ in Italia il profumo e’ incredibile…
ohi… you truly are a real Italian with your coffee beans
not like me… I live on instant coffee and I have been doing it since I was in my late teens (I also used to like American fast-food but maybe we should put a “velo pietoso” on it). cheers to the real Italians!! bacioni e brava sempre! Barbara