Una coffee school, a real academy dedicated to spreading the culture of the most loved and widespread drink in the world, which is proposed as a permanent training center for professionals and a meeting place for every coffee lover. On the occasion of'International Coffee Day which is celebrated on October 1 in all over the world, the Scuola del Caffè will open its doors in Florence, and will be the first center of excellence in Europe by Ditta Artigianale, the first line of Italian specialty cafés (dedicated to coffees with particular gustatory qualities), directed by the award-winning barista champion Francesco Sanapo, known for having brought the best blends and single origins to Italy in the countries of production, directly from the farms.
The school is located in the heart of the city, in theformer monastery of Sant'Ambrogio, in via Carducci, where, after 35 years of disuse and an articulated restoration that lasted four years, last July Craft Company & Hario Cafe. And it is housed in a cafeteria open to the public.
The school will combine the knowledge of experts in the world of coffee with the development of the most advanced techniques in a unique concept, innovative. It will also be announced the expansion plan of the project, born in 2013 by the co-founders Francesco Sanapo and Patrick Hoffer, with the acquisition of new partners and investors, and the program of opening other cafés, among which the first overseas store, scheduled for spring 2022 in the premises of the prestigious The Harlowe building in Toronto, Canada in the Garment District at Richmond Street West and Bathurst Street West which has seen tremendous development in recent years. The company plans to open new offices – as well as in Italy – in Canada and the United States. The new Ditta Artigianale will be open for coffee, pastry, brunch and signature cocktails in the evening, confirming the Italian formula.
“We are happy to make our idea of hospitality increasingly exportable, with an international spirit and a refined Italian touch. This is a great opportunity not only for us but above all for Italy, for demonstrate and share the high quality of Italian specialty coffee“said Sanapo, the company's chief executive officer.
To celebrate the milestone, Ditta Artigianale is organizing a day of events in the brand's three stores, those in via Carducci, in via de Neri and in via dello Sprone, each place with a kindred soul but its own personality, which goes beyond the concept of chain. From 9.30 to 18.30, there will be meetings, laboratories, workshops and tastings open to all to explore the latest international trends together with coffee champions. In the program, coffee lovers and producers will talk; cupping sessions will be held with tastings of single origins and exclusive blends; latte art trials for enthusiasts and experts.
Until the XNUMXth century it was not certain where the place of origin of the coffee plant was and, in addition toEthiopia, Persia and Yemen were assumed. Pellegrino Artusi, in his famous manual Science in the kitchen and the art of eating well, claims that the best coffee is that of Mokha (city in Yemen), and that this would be the clue to identify its place of origin.
There are many legends on the origin of the coffee. The best known speaks of a shepherd called Kaldi who used to graze the goats in Ethiopia. One day these encountering a coffee plant began to eat its berries and to chew its leaves. When night came, the goats, instead of sleeping, started to wandering with energy and liveliness never before expressed. Seeing this, the shepherd identified the reason and toasted the seeds of the plant like those eaten by his flock, then ground them and made an infusion, obtaining coffee.
Coffee was first introduced to Europe on the island of Malta, part of the Kingdom of Sicily, in the sixteenth century. It was introduced by the Turkish Muslim slaves imprisoned by the Knights of St. John in 1565, the year of the Great Siege of Malta, who used it to prepare their traditional drink. Domenico Magri mentioned in his work Virtù del Kafé, "Turks, very skilled craftsmen of this concoction". Even the German traveler Gustav Sommerfeldt in 1663 wrote about "the skill and industriousness with which the Turkish prisoners earn money, especially by preparing coffee, a powder similar to snuff, with water and sugar". Coffee was a popular drink in Maltese high society and many coffee shops opened.
A Naples, known today as the city of coffee par excellence, arrived latervia the ships that arrived in the ports of the Kingdom A testimony of the use of coffee can be found in a series of letters sent by the composer, explorer and musicologist Pietro Della Valle, a traveler in the Holy Land, to his dear friend, doctor, poet Mario Schipano and at his gathering of intellectuals, of a drink (called kahve). Muslim Arabs prepared the concoction in hot pots. Celebrated in Neapolitan art, literature, music and social life, coffee soon became the protagonist in Naples, where it was prepared with great care in the "cuccumella", the typical Neapolitan filter coffee maker derived from the invention of the Parisian Morize in 1819 The Neapolitan artisans came into contact with them through the maritime trade routes that headed to the Port of Naples. The Neapolitans developed an original approach as a social drink, introducing the practice of suspended coffee (the act of paying in advance for coffee for those who need it). Extraordinary was the definition of this habit by the Neapolitan writer Luciano De Crescenzo a coffee "given by an individual to humanity".
