ot everyone who cares about such matters has adopted Mr. Nye’s heck-with-it attitude toward coffee taxonomy. The Instituto Nazionale Espresso Italian, for one, calls for “25 ml espresso and 100 ml steam-foamed milk.” Coffee lovers in Italy believe so strongly in the idea of an authentic cappuccino that in 2007, the head of the nation’s commission on agriculture, Marco Lion, proposed government certification for cafes that make the drink the right way. (The government was dissolved before any action could be taken.)
But the notion of an Italian ideal is dismissed by others. “Even in Italy, it varies,” Mr. Nye said. “The one commonality was that it was small and considered a morning drink.”