History of cappuccino

The first use of the word “cappuccino” is traced to the Italians in the 16th century, referring to the long, pointed cowl or cappuccino (derived from cappuccino meaning “hood) that was worn as part of the habit of the Capuchin order of friars founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. The Capuchin friars are members of the larger Franciscan orders of monks, and their order was founded in the 16th century in Italy.

The British seem to have started filtering and steeping coffee already in the second part of the 18th century, and France and continental Europe followed suit. By the 19th century, coffee was brewed in different devices designed for both home and public cafés.

Adding milk to coffee was mentioned by Europeans already in the 1700s. The first attestation of cappuccino comes from the coffeehouses of Vienna in the around the late 1700's, where the Kapuziner emerged as a popular drink and is in 1805 described in a Wörterbuch (dictionary) as "coffee with cream and sugar". In some places they would add spices too.

Italian cappuccino, however, was first made in early 1900 which was shortly after the popularization of espresso machines.

In more modern usage in the mid to late 1940s, the word cappuccino was introduced to describe espresso coffee mixed or topped with streamed milk or cream, so called because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin monk.

After a few improvements by the Italians of a good espresso and a balance of steamed and frothed milk. It was World War 2, where the popularization of the drink spread around the world.

Cappuccino lovers would argue that the foam cap on the drink is the element to a great cappuccino. Steam frothing of milk to prepare a cappuccino coffee involves injecting air and steam into milk to create the foam and to heat the milk to near boiling.
History of cappuccino