Coffee in Naples isn’t a chapter of Italian history: it’s a story of its own, made of an object, of places, and of gestures that don’t exist anywhere else. From someone born into that story.
The cuccumella, first of all
Before the moka, Naples made coffee with the cuccumella, the flip-pot coffee maker that arrived from France in the 1800s and became the city’s domestic symbol. It’s the object around which the Neapolitan coffee ritual was born. → The history of the cuccumella.
The grand cafés
In the 1800s, Naples filled up with elegant cafés, gathering places for intellectuals and artists. The Gran Caffè Gambrinus, opened in 1860 near Piazza del Plebiscito, remains its symbol to this day. → Gambrinus and the historic cafés.
The rituals that became identity
Between the late 1800s and 1900s, the gestures that make Neapolitan coffee unique took hold: water first, the scalding cup, “on the fly,” the cuppetiello. And above all, caffè sospeso, which has its roots in the working-class cafés and spread during the Second World War as an act of solidarity. → Suspended coffee.
The postwar years and crema
In the second half of the 1900s, the moka arrived in every home alongside the city’s big roasting houses; crema di caffè became a summer staple. Neapolitan coffee became, at once, a household tradition and an industry. → Crema di caffè.
Today
Between historic counters and the new specialty scene, Naples keeps reinventing its obsession without losing its soul.
Frequently asked questions
What is the historic coffee pot of Naples? The cuccumella, which came before the moka.
What’s the most famous historic café? The Gran Caffè Gambrinus, dating from 1860.
When was caffè sospeso born? In the working-class cafés, with wide spread during the Second World War.