La Caffetteria
Milano Moka is a Traditional Italian Cafeteria with a mission to make excellent Italian products tasted and appreciated beyond its borders through the quality and originality of the specialities created which are served in an environment that reflects the Milan lifestyle.
Milano Moka is a leader in the cafeteria sector offering more than 100 types of hot and cold quality coffee-based drinks. Another added value to our Cafeteria Services is that our clients can enjoy a coffee directly from the original Moka Coffee Maker
Moka, Italian Coffee Maker
The Moka is a coffee maker designed by Alfonso Bialetti in 1933.
True Italian coffee is one of the most important symbols of the Italian tradition, but few people know that coffee in Italian homes is usually not prepared with the classic coffee machine, but with the Moka.
This is why in Italian families making coffee is considered a true art, which has been handed down from generation to generation, maintaining the same taste and aroma of coffee. The Moka is present in the permanent collection of the Triennale Design Museum in Milan and MoMA in New York.
The Origins of Coffee
The first coffee plant was discovered in Ethiopia, Africa. It was then transferred in Yemen and other nearby regions, where the coffee-based drink was used as a medicine.
During the the sixteenth century, the use of coffee spread throughout the Arab world. The Turks were the first to roast the coffee and brew it in a boiling poit (Ibrik), thus getting a stronger drink. The first coffee shops opened in Constantinople and Cairo, becoming places for gathering and relax.
Coffee in Europe and Italy
In 1600, an appeal was made to Pope Clement VIII to banish coffee. The Pope, after sampling a cup of the fragrant new drink offered to him by a Venetian merchant, found it to be delicious and invigorating. Hence he sanctified coffee in order to banish the devil from it and allow its use. Considering that Clement VIII was the Pope who sent Giordano Bruno to the stake, it is quite a miracle, really, that he had such a progressive attitude to coffee.
Soon appetite for the aromatic drink grew and in 1624 the first significant load of coffee arrived by boat in Venice. In a few short decades, the Italian word caffe’ was coined and the new fashion of drinking coffee took over Venice and the rest of Italy parallel with Europe herself.
Legends
According to a legend, an Ethiopian sheperd name Kaldi noticed that his goats were very active after having chewed coffee berries. He tried the cherries himself and found out about coffee properties.
Another legend tells of a bushfire in Abyssinia, which created a smell that spread in a vast area Nomads noticed that, and discovered the properties of coffee.
A third legend tells of a nomad who got lost in the desert, but managed to survive his trip only by chewing coffee berries.
The Coffee Plant
Coffea is a plant of the Rubiaceae family, that grows in tropical areas. There are about one hundred species of coffee. Coffee berries are harvested and processed with different methods, either placing them under the sun (dry processed) , or soaking them in water (wet processed).
Arabica and Robusta are the most common speciesused for commercial purposes. Arabica is more delicate and valuable. Contains on average 1,4% of caffeine and it is greenish in color. Robusta is a more resistant plant. Contains on average 2,7% of caffeine and it is brownish in color.
