Caffè napoletano

Caffè napoletano is the coffee of Naples, drunk there as a daily ritual at the counter of the bar and at home from the cuccumella, the flip-over pot that Neapolitan households long used. Francesconi's La Cucina Napoletana treats coffee as part of the city's table and its hospitality, and the authority does not support a precise date or a named inventor for the custom, so none is given here. It belongs to the urban tradition of Naples, carried by the bar, the family kitchen and the habit of offering a cup to a guest.

Caffè napoletano is a small, strong, hot black coffee made from roasted Coffea arabica, often blended with Coffea canephora (robusta) in the Neapolitan manner, ground to a medium fineness and brewed by infusion and gravity in the cuccumella, or at the bar by espresso machine. It is served in a small cup, preheated, and drunk at once, usually sweetened to taste. The cup is dense and dark, with a bitter edge and a heavy body, and it is judged by the balance of those qualities rather than by volume.

Caffè napoletano is drunk after the meal and through the day, and in Naples it accompanies the sfogliatella, the babà and other pastries of the city, as Francesconi's pages on Neapolitan sweets suggest. The structural reason is contrast: the bitterness and heat of the coffee cut through the sugar, butter and fat of the pastry and clean the palate. It is taken in small volume so that its concentration is not diluted by anything drunk alongside it, and a glass of water is customarily offered first to prepare the mouth.