For a couple of reasons. First off, anecdote. I myself am severely lactose intolerant, which I inherited genetically. I have lived in Italy and know Italians pretty well, and in my experience lactose intolerance is so unusual in Italy that people are often amazed to hear of my condition. Lactase (Lactaid etc.) is quite rare in the country, so much so that I usually bring in large quantities when I fly there. Granted, my experience is largely in the north, but I have also lived for quite some time in Rome.
Italians eat a fair bit of high-lactose foods (cream; cappucino, young and soft cheeses, mmmm, squaquerone; certain pasta dishes; and of course gelato) and I have never seen a complaint, while I myself have to be careful around all of them.
But second, as far as I understand it, the claim that Italians are lactose intolerant is not supported by current evidence. Studies in the 1980s in support of the hypothesis were largely based on self-diagnosis, which anyone who knows Italians ("Colpo D'aria") realizes is fraught with problems. It is my understanding that later and much better studies have suggested that lactose intolerance in Italy is far lower than suggested 40 years ago.
Colpo d’aria on its own is the example I give to anyone who wants to know why Italians can be so stubborn.
People normally are astonished when I explain that that’s pretty much the only reason why air conditioners have historically been so thin on the ground in even the stifling heat of Roman summer.
I'm Italian and yes most Italians don't know what lactose intollerance is but when I went vegan (for the animals) I suggested veg milk to people and you will be surprised by how many of them felt better, they didn't know they are lactose intollerant and many of them didn't even realized they had a problem. Who could imagine a headache can be caused by milk?
It's completely legitimate to go vegan for animal rights reasons. But lactose intolerance does not, and cannot, cause headaches. It is a specific disorder affecting the lower intestine and causes diarrhea and gas pain. I am afraid that your posting may be describing some other disorder (or it may be effectively another example of colpo d'aria).
*Edit: for those of you who don't know, colpo d'aria is a made-up disease used by Italian mothers to explain why their kids have to be bundled up ridiculously in order to go out in the cold: the closest term in English would be "catching your death". Italians are extraordinarily superstitious and hyperchondriacal about diseases and disorders. Frauds run rampant and homeopathy is openly advertised in drug stores as if it's real.
Headache from milk can come from the Vitamine A. You do need to drink about 2L of milk a day. I know this anecdotally, I head lots of headaches around the age of 21 :)
I’m gonna drop my $.02 in here because I am SEVERELY lactose intolerant and would like to discuss with someone else who is lactose intolerant. (This comment is unrelated to the video)
I usually use 2-4 lactaid capsules when eating dairy and sometimes 8 when it’s some super cheesy pizza or something. I live in the United States. I visited Italy last year, and I ate a lot of ice cream, cheesy pastas, and pizzas without any problems. Same with my father and uncle who are lactose intolerant. Do you know if there’s anything different about Italian dairy vs American dairy? I recognize my experience is super anecdotal, but it’s quite funny as my uncle, my father, and I got cocky about our ability to eat US dairy after coming home from Italy and immediately regretted it! So yeah, we’re definitely lactose intolerant
Some differences that might play a role, but I have no real idea.
In the Netherlands cheap supermarket pizzas often have more fake cheese than real cheese. I can imagine that might mean less lactose, but maybe something in the fake cheese is giving you problems.
In the Netherlands most milk is pasteurized. I can imagine this is the case in the US too. In the Netherlands there is a special protected branding of cheese that is not pasteurized (boerenkaas). Pasteurizing milk reduces the calcium level. I can imagine Italians might prefer using unpasteurized milk products more than people in other countries.
This is enlightening. I didn't know you could take more than 2 lactaid capsules to increase effectiveness. I am also severely lactose intolerant and never took more than two assuming that they each pill was so packed full of lactase that it wouldn't help. This has resulted in me basically never eating dairy because 1 pill rarely helps.
But as to your question, from what I understand, preparation can have a great effect on amount of lactose so the traditional Italian methods likely prepare cheeses in a way that reduces lactose.
Italian methods for cheesemaking are nearly identical to US methods (including, in most cases, pasteurization). I can't think of any cheese preparation differences that would have the slightest effect on lactose. It is the case that Italians eat more sheep milk cheese (pecorino) than Americans, and sheep milk has a bit less lactose. And Italians also eat more aged cheeses. But I don't think this is nearly enough to explain any differences you may have seen.
It's a good video, full of information. Ignore the snarky comment(s).
Summarizing:
- Italians in the North are less prone to lactose malabsorption than those in the South
- They don't drink cappuccinos after 11 because it's heavy to digest
- The video includes some information about why milk is hard to digest, and other things
I'd feel silly casually watching fun Youtube videos at any office job where anybody could see my screen. So, most jobs I've had until I worked remotely.
Browsing websites like HN is one thing. Youtube is over the top, like turning on Netflix. "Oh look, Chuck is watching Youtube again."
A lot of youtube videos are short and basically small memes, they’ve circulated in every office I’ve ever been in. Netflix movies and series of the other hand, you can reference them but who has the time to watch something like a series?
On the other hand I guess if it’s your lunch break, why not
I'd feel silly working at any office job where I couldn't casually watch a brief YouTube video or share one ith a colleague.
I've only worked at one, (now mostly remote, pre-ncov) maybe I was spoilt, but, perhaps as a result, I wouldn't want to feel that I couldn't. I'm not operating factory machinery.
It's all about perception, sadly. Plenty of people who will judge you and gossip about you for what they deem to be slacking. (Often while they're having a "quick" cigarette break, just for the irony).
It's not ideal, but it's human nature, and I don't think any company, no matter how good their culture, can remove it.
I worked in an open bureau back in 2001.
One guy would watch a funny video and the whole bureau would go to his computer to watch it.
I found that very annoying, I'm here to work and solve (hard) problems, not watch videos.
Because I was unemployed for a long time before that and was happy to work and do something productive. Instead..they watch videos.
I also can't stand inner company politics. If I never have to talk to my colleagues it's the best.
When I joined that company there was one guy who said, "we're all freaks here, what kind of freak are you".
I never saw myself as a freak.
The company imploded in the new economy bubble because management thought that spending 250k on Reamon (the singer) was a good investment. Then they didn't have enough money to pay their developers that were by 9/10 from Russia or Romania, imported. We sued and never saw our money. The product was sold to T-Online (Deutsche Telekom) as the TOM (T-Online Messenger) and the CEO fled to Switzerland with the money he made from the sale. We didn't see 1 cent.
What's also interesting, on paper the chiefs like the CTO and the head recruiter earned 20fold of what the code monkeys earned.
It was also a family business and they called themself a company that was noted on the stock exchange but in reality wasn't registered there.
The brother of a, at that time prominent TV moderator was an investor in that company.
In addition to the previous comments pointing out it's badly seen and quite visible, there are also many companies that blacklist (or not whitelist) Youtube.
I don't know, I liked the video but am uncertain of his hypothesis. If it was due to lactose intolerance wouldn't all the cheeses and pizza's enjoyed around dinner in Italy cause some major issues for many people? Also gelato? My guess is its due to caffeine and avoiding any ingestion of it for a long time before bed is a smart move.
I’m lactose intolerant and have no issue with cheese and gelato in Italy. Most Italian cheeses have little to no lactose. Not sure what the case is with gelato but it doesn’t seem to have an effect on me (this is anecdotal). Also pizza in Italy does not have as much cheese as in other parts of the world.
Cheese is low in lactose, and gelato is too, it's mainly sugar with only a little bit of milk.
Someone I know, who is lactose intolerant, believes that frozen milk isn't as bad, I've not found any scientific evidence of this, so it's probably not true, but she thinks she is more tolerant of frozen milk products, so maybe there is some reason?
There is also not that much milk in a serving of ice cream since it is usually less than the 1:1 with amount of cream, typically 2:1 cream to milk, plus sugar, stabilizers, flavorings. A milkshake would be much more milk though I’d think.
"Milk does not keep for very long in a warm environment" (3:39)
This was the explanation I was given, and it seems simpler to me: the addition of milk to coffee predates widespread refrigeration. Cows are milked in the morning, and fresh (unprocessed) milk will only be good for a few hours. Thus people only put milk in their coffee in the morning. This eventually becomes customary, and the custom is retained even after its original justification is removed (as with countless other culinary customs).
I'm Italian (now in the US), and I had some friends come visit in Italy a while ago, and went out to lunch with some of my family. One of my friends ordered a cappuccino mid-lunch and my family almost passed out :)
I spent some time in Sicily and one of the things I discovered was I could not get pizza for lunch,only dinner. I thought it was just one restaurant being obstinate but town after it was the same response.
And to this American who enjoyed a slice between classes I could not understand why. I concluded it was too hot and no one wanted to turn up the pizza oven. Is that correct assumption?
Restaurant owner in Italy here: We usually don’t offer pizza at lunchtime because it takes time and wood to fire up the oven and keep it at temperature. Low request volume means it’s not worth it, at least for small pizza places.
If you want pizza for lunch you head to a bakery or “bar” and they have squares (not “slices”) ready for you to pick up.
Technically it’s a family business that I grew up into and I ended up being a developer because at 14 I made the restaurant’s website with Macromedia Fireworks and Dreamweaver.
Traditionally pizza dough should be made on the same day, but takes several time consuming stages and at least 3 hours to rise, so I suspect it’s just that the dough isn’t ready until later in the day.
A lot of the better-quality pizzerias now offer a 48-hour dough option. IIRC the longer it is left to rise, the less yeast it requires, and the easier it is to digest.
Yes, you can get pizza for lunch in Italy. I know because I had it in Sorrento. :) But I had to insist on it (hey, it's on the menu!) and the owner grumbled something something about dumb tourists and about having to heat the oven and charged me extra for it.
It’s hilarious how people are so ingrained in their culture that these things affect them so much. Like if I ate a roast dinner for breakfast or took a shower every lunch time, I’d be considered a madman.
It sounds absolutely silly but really there’s few good reasons for most of our habits.
With my Anglo/American breakfast habits I was kind of shocked that traditional Japanese breakfast includes a full range of fish, rice, soup, salad and more or less anything else normally eaten. I probably feel as strongly about breakfast being mild or sweet flavors as Italians do for cappuccino after 11 and for no better reason.
We'll wait, what are you calling 'curry'? Because British kedgeree (as kedgeree is) is distinct from what any Briton I know would call 'curry' - even given the disservice we do India by calling almost everything 'curry' - and further distinct even from khicadi (खिचड़ी) from which it takes its name, and moves to breakfast.
I arrived in Milan after two days traveling without sleep, found a restaurant for lunch, and asked for a coffee. "Yes, absolutely, right after lunch". I begged. He brought it to me, and was very nice about it. I am so sorry to put him through that.
Fantastic meal, by the way. I had never understood risotto until then.
I'm Italian and have been having breakfast with caffellatte (milk and coffee) for all of my life, but am probably lactose intolerant on some degree.
I just can't get the day started without the smell of breakfast.
It all depends on what time you wake up, I wake up very late when I'm not working and have breakfast even if it's 2pm.
No way I'm skipping it, if I'm out of latte, I go to a bar and have a cappuccino (milk for cappuccino is more creamy, so it taste better and make the popular foam, it's also a bit harder to digest but there's also less of it in a cappuccino than in a caffellatte)
No shame in it, bars are there to serve not to judge.
Contrary to what people believe you can ask for a cappuccino whenever you want in Italy, the only exception is meals, no cappuccino during lunch/dinner, no cappuccino immediately before or after it.
Usually Italians don't have a cappuccino after a certain hour because bars run out of brioche (we call them cornetti) and a cappuccino without cornetto it's almost not worth it.
And because if you have it to close to lunch or dinner, grandma is not gonna be happy that you are not eating your 30th fettina panata.
But it's 2020 in Italy too and there are a lot of options for lactose intolerant, one is skimmed milk, another is lactose free milk
They are both very populyar and every bar serve them.
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@moderators ok this is getting a bit ridiculous. Few minutes in and the usual downvote arrives.
Am I being targeted?
There are downvotes I deserved or that are understandable, but lately they are coming as soon as I comment.
On any topic, even the less popular (like this one)
As a fellow Italian (also from Roma), I fully support all your points. I often have a cappuccino in the evening in lieu of dinner, and wouldn’t bat an eye at people having it at any time of the day, except, as you write, immediately before/after (or during!) a meal. I wonder what they have in place of taste buds when they do that.
I met a wonderful, wonderful lady from Poland who is the joy of my heart, but she once had a cappuccino right after herrings and it was so shocking it’s giving me flashbacks.
No reason to be downvoted that I can see. I checked your comment history and see a fair amount of on-topic constructive comments that were also downvoted (some you probably deserved).
Appreciate the Italian insight; sorry about the downvotes.
> Contrary to what people believe you can ask for a cappuccino whenever you want in Italy, the only exception is meals, no cappuccino during lunch/dinner, no cappuccino immediately before or after it.
I thought this was funny. "You can order it whenever, except when you can't."
I've worked as a barista in the US and I've never heard of using different milk for cappuccinos vs. lattes -- instead, I've always just imbued more air into my cappuccino froth than when I make latte froth. Is it especially common for Italian coffee shops to use different milk for each, or am I just misunderstanding your comment?
On the (admittedly off topic) note of you getting downvotes: I suspect some of it probably has to do with your English writing skills, unfortunately. I would suggest giving a service like Grammarly a shot to try to make your writing a little more professional, because a lot of folks will dismiss comments outright that look poorly written without even considering the underlying thoughts being expressed. It definitely sucks when you're trying to communicate in a language other than your primary language.
There was nothing wrong with his English. It was easily comprehensible and was some first-hand or ground level knowledge from an Italian person. I completely disagree with the idea that HN is so petty that they would dismiss an informative and useful post over "unprofessional" writing. What professionalism are HN users expecting from the comments on an article about Italians and coffee?
It used to be very common, but not anymore (I guess one of the reasons is that it also costs a bit more and many - like me - are discovering to be mildly or moderately lactose intolerant).
In some places they care more than others, but you can make a perfect cappuccino with simple whole milk.
My problem with English is twofold, I'm not the best at it and I find writing from the smartphone painful, even in Italian.
I worked as a "barista" at Panera and I also just steamed the cappuccino longer. Needless to say Panera is not the highest quality coffee you can find.
Just came to say thanks for providing my American family with a great after dinner drink :) It's pretty much the only time we get a cappuccino. Usually at nicer than average restaurants. Not limited to Italian food.
What is the rage about VPNs lately? Is there an emerging security/surveillance threat that we were not aware of or even one that a VPN could stop unlike FB/Google data hoarding?
I searched when I saw the video was 7 minutes long and found more results about why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after lunch (or noon). The explanation is they believe milk after meals impedes digestion. (I guess the video had a different but related explanation.)
Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."
I think that was a joke mate. You'd make a fantastic rule enforcer. :P "Is that little girl selling lemonade? She better have a selling license or I'm calling a SWAT team."
I think there needs to be a much greater expectation that the answer to "did you read?" is "no" when the article is actually a video. I very rarely will click on a video link and I think it should be incumbent upon people posting them to provide a tl;dr.
Claiming lactose malabsorption is a very strong claim, considering it's backed by pretty much no evidence at all.
It's really, really bs.
And this is not about being Italian or not (full disclosure: I am).
We have a lot of milk-based or dairy-based products even in the evening or for dinner (I just had pasta with gorgonzola cheese). Pastries too! Tiramisù is very common in restaurants, and half of it is mascarpone cheese.
"For some people who have determined they are only lactose intolerant, cheese can be eaten. This is because lactose is primarily in the whey, not the curds. When cheese is being made (with the exception of some soft cheeses that contain whey, like ricotta) the whey (liquid) is discarded and the lactose goes with it. "
"On every Nutrition Facts panel, you’ll find the amount of sugar in that food. If it says 0g, that means there’s no sugar… and no sugar in Cabot cheddar cheese means no lactose!"
>> "In the case of Gorgonzola DOP, lactic bacteria consume lactose during the fermentation that occurs along the cheese-making process."
While lactic acid bacteria (LAB) indeed consume the lactose in cheese curds, not all of the lactose is consumed, especially so in fresh cheeses (like gorgonzola, mozzarella, feta, mascarpone, roquefort, camembert, brie, etc. etc.). Even hard cheeses may have a significant amount of lactose left particularly if they haven't aged for a very long time. Some hard cheeses are made in a special manner that purposely removes the lactose from their curd before forming, for example gouda (these are called washed-curd cheeses). The point of removing lactose in this way is to stop the LAB from fermenting it any further and giving the cheese an acidic, tangy taste; this is why such cheeses taste "sweet" (compared to e.g. gruyere or parmesan).
As to the lactose being "primarily" in the whey, how "primarily" it is, is a matter of perspective. If sufficient lactose was not left in the curds, cheese would never be able to mature. Cheese matures because of the enzymes released by LAB while the cheese ripens (LAB also release enzymes as they die and their cells rupture, but the cause of death is desiccation because of the salt added to cheese and it takes a long time). This is for example why whey cheeses like ricotta, which are made by boiling whey to a high temperature (80C or 176F) do not mature: their LAB flora is boiled to death.
Bottom line: lactic acid fermentation is not a sufficient explanation for the ability of people with "lactose maldigestion" to eat cheese, particularly so fresh cheese.
It's bollocks, it's just a taste thing. Like I said on another comment, cappuccino works for breakfast because it's sweet (mostly because of the milk), which pairs well with a 'cornetto' (jam croissant). Personally I'm not a fan of milk and much prefer espresso, and I'm not lactose intolerant.
Lunch and dinner are salty food, and there's no place for milky drinks. In fact, drinking milk in general is just a breakfast thing for most Italians - perhaps as an afternoon snack with some Nutella when you're a kid.
Weird, lots of people drink milk with their lunch here in The Netherlands, and I'm pretty sure the Germans do as well. Then again I feel our bread and toppings might be less salty. Young cheese and cold cuts, less intense flavours, less greens also.
I don't think this is quiet correct. I am Albanian, and we drink coffee all the time, even in the evening. Even in coastal towns in the south (which is next to greece and south italy). We also use lots of butter/cheese and produce/use lots of Olive Oil as well. Growing up as kids, bread and olive oil, was a common breakfast/snack.
We just don't have any rules on can't have coffee after a meal.
The main reason some places would stop serving coffee after 7pm is because they switch into 'bars', and they'd rather sell alcoholic drinks to make more profit. Many coffee only houses stay open past 10pm, especially in the summer.
It seems this 'don't drink cappuccinos after a certain hour' is mostly a cultural thing.
Italian here. We don't usually have cappuccino after 12pm because cappuccino is a breakfast meal. We do have coffee after 12pm tho. For Italian people, cappuccino toghether with lunch / dinner is a taboo, it's like broccoli ice cream we can say :)
I once traveled from the U.S. to Italy with a colleague who insisted on ordering cappuccino after supper. I think he mainly did it because he enjoyed scandalizing restauraunt staff.
It's just milky drinks in general. I always found it weird to see people having milk with lunch in American TV shows. Its sweetness doesn't pair well with saltier lunch and dinner time food.
Yes exactly: drinking milk with salty meals is a taboo in Italy. I've always being shocked by the fact that UK/US citizens drink mainly milk instead of drinking water. Moreover, I visited US a couple of years ago, and it was shockingly hard to find normal pure water, since people there use to drink almost only water variants or other beverages. In Italy the only beverages you usually find on the table during lunch/dinner are water and wine.
I'm not sure that's quite fair to what the video is saying.
For one, he didn't say anything about coffee, but rather cappuccino (and other milk-based espresso drinks) specifically. A quick google seems to show that this holds up — I found a number of other easy sources that say the same thing.
They also mentioned wide variation in lactose tolerance, including between the north and south of Italy. You'd probably want to make sure that Albania is expected to have a similar lactose intolerance as Italy's population. Even within Europe the variance is very high — head a country or two north and you suddenly get up to _huge_ population-level tolerance levels of 75-80%+ in Scandinavia.
You mentioned butter/cheese and the video covers that specifically, saying that especially hard cheeses only have a tiny fraction of the lactose content that milk does (~5%, but varying by the type of cheese). So there's no reason for cheese to be treated with the same level of care.
Who knows, but I found the video to be as convincing as any other rationale for the taboo.
Honestly this seems BS. Italian Cappuccino cup is small - 6 fl oz. You can handle it at 11am but not 4pm? And as other commenters said, how come Gelato is OK?
The hypothesis of the video is that lactose intolerance is why they don't generally drink cappucinos after 11am.
But even a small amount of milk can create a large amount of flatus (gas). And now you're back in the office, in the middle of a meeting.
Come to think of it, not a bad idea: next time, cappucinos on the house at lunchtime for everyone! Maybe add a few milk-based Indian sweets to the snack tray too, for mutual enjoyment. Serve it all up "tout suite!" as the French say!
Traditional italians (more in the south nowadays) don't go into the office after lunch. They are doing their siesta, and just work longer after their sleep. I'm doing the same for the last years. So my italian lunch coffee (I got a proper machine) with crema helps me to digest my meal. But the siesta much more. But no Cappuccino after 3 of course.
Of my family two are lactose tolerant, and two not. Makes major differences in the milk used.
You are describing a long lunch break that has basically disappeared in most of the country. It survives almost exclusively among shopkeepers, who often will shut shop 12 to 3 or 12 to 4 (or even to 5, in tourist towns where they expect to work through the evening) and some extremely inefficient public services.
Yes exactly. I was wondering if I was misunderstanding something. If lactose intolerance (or malabosorbtion or whatever) is the problem, that seems unrelated to an 11am cutoff time. Would seem more reasonable to not drink milk-based coffee drinks at all or drink them towards the end of the day at home, etc. Also the tangent about stopping caffeine consumption at a particular time soas not to interfere with sleep seemed unrelated too.
Italians have indeed the best espressos/ristrettos that I've ever had the pleasure of drinking, but other than that the origin coffee culture is pretty much non-existing in Northern Italy (I've never been to the South). Comparatively speaking Milano is a desert when it comes to origin coffee shops, and the same goes for their hip neighbours across the Alps, i.e. Paris.
From my direct experience European cities further East and North fare much better, I can say that with first-hand experience about the city I live in (Bucharest) and about Bratislava, too (which I've found to be better compared to Vienna). I've also heard/read very good things about Budapest and Berlin, and (as an exception to my first part of the post) I've found coffee shops in the Chamberí district of Madrid to be serving quite good coffee.
All this to say that the Italians do not have the monopoly on saying how one should drink his/her coffee or not, for the simple fact that the Italians mostly only care about a small sub-set of coffee culture (i.e. espressos/ristrettos)
From my experience working in many places all over Europe the last 20 years plus, the key factors for good coffee imho are:
- A tidy coffee machine. Coffee grounds are home for all kinds of living organisms that can make or break a cup of coffee. This is the killer factor.
- The water (hardiness, etc). Madrid has, arguably, one the best tap water in Spain and probably tops most European capitals. Most islands in the Mediterranean have sorry coffee due to the use of treated saltwater as tap water - from tap right into your espresso. Yuck! (obviously not a problem at a 5 star place where they use mineral water).
- The milk. For the best experience try the coffee in Galicia, and some parts of the North of Portugal. Some rural towns with a tradition in dairy production can give you a pleasant surprise if you're looking for that creamy taste with a foamy light texture. Rural areas is also where dirty machines dwell, so it's not a guaranteed good experience.
- The coffee and coffee culture. Generally most places carry the national/local brands. Italy definitely has the best mass produced coffee brands, but Portugal is a close second for their awesome ristrettos. The rest of cities or neighborhoods... It depends on how upscale they are. Ie. Chamberí is smart and upscale. I'm not comparing coffee shops with baristas, but the average coffee you get in the off-off places where tourists would not walk in but that account for 99% of all coffee served in Europe.
But I believe that's the least important factor tbh.
As an Australian I've had a terrible time finding a decent cup of coffee in Europe (Italy excepted, but even then the standards aren't great).
I admit I haven't been to Budapest or Bratislava but I've been to some of the supposedly-best places in Berlin and been pretty disappointed. A shocking fraction of them use UHT milk.
There is some fantastic coffee in the UK (personally I know of good places in Leeds, Huddersfield, Manchester, Brighton, London). I think you need to know locals to help you find the good places, as they're usually a bit out of the way.
I drank a lot of coffee in Oz though. I loved how easy it is to get a good coffee. It seemed more accessible and standards higher across the board.
Australian coffee culture is genuinely amongst the best in the world. Traveling elsewhere is always involves the bittersweet sacrifice of good quality coffee for several weeks, with the rare exceptions that punctuate that time savoured very much indeed. I'm sure I'm biased, but there's a hell of a lot of good supporting anecdata backing it up.
I think people may have missed the point of the video (It's not just about why Italians don't drink a Cappuccino).
If you want a deep dive into the science of all things coffee related all James' videos are well resesarched, well presented, and come from a person with a deep afinity for coffee.
The video's title is "Why Italians Don't Drink a Cappuccino After 11am". Seems like most people in these comments got it. What's the point of the video if not that?
I'm Italian, and completely lactose intolerant (since four years).
We don't drink it after 11pm because cappuccino is essentially a breakfast drink and that's all.
Asking for it in some places at the wrong time automatically define you as a foreigner and/or maybe a weird customer.
Asking for a caffè macchiato is a different story, you can have it whenever you want, and it's quite common.
If you're lactose intolerant ask for soy (more available) or almond milk (less available) for your cappuccino/macchiato, they are available almost everywhere.
I'm Italian, living in a large town in the north (Turin).
Yes, you can have a cappuccino in the afternoon, even in the night. Yes, we can eat a pizza at lunch time. No, we don't have siesta, but one hour stop for lunch. An yes, when I was a kid, my mother gave me a cup of milk before going to sleep.
Are any other stereotypes that we can dismiss?
Well I’m Italian and I drink Cappuccino at every hour... I don’t have troubles with lactose but there’s absolutely no “rules” to don’t drink cappuccino at 4PM or 8PM.
More often people in Italy make breakfast with brioches and cappuccino, but just because the coffee here is veeery small compared to American coffe.
There's no rules, but you still might get the stink eye. The same stink eye you might get by ordering a 'Campari col bianco' at 6am not wearing a bricklayer outfit.
This seems more cultural than any actual basis in fact. If you enjoy scandalising Italians, order cappuccinos in the afternoon, and you can also ask for tabasco sauce to go with your pizza.
On a tangent, why don't we see much use of alternative sugars in cooking and baking? Refined sugar all seems to be sucrose. There are non-refined sugar sources like honey that aren't sucrose, but obviously honey also differs in many other characteristics from 'normal sugar'. I've never come across a recipe that calls for fructose, lactose, or glucose specifically and I don't think my store carries them in a refined state. Why not though?
You're right, that's clearly a refined non-sucrose sugar. But I guess I'm thinking of granulated sugars, i.e. something that differs from white granulated sugar in "only" chemical composition (or as close to that as possible). Otherwise it's not clear to me that the choice is one of sugar molecule or one of other physical characteristics (like moisture content).
This YouTube channel is excellent, I don’t even brew my own coffee yet the craftsmanship, detail and thought that goes into every video makes them all a delight to watch.
Highly recommend if you want to relax and watch someone be consistently disappointed by coffee for 20 minutes every now and again.
I am italian, I am slightly lactose intolerant, and I think this video is both terribly wrong and quite offensive.
First, the whole thing is based on a wrong assumption. It is not true that italians do not drink cappuccino after 11 o clock. This should be rephrased as follows: "why italians do not drink cappuccino after breakfast, whenever that is". I'll give you the quickest example I can think of. When I was way younger, on holidays I would go party in the night and wake up way late and I would have breakfast very late, let's say at the time of lunch. I would still order a cappuccino if I felt like it. That's because, is short, time is... relative! The same applies of course to anyone having night shifts and any other scenario you can think of.
To support the first argument I'll also add that italians would never have a cappuccino after they had breakfast, even if it's still early in the morning. Usually an Italian will have a cappuccino early before work, and then a coffee in the coffee break at mid morning. I wouldn't imagine that anyone would get a cappuccino then, even if it's before 11 am, and even if they did not have a cappuccino before.
So why do italians do no drink cappuccino after breakfast? Simply put, for the same reason in any given meal in western culture no one would eat the desert before the main course in any given meal. I would say it's a cultural thing, but we can call it as we want, the only sure thing is that it has nothing to do with lactose.
Before anyone replies that the order of servings in meals is not comparable to the time at which is admissible to drink cappuccino, please consider that we italians are very very very observant/proud/aware of what/when we eat.
In Italy there are hundreds of other non written rules like this for many other types of food, and like this one, most of them are part of the culture. There are literally too many examples to make, so I'll give you just this: go to Bologna and ask for some spaghetti with the bolognese sauce. If you are lucky they'll simply call you a "tourist". The bolognese sauce can be put on any kind of pasta, except spaghetti. This is very little known and the weirdest part is that all around the world the bolognese sauce became famous with the spaghetti, but I can assure you that no one from bologna will ever have the bolognese sauce on spaghetti. Why? In the end is only a cultural thing. Even if I must add that saying that it's only a cultural thing makes me feel dirty, because putting the bolognese sauce on spaghetti is actually a sin.
Having said that, I hope the message got through and please, do enjoy food, especially italian food, whenever you feel like it and however you like it!
Here in Canada the best one I found is called "Earth's Own".
Its gluten free, and has a very mild flavour.
The taste of coffee can be improved a little bit buy sprinkling cocoa power into the foam of the oat milk.
And optionally adding honey for sweetness.
Oat milk tastes a little different than regular milk. But its very close and foams very well. There might some difference, because I noticed the coffee would hit a little bit stronger with oat milk. Perhaps there's some chemistry going ... don't know why.
But the reason I switched, is because I was getting stomach cramps about once a month from cow's milk in my coffee. Would ruin my day. The only thing that help me with the stomach cramps was a bowl of rice for some reason.
Decided to try other milks to see if would fix my problem and it did. Never liked any other kinds of milk until oat milk.
They add lots of chalk to the nut milks. So with oat milk you can avoid that too.
I partly agree with that. Although oat milk is not that strong in flavor as almond milk (at least for me), cappuccinos are very dependent on the milk used, to get the right texture, as opposed to just coffee+milk. So yeah, depending on the type of milk used, the results can go from great, to meh, to just "that doesn't feel like a cappuccino"
For a couple of reasons. First off, anecdote. I myself am severely lactose intolerant, which I inherited genetically. I have lived in Italy and know Italians pretty well, and in my experience lactose intolerance is so unusual in Italy that people are often amazed to hear of my condition. Lactase (Lactaid etc.) is quite rare in the country, so much so that I usually bring in large quantities when I fly there. Granted, my experience is largely in the north, but I have also lived for quite some time in Rome.
Italians eat a fair bit of high-lactose foods (cream; cappucino, young and soft cheeses, mmmm, squaquerone; certain pasta dishes; and of course gelato) and I have never seen a complaint, while I myself have to be careful around all of them.
But second, as far as I understand it, the claim that Italians are lactose intolerant is not supported by current evidence. Studies in the 1980s in support of the hypothesis were largely based on self-diagnosis, which anyone who knows Italians ("Colpo D'aria") realizes is fraught with problems. It is my understanding that later and much better studies have suggested that lactose intolerance in Italy is far lower than suggested 40 years ago.
http://italianthro.blogspot.com/2016/12/italians-arent-lacto...