Cappuccino Day

Italy is delightfully famous for the variety of coffee drinks that it produces. Cappuccinos are loved among coffee lovers and despite the vague history, many people still appreciate the comfort that this hot, foamy, milk drink brings.

Thus, comes a happy day called Cappuccino Day, where people from all over can order a frothy and whipped cup of coffee to enjoy on its own or to eat with whatever meal they're having. Let's take a look at how Cappuccino Day came to be.

The name "Cappuccino" originally came from the Capuchin Friars, a minor order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, headquartered in Rome, Italy. These friars in the 16th century were well known for their missionary work in helping the poor and were dedicated to extreme austerity, poverty, and simplicity. Wearing a brown robe with a pointed hood, it is believed that the name stemmed from a specific person in the order, Marco d'Aviano. According to the Telegraph, when an Ottoman Turk army tried marching into Vienna in 1683, d'Aviano united the outnumbered Christian troops and made them victorious in defending Vienna.

The legend says that after the Turks fled, they left behind Ottoman coffee, and because the Christians found it to be bitter, they sweetened it with milk and honey and named it after the Order of Capuchins.

A different source says that the idea of the cappuccino drink appears to have originated in the 1700's, in the "Kapuziner" coffee houses in Austria, which contained coffee with cream and sugar and eventually added spices. So no one really knows exactly where the name came from.

However, the cappuccino coffee drink that everyone knows of today was invented in Italy during the 1900's after the invention of the espresso machine gained popularity. The first record of the modern cappuccino appeared in the 1930's. Back then, espresso machines were rather bulky and complicated–certainly not something the average person would have at home in their kitchen. So as the coffee culture in Italy developed, it was centered around specialty cafes, and baristas who knew how to operate the machines.