Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Chocolate at Principe (article)

Xan Rice, "Life, Liberty and Fine Chocolate: An Italian Entrepreneur Pursues Simple Perfection on a Tropical Isle," Utne Reader, May-June 2009, pp. 53-56.  Reprinted from New Statesman, January 15, 2009.  Discusses Claudio Corallo who has a cocoa plantation on Principe, the twin isle of Sao Tome.  Previously Corallo had grown coffee in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire) and now grows coffee on Sao Tome.  He now is thinking of making rum too.

Upscale Italian-based coffee shops in the USA

The Italian-based coffee house chain called Lavazza has a few coffee shops operating under that name in the USA.  Now it has added a secondary chain called Espression.  For more, from a Chicago vantage point, see here.

Local beers of Italy

The New York Times explores the local beers of Italy here.

Was emperor Marcus Aurelius addicted to opium? (article)

F.P. Retief and Louise Cilliers, "Marcus Aurelius se siektegeskiedenis en dood: was hy 'n opiumverslaafde?", Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe 47/1 (2007): 56-65.

Lavazza, the world's largest independent coffee company

Mark Baker interviews Guiseppe Lavazza in the (London) Independent, April 20, 2008. The Turin-based company produces nearly half of the coffee consumed in Italy. Although it is mostly a firm that sells coffee brands, Lavazza (founded in 1895) has begun to acquire some retailers, such as the the Baristra coffee house chain in India and the Fresh & Honest vending chain, also in India. For more, see here. According to Wikipedia, sixteen of the twenty million coffee-buying families in Italy purchase Lavazza brands.

Ernesto Illy, espresso evangelist, dies at 82 in Trieste

Ernesto Illy, chairman of Illycaffè from 1963 to 2004, died recently. His expensive coffee is noted for its quality. The Illy name is not Italian. His father, a Hungarian chocolate maker, moved to the former Habsburg port city of Trieste after World War I and founded Illycaffè in 1933. For more, see here.

Despite its name, frappuccino not part of Italian coffee house culture

Sarah Allen, editor of Barista Magazine, hopes that the return of Howard Schultz as CEO of Starbucks will stop it from becoming a high-class McDonald's. As she points out, the most profitable item on the Starbucks menu, the frappuccino, owes nothing to the Italian coffee house culture that Schultz wanted to bring to the USA. For more, see here.

With the help of Calabrian crime families, do Europeans consume more cocaine than Americans?

Arguably, more cocaine now is consumed in Europe than in the United States, and the European cocaine trade is controlled by a loose Italian confederation of southern Calabrian crime families known as the Ndrangheta in alliance with the Colombian syndicate that produces the drug. For more, see here.

Massimo Zanetti coffee

Although Massimo Zanetti began roasting coffee only thirty-five years ago, the Bologna, Italy-based company that he founded is now an international giant. In the USA it owns Hills Brothers, MSJ Premium, Chock Full O'Nuts, and Chase & Sanborn. It owns or franchises many coffee shops including those of Chock Full O'Nuts, Segafreda Zanetti expresso cafes, and Puccino's. For more, see here.

Jonathan Morris and the Cappuccino Conquests: A Transnational History of Italian Coffee

Jonathan Morris, Research Professor in Modern European History, University of Hampshire, in the United Kingdom, is a specialist on Italian history and the history of consumption. He directs a research project on espresso drinks called the Cappuccino Conquests: A Transnational History of Italian Coffee, part of the Cultures of Consumption Programme. For more, see here. And for bibliography, see here. Among the titles new to me is Philippe Boe, La magia del caffè: più di un miliardo di tazzine di caffè bevute ogni giorno in tutto il mondo. L’espresso e il rito del caffè (Milano, 2001). There is an interview with Professor Morris posted here. There is another interview with Morris and American (Temple University) historian Bryant Simon who has been studying Starbucks here.