62 Comments
What is "a double coffee"???? Is that coffee w/a double shot of espresso??? (obviously, I am not a coffee drinker).
Right. In Italian, "caffè" usually means "espresso". Italians don't really drink drip coffee.
Yes, drip coffee is from a coffee pot with a filter that drips hot water through the grounds. Italian coffee is brewed in an espresso maker (see below) and if you want a macchiato (small amount of milk), latte (50/50), or cappuccino (milk + foam) you have to order it that way. Caffé is espresso.
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[Belatedly!] Sorry John, but that's not an espresso maker, it's a moka pot. But it is (I believe) what most Italians use to make coffee at home, and it does make something that approximates to espresso. If you rent holiday accommodation in Italy it's what is usually provided, unless you ask specially for a filter coffee maker. But it doesn't exert enough pressure to make a proper espresso - for that you need a machine with a pump, which is what cafés and the like use to make coffee.
Many thanks for the explanation. On the assumption I ever get to Italy, what do I ask for if I want black coffee but not espresso - what I think trendy coffee bars refer to as an 'Americano' and what for me is just ... ordinary black coffee, no bells, no whistles and absolutely no milk.
@sparrowhawk, if you want American style coffee it's caffè Americano, but only tourists drink this, not Italians. It should be served black, but may not be available everywhere (though you could probably ask as all it is is espresso diluted with hot water).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso "Espresso (/ɛˈsprɛsoʊ/, Italian: [esˈprɛsso]) is coffee brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee beans"
You can ask for a "ristretto", a very strong coffee brewed in half the quantity of water of an espresso
For the coffee lovers: the device on the photo is called "la moka" in Italian, the English wikipedia has it as "moka pot". The high pressure device for making cafè espresso is called "la caffettiera espresso" ("espresso machine" in English).
What you have pictured is NOT an espresso maker. It's a moka pot, typically used to make the first coffee of the day, in the morning. Espresso comes a couple of hours later.
Curious since here people often use an "espresso maker" to make both caffè latte and espresso
BampaOwl, google image search espresso maker. ;) Yes, other things are sometimes called espresso makers, and yes, it is also called a moka pot, but since Italians use this to make what we would call espresso, I think it's fair to call it an espresso maker.
caffè doppio è usato per ordinare al bar o al ristorante due espressi in una sola tazza
I've actually seen it being called a "doppio" in the English speaking world, too. :) A lot of coffee names are borrowed from Italian.
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I think Starbucks and other mainstream coffee shops often use it to appear fancy
Yes, 'double shot' extra strong coffee. Like two tea bags for you, I guess. Or two whatever it is you like to drink :)
I put... "A double espresso,please" and i was marked right. Can grazie mean please as well as thanks?
If you are mean person which already expects to get what you asked before waiting the response then to push person you say grazie or thanks right after request. But i consider this mean and not respectable so most probably will say no.
I have been led to believe that you should ask for 'un caffe' in Italy and never an espresso.
Yes, in Italy a caffè is an English espresso. We use the word espresso (typically made by bars) only to differentiate it from the moka pot version of a coffee.
I can confirm this. While I was there I ordered un caffe e un cornetto alla crema for breakfast most days.
My breakfast was la crema di caffè. It's between coffee and coffee ice cream. Deliziosa !
Catia9: It's not a gelato. I believe it's a cream filled pastry shaped like a half moon.
They are cream (or chocolate) filled pastries, half the size of an American croissant. Very sweet, VERY crunchy, very good.
I accidentally wrote "a double espresso, please" instead of thank you, and it was accepted.
Why would you say thanks in English when you were still asking for something? You'd say please.
It could be reasonable to say "thanks" instead of "please" in English. If you and a friend were at a coffee shop and your friend said "I'm going to go get another coffee, would you like anything?" You could respond "A double espresso, thanks."
This could be meant/interpreted as either "thanks for offering", "thanks in advance for getting it" or a combination of the two.
never in an ordinary conversation, but when ordering something?sure. it's like a 'thanks in advance' thing
I just got away with 'A double coffee, please', even though I wanted to write 'A double shot, please' and then I saw the 'grazie' and realised it was thanks. Phew.
Swear im the only one in 2018 to think esspresso was spelt 'expresso'
Where is the indication it is a double espresso? The words, separately, indicate it as a small coffee therefore an espresso.
If you are adding Colloquialisms to sentences at least teach them first before marking things as wrong!
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If you go and order un caffè you'll ALWAYS get an espresso. It's just the way it's called there. No need to get angry about one sentence, learning is failing, at least it made you remember ;)
I must be the only millenial that thaught an espresso was called an expresso.
I think that works (as a translation) more for something alcoholic like 'grappa'. Here I think it's more idiomatic, meaning simply an extra strong espresso.
In N. America "shots of espresso" is common parlance. You want a small coffee with more than 2 oz. espresso, you ask for double shot. Starbucks has standardized it. Not that they're "right"; they're the 300 kg gorilla...
What many people don't know and even some Italians, is that the caffè ristretto contains less caffeine than the espresso, because there's less water and it's better drinking a ristretto (short), than the espresso.
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Espresso is a "foreigner" word. We say only, in a bar, "un caffé - un caffé doppio (raro) - un caffé ristretto - un caffé lungo (very rare)- un caffé macchiato - marocchino, schiumato, tazza grande, tazza piccola ... five italians in a bar, five different coffees ! Moka pot is only for home.
....so now we know! I'd say that that is the definitive last word on coffee in Italy. Thanks!!
After reading all the opinions and information of people that have been in Italy, I learned that espresso is wrong. Un caffe doppio and you get what you want.
A double shot coffee means a strong coffee in english you need to add this to the correct list
