The quintessential plain black coffee that every adult coffee drinker is familiar of. It’s one of those classic coffee beverages that all coffee chains around the world serves on their menu. Truth be told, its origins started during World War II.
First let’s take a quick summary on how coffee came to be in the USA. It was around mid-17th Century when the British Colonials in the country, then called “The New World”, brought the so-called “coffee” with them. During those time in the other side of the world, the drink is already popular in Europe where coffee houses are already flourishing as a place of social gathering but in “The New World”, tea was still the most favorable among the masses. In 1773, everything changes when King George III of England imposed a higher tax on tea. This tax regulation paved a way for Americans to switch to drinking coffee as they saw it as a patriotic act. This then prompted the start of the famous “Boston Tea Party” which triggered the American Revolution against their English colonizers. The Civil War also increased coffee consumption as the soldiers relied more on caffeine for their energy boost.
With the start of the 19th century and the success of Maxwell Coffee and Folger’s selling roasted packed coffees to the market, USA became one of the top coffee consuming countries in the world.As coffee became part of every American, this also prompted the US Army to roast and pre-packed their own coffee and shipped for all their soldiers stationed around the world during the Second World War as part of their “Meal Ready to Eat”[1]. Since the packed coffees are only limited, there were soldiers who tried different coffee beverages to the countries they were stationed from. Where in this case, Italy.
Italy is the land of coffee culture and they are proud of their strict coffee drinking guidelines. It’s the birthplace of the famous “espresso” drink which is a small cup of high strength coffee made from a pressurized machine. To the American soldiers, they saw the espresso as a bit strong and bitter to their taste so much to their dislike since most Americans are still that time only familiar with their drip coffee back home. Which is a brewing method that pours hot water over a bed of ground coffee and allowing the coffee to drip from below. To solve this problem, Italian baristas soon found a solution to provide a cup of hot water on the side together with the espresso as to dilute the drink. Much to the Americans’ liking, it became the popular “Caffe Americano” we knew today and the rest was history.
References
Americano Lounge. (n.d.). Retrieved from The History of the Americano: https://americanolounge.com/the-history-of-the-americano
Avey, T. (2013, April). PBS. Retrieved from The Caffeinated History of Coffee: https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-coffee/#:~:text=Coffee%20plants%20reached%20the%20New,something%20of%20a%20patriotic%20duty.&text=The%20Arbuckle%20brothers%20began%20selling,paper%20bags%20by%20the%20pound.
Farelly, E. (2019, January). War History Online. Retrieved from Coffee and War The Origins of the Americano: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/coffee-war-the-origins-of-the-americano.html
National Coffee Association of U.S.A., Inc. (n.d.). NCAUSA. Retrieved from The History of Coffee: https://www.ncausa.org/about-coffee/history-of-coffee
Suarez, M. H. (2013, August). The New York Times. Retrieved from At War: Notes From the Front Lines: https://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/the-marines-secret-weapon-coffee/
[1] Meal Ready To Eat or “MRE” are conveniently pre-packed food usually for soldier combatants in the field as their food supply.
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