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Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

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Re: Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

#91

Post by brainlessdev »

flazzarino wrote: post #72
brainlessdev wrote: post #10

It's a good video, full of information. Ignore the snarky comment(s). Summarizing: - Italians in the North are less prone to lactose malabsorption than those in the South - They don't drink cappuccinos after 11 because it's heavy to digest - The video includes some information about why milk is hard to digest, and other things

The causation in your summary was not established in the video, only claimed with some correlations to other phenomena. Some non-snarky comments provided some really good counter examples, eg they eat ice cream all afternoon. Also from my own experience in the south: every morning kids eat a bowl of milk with a shot of espresso over cereal.

Agreed, that was just with regards to the comment about the sponsor in the video.

Re: Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

#92

Post by NamTaf »

flybrand wrote: post #77
hvdfhbj wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Australian I've had a terrible time finding a decent cup of coffee in Europe (Italy excepted, but even then the standards aren't great). I admit I haven't been to Budapest or Bratislava but I've been to some of the supposedly-best places in Berlin and been pretty disappointed. A shocking fraction of them use UHT milk.

And never a flat white to be found. Sydney, Melbourne - great coffee culture when we lived there in ‘08, better than EU.

Australian coffee culture is genuinely amongst the best in the world. Traveling elsewhere is always involves the bittersweet sacrifice of good quality coffee for several weeks, with the rare exceptions that punctuate that time savoured very much indeed. I'm sure I'm biased, but there's a hell of a lot of good supporting anecdata backing it up.

Re: Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

#94

Post by 1_player »

izietto wrote: post #82
ardit33 wrote: post #63

I don't think this is quiet correct. I am Albanian, and we drink coffee all the time, even in the evening. Even in coastal towns in the south (which is next to greece and south italy). We also use lots of butter/cheese and produce/use lots of Olive Oil as well. Growing up as kids, bread and olive oil, was a common breakfast/snack. We just don't have any rules on can't have coffee after a meal. The main reason some pl…

Italian here. We don't usually have cappuccino after 12pm because cappuccino is a breakfast meal. We do have coffee after 12pm tho. For Italian people, cappuccino toghether with lunch / dinner is a taboo, it's like broccoli ice cream we can say :)

It's just milky drinks in general. I always found it weird to see people having milk with lunch in American TV shows. Its sweetness doesn't pair well with saltier lunch and dinner time food.

It's not a lactose intolerance problem at all.

Re: Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

#95

Post by brandur »

ardit33 wrote: post #63

I don't think this is quiet correct. I am Albanian, and we drink coffee all the time, even in the evening. Even in coastal towns in the south (which is next to greece and south italy). We also use lots of butter/cheese and produce/use lots of Olive Oil as well. Growing up as kids, bread and olive oil, was a common breakfast/snack. We just don't have any rules on can't have coffee after a meal. The main reason some pl…

I'm not sure that's quite fair to what the video is saying.

For one, he didn't say anything about coffee, but rather cappuccino (and other milk-based espresso drinks) specifically. A quick google seems to show that this holds up — I found a number of other easy sources that say the same thing.

They also mentioned wide variation in lactose tolerance, including between the north and south of Italy. You'd probably want to make sure that Albania is expected to have a similar lactose intolerance as Italy's population. Even within Europe the variance is very high — head a country or two north and you suddenly get up to _huge_ population-level tolerance levels of 75-80%+ in Scandinavia.

You mentioned butter/cheese and the video covers that specifically, saying that especially hard cheeses only have a tiny fraction of the lactose content that milk does (~5%, but varying by the type of cheese). So there's no reason for cheese to be treated with the same level of care.

Who knows, but I found the video to be as convincing as any other rationale for the taboo.

Re: Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

#96

Post by [deleted] »

jsinai wrote: post #90
subsubzero wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I liked the video but am uncertain of his hypothesis. If it was due to lactose intolerance wouldn't all the cheeses and pizza's enjoyed around dinner in Italy cause some major issues for many people? Also gelato? My guess is its due to caffeine and avoiding any ingestion of it for a long time before bed is a smart move.

I’m lactose intolerant and have no issue with cheese and gelato in Italy. Most Italian cheeses have little to no lactose. Not sure what the case is with gelato but it doesn’t seem to have an effect on me (this is anecdotal). Also pizza in Italy does not have as much cheese as in other parts of the world.

[deleted]

Re: Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

#97

Post by 1_player »

znpy wrote: post #80

I had already seen that video and I call bs. Claiming lactose malabsorption is a very strong claim, considering it's backed by pretty much no evidence at all. It's really, really bs. And this is not about being Italian or not (full disclosure: I am). We have a lot of milk-based or dairy-based products even in the evening or for dinner (I just had pasta with gorgonzola cheese). Pastries too! Tiramisù is very common in…

It's bollocks, it's just a taste thing. Like I said on another comment, cappuccino works for breakfast because it's sweet (mostly because of the milk), which pairs well with a 'cornetto' (jam croissant). Personally I'm not a fan of milk and much prefer espresso, and I'm not lactose intolerant.

Lunch and dinner are salty food, and there's no place for milky drinks. In fact, drinking milk in general is just a breakfast thing for most Italians - perhaps as an afternoon snack with some Nutella when you're a kid.

Re: Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

#98

Post by sevensor »

izietto wrote: post #82
ardit33 wrote: post #63

I don't think this is quiet correct. I am Albanian, and we drink coffee all the time, even in the evening. Even in coastal towns in the south (which is next to greece and south italy). We also use lots of butter/cheese and produce/use lots of Olive Oil as well. Growing up as kids, bread and olive oil, was a common breakfast/snack. We just don't have any rules on can't have coffee after a meal. The main reason some pl…

Italian here. We don't usually have cappuccino after 12pm because cappuccino is a breakfast meal. We do have coffee after 12pm tho. For Italian people, cappuccino toghether with lunch / dinner is a taboo, it's like broccoli ice cream we can say :)

I once traveled from the U.S. to Italy with a colleague who insisted on ordering cappuccino after supper. I think he mainly did it because he enjoyed scandalizing restauraunt staff.

Re: Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

#99

Post by 1_player »

mikelward wrote: post #31
FanaHOVA wrote: post #2

I'm Italian (now in the US), and I had some friends come visit in Italy a while ago, and went out to lunch with some of my family. One of my friends ordered a cappuccino mid-lunch and my family almost passed out :)

I ordered an espresso macchiato in Naples around 12pm. Without saying anything, the barista gave me a plain espresso. Maybe they'd already packed the milk away for the day?

They probably didn't understand. People drink macchiato all day long.

Re: Why Italians don't drink a cappuccino after 11am [video]

#100

Post by aargh_aargh »

izietto wrote: post #82
ardit33 wrote: post #63

I don't think this is quiet correct. I am Albanian, and we drink coffee all the time, even in the evening. Even in coastal towns in the south (which is next to greece and south italy). We also use lots of butter/cheese and produce/use lots of Olive Oil as well. Growing up as kids, bread and olive oil, was a common breakfast/snack. We just don't have any rules on can't have coffee after a meal. The main reason some pl…

Italian here. We don't usually have cappuccino after 12pm because cappuccino is a breakfast meal. We do have coffee after 12pm tho. For Italian people, cappuccino toghether with lunch / dinner is a taboo, it's like broccoli ice cream we can say :)

Great, now I want to have a taste of broccoli ice cream. Thank you very much...
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