Coffee bar vs home-made coffee: who wins?

Article written by Michele Sergio and published in “Il Roma” of 25 February 2018

The world of coffee lovers has always been split in two: the supporters of espresso, the one prepared in bars, contend the primacy of the best coffee to the incurable lovers of home-made coffee. We want to premise: they are both good, each of them has minor flaws and the great qualities of our exceptional drink. To try to solve the vexata quaestio, we try to highlight the differences.

L’Espresso, a quick goodness between a chat and a thought!

Prepared in bars and cafés, using a professional machine, it comes with the classic cream on the surface. The machine was born in the late 1800s and is linked to the figure of Angelo Moriondo, the man who first invented it with the aim of speeding up and simplifying the preparation of coffee to make it immediately usable in a public meeting place. Later Luigi Bezzerra, struck by the invention of Moriondo, proposed a new version of the espresso machine proposing it on an industrial level: it is the “Pavone”, with the use of which the fast coffee, the espresso, precisely, as fast as what was, at the time, the fastest train, definitely took off, coming out more and more from the houses.

Today, modern espresso machines allow you to prepare coffee in less than a minute, with high results in terms of taste and quality, in perfect line with the tight rhythms of a working day. In particular, in our city there is the lever machine (in contrast to the other parts of Italy where the automatic bar machine is used – or continuous delivery – which, let us say, allows you to make a Mr. coffee!

The Cuccuma and the Moka: goodness is served at home and all smells of coffee!

The Neapolitan coffee maker (c.d. cuccuma or cuccumella) invented in Naples in 1819 by the French Morize was used for many years until it was gradually replaced by the more modern and fast Moka, created in 1933 by Alfonso Bialetti. The two “macchinette” of home-made coffee have made the old infusion a new and tasty drink to prepare at home, warm, aromatic, associated with any kind of sweet, quick enough to prepare, but with a time, certainly longer than that of the bar, which allows you to converse while the coffee salt spreading its aroma throughout the house.

We realize that we have failed to give the best palm to the two eternal contenders and perhaps it is not possible: we will object that they are two different things, but always the coffee is! Differently declined but, each one, perfect for different moments; both delicious and indispensable. Provided that we respect the tradition of the great Neapolitan school, whether it is that of the master coffee makers or that of the expert hands of housewives. De gustibus, moreover, non est disputandum. Good coffee everyone!