Enlightenment coffee (caffè alla lombarda)
An infusion of roasted and ground coffee beans, served hot and bitter, sometimes sweetened with sugar. The emblematic beverage of enlightened 18th-century minds.
An infusion of roasted and ground coffee beans, served hot and bitter, sometimes sweetened with sugar. The emblematic beverage of enlightened 18th-century minds.
Ah, coffee! This brown liquor that the Venetians bring us from the Orient is the friend of the waking mind. When night falls and one still argues about the nature of electricity, nothing revives thought better than a steaming, bitter cup. I serve it very black; add a little sugar if bitterness repels you, but I tell you: it is bitterness that sharpens judgment and drives away sleep during long hours in the study.
- •Roasted coffee beans — a good measure (infusion)
- •Boiling water — according to the pot (extraction)
- •Sugar — to taste (optional sweetener)
Enlightenment coffee (caffè alla lombarda)
An infusion of roasted and ground coffee beans, served hot and bitter, sometimes sweetened with sugar. The emblematic beverage of enlightened 18th-century minds.
Why this dish? Volta lived at the heart of the Enlightenment, when coffee — imported through Venice — accompanied the debates of scholars and academies. It is the drink of the scientific sociability of his time, around which ideas were born and new experiments discussed.
Ah, coffee! This brown liquor that the Venetians bring us from the Orient is the friend of the waking mind. When night falls and one still argues about the nature of electricity, nothing revives thought better than a steaming, bitter cup. I serve it very black; add a little sugar if bitterness repels you, but I tell you: it is bitterness that sharpens judgment and drives away sleep during long hours in the study.
Ingredients (period version)
- Roasted coffee beans — a good measure (infusion)
- Boiling water — according to the pot (extraction)
- Sugar — to taste (optional sweetener)
Ingredients
- Freshly ground coffee beans — 14 g (2 tbsp) (infusion)
- Hot water (about 92 °C) — 200 ml (extraction)
- Sugar — to taste (optional sweetener)
Method
- Grind the coffee fairly fine, just before use.
- Heat the water without bringing it to a full boil (about 92 °C).
- Pour the water over the coffee (filter pot or Neapolitan coffee maker) and let the infusion drip through slowly.
- Serve very hot in small cups; sweeten to taste.
- Accompany with a dry biscuit for conversation.
How it was made : Coffee spread in Italy via Venice from the 17th century; in the 18th, the *bottega del caffè* (coffee houses) of Milan and Venice were hotbeds of Enlightenment debate — the Milanese journal *Il Caffè* (1764-1766) even took its name from them. The Neapolitan coffee maker was perfected only in the 19th century, but decoction and filter infusion were already common.
The contemporary twist : Serve in a very small cup, with a square of dark chocolate placed on the saucer — the modern ritual of Italian *caffè*, direct heir to Volta's learned salons.
Alessandro Volta · Charactorium