Missing Coffee

The Moka pot has nothing to do with chocolate,
and everything to do with Yemen.

Food Studies professor Fabiano Parasecoli was far from home -- Inner Mongolia -- when he realized that coffee had become an integral part of his identity as an Italian.

His brief, wistful essay What Cup of Coffee? traces the arc of coffee's global diffusion, describing several Italian innovations along the way. Italians invented espresso, and as far as I know Italy is the only European country to have attempted domestic coffee cultivation. It lasted a short while on Sicily, which is the culinary pivot between Europe and North Africa.