ANN/dpa/THE STAR – Italians are well known for frowning at tourists and their ill-timed coffee requests – not so Italy’s oldest barista, Anna Possi.
The 100-year-old, who has been running a café above Lake Maggiore for more than half a century, has no objection to the controversial cappuccino after noon, traditionally a no-go in Italy.
“Who am I to tell my guests when to drink which coffee?” Possi told dpa. “Everyone can do as they please.”
The question of whether a cappuccino – an espresso in a larger cup with frothed milk – can still be drunk after noon is one of the big issues in the coffee world.
An afternoon latte, cappuccino or flat white is common in many countries, but in Italy, where there are more than 130,000 coffee bars, coffee with milk after midday is frowned upon in many parts.
Typically, espresso is consumed in the afternoons only. Nonetheless, the rules have been relaxed considerably in recent years, largely due to the influx of tourists.
The owner of the Bar Centrale in the village of Nebbiuno, who has been tending the coffee machine there since 1958, has a relaxed view of such matters.
“I also have regulars who like to have a cappuccino after midnight,” says Possi. “And they get it, no matter what time it is.”
What matters more than the time of day is when and what you’ve eaten. She doesn’t recommend having coffee together with orange juice. The same applies to having coffee immediately after lunch. She states that the stomach is overly full.
All this no longer affects Nonna Anna (“Grandma Anna”) herself: She stopped drinking coffee in the mid-1970s to keep her blood pressure down.
