Even the theater, cinema, and music demonstrate that there is no single time or place for enjoying coffee, and a wide range of methods for preparing the beverage have been described.
Theatre
In 1750 Carlo Goldoni wrote "The Coffee Shop". In 1761, the abbot Pietro Chiari wrote "Coffee in the Country," a merry play set in the autumn of that same year.In 1931, Eduardo De Filippo's "Christmas at the Cupiello's" was performed for the first time:in the first act, the work's protagonist Lucariello awakes and is put into a sour mood by the poor quality of the coffee that his wife Concetta prepares for him.In "These Ghosts" in 1946, Eduardo recounts a conversation about coffee and how to prepare it.
Cinema
In the great period of the American Western, boiled coffee was often sipped around an open fire on the prairie, after a day of battles with the Indians.
It was drunk at dawn in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon", to sober up in "Stagecoach", and as a beverage in "Rio Bravo". In "Johnny Guitar", Sterling Hayden sounds almost like an advertisement when he says "There's only two things in this world that a 'real man' needs: a cup of coffee and a good smoke". Kevin Costner drinks it with the Lakota Indians in "Dances With Wolves".
Italian neorealism highlights the "moka" coffee maker, which makes such a thick, aromatic beverage. In "Toto' Terzo Uomo" (Toto the Third Man) the actor orders a coffee with a splash of cognac; in "Miseria e Nobiltà" (Poverty and Nobility) they talk about coffee with milk without coffee and without milk; and in "La Banda degli Onesti" (The Band of Honest Men) there is a scene dedicated to coffee. In the "I Tartassati" (The Overtaxed), Italian actor Totò says: "I order three coffees at once to save on two tips." In "Guardie e Ladri" (Cops and Robbers), he sips coffee directly from the moka, and in "I Due Marescialli" (The Two Marshals) he complains to a waiter about the flavor of his coffee.
In "These Ghosts", Eduardo De Filippo writes, "When I die, bring me a coffee, and you'll see that I revive like Lazarus.In "Casablanca" Ingrid Bergman nostalgically recalls the coffee served at Rick's bar.In Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious", coffee is served with arsenic.In "Some Like It Hot" by Billy Wilder, set during Prohibition, liquor is served in coffee cups.In Alberto Lattuada's film "Venga a prendere un caffe' da noi" (Come Have Coffee With Us), Ugo Tognazzi sings a fun little refrain.
Music
In 1734, Johan Sebastian Bach wrote the "Coffee Cantata", in which the protagonist demands her right to drink the beverage, placing this requirement among her conditions to consent to marriage. The first songs about coffee in Italy date to 1918, when "A tazza e' cafe' " was published by "La Canzonetta".In 1969 Riccardo del Turco performed "Cosa hai messo nel caffè" (What you put in the coffee) at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy. In more recent recordings, Battisti sings "...there's someone to make me coffee in the morning," and Bob Dylan joins in with "One More Cup of Coffee".Ron's Italian version of Jackson Browne's song "The Road" mentions "...coffee in the morning...", Baglioni and Guccini both analyze it respectively in "Poster" and "Via Paolo Fabbri 43"; Fabrizio De Andre' and Pino Daniele both speak of coffee in "Don Raffaè" and "Na Tazzulella e Cafè".
Other quotes include: "Starfish and Coffee" by Prince, "Wake Up And Smell The Coffee" by The Cranberries, "Caffe' nero bollente" (Hot Black Coffee) by Fiorella Mannoia, "Viva l'Italia"(Long Live Italy) by Francesco De Gregori, and "Hanno Ucciso l'Uomo Ragno" (They Killed Spiderman) by 883. At the 2003 Sanremo Festival Alex Britti took 2nd place with his song "7000 caffè".
More...
Given its Muslim origins, coffee ran into all kinds of opposition in contact with Catholic culture, and the clergy even formally asked Pope Clement VIII to forbid it.
Legend has it that the Pope, famous for having condemned Giordano Bruno, upon sipping the beverage first pronounced,"It is so exquisite that it would be a pity to let only the infidels drink it," and then proceeded to baptize it to bring it into Christian grace. It is documented that the personal physician of Clement VIII, the well-known botanist Andrea Cesalpino, was the first person in the West to describe the coffee plant in his works.
A story from Venice says that Casanova, as soon as he escaped from Piombi prison, could not resist stopping at the Florian Café to enjoy a cup.
It appears that Voltaire drank up to five coffees a day.
Honoré de Balzac, who even dedicated an afternoon to selecting the right blend preparing this black beverage, specified in his "Treatise on Modern Stimulants": "Coffee sets the blood in motion, so that the driving force springs from it. This stimulation speeds up digestion, takes away the desire for sleep and enables one to exercise one's mental faculties for a longer time."
