Hello there Cafe people.
Gale and I have been in Milan for the past 5 days, and been to lots of cafes (naturally).
Milan is fuelled by espresso, and there is a cafe every few paces in the town centre. Most are very small, and individually owned, and sell coffee and a small selection of pastries, and of course cigarettes. There are of course Starbucks cafes scattered around the place, but mostly catering for the tourist trade.
The most popular cafe offering is the espresso. or Macciato, with the milk based drinks coming a long way behind. Peole do not sit and while away the hours in cafes, (there is far too much promenading and lookng stylish to do to be hidden away in a cafe).
As far as innovation goes, the hot new thing I have seen here are small machines which produce shots of ginseng, guarana, and orza (which from what I can gather is a roasted barley). these shots are either added to espresso for a double bunger hit, or served as a shot on the side. I tried an guarana one to help with the jet lag, and it works!. The ginseng is traditionally a male potency aid, so beware all ye maiden in Milan if this stuff takes off!
Another very interesting discovery is actuallally a blend of two not new technologies. the vending machine coffee, and pod based espresso. The result, as I tasted and greatly enjoyed, was a delicious, hot, and high quality macciato on a platform in the metro,(see pic).
The cost of coffee is really low, less than 1 Euro, per cup in most places ( around $2.00), but the volumes are very high.
We are heading to Venice this morning, and so on with the discoveries in the homeland of espresso…
Cordially Yours.
Michael Bishop.
