Monday 28 April: My addiction to Pocket Coffee

A drizzly day today, perfect for indoor research. I headed up the Gianicolo Hill early to spend most of the day researching at AAR. My visits to ancient sites the previous week proved fruitful for my research, and I started to look for ancient historians and secondary sources related to the iconography of the Augustan monuments and the epigraphic collections I had seen. And I bought another pack of Pocket Coffee.

Here’s how I have become addicted to Pocket Coffee (website at http://www.ferrero.it/main.php?w=FEXM49P5QNQGDDXWOFPD&path=IT/Prodotti&subpath=Prodotti/Praline/Pocket+Coffee/In+TV, American importer at http://www.capriflavors.com/). It's an individually-wrapped candy with a liquid espresso center inside a shell of semi-sweet milk chocolate. On our trip to Pompeii, when the bus stopped at the Italian Howard Johnson’s, Beth and I spotted it for the first time, and I bought a small pack out of curiosity. Unfortunately I lost it before I could try it, so while we were shopping the next day I bought another pack. I was immediately hooked. The chocolate shell is only a little sweet, and the filling really is espresso. A piece (or four) of Pocket Coffee delivers an authentic buzz! The advertising on the package is funny; it says “la carica del caffè e l'energia del cioccolato,” which means “a load of coffee with the energy of chocolate.” In other words, to Italians, it’s the chocolate and not the coffee that gives you the buzz.

This is not to say that I have given up other coffee. I make three cups of espresso at home every morning for breakfast in my stovetop Bialeti, and have another when I go online at Good. I am also fond of caffè freddo, iced coffee, although Romans think that I’m insane to drink it when it’s a chilly 70 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Caffè corretto is another favorite. This means “corrected coffee.” You “correct” your espresso by dumping in a big shot of 150-proof grappa, the fiery Italian brandy distilled from grapes. A really nice treat on a warm afternoon is caffelatte freddo, very slightly sweetened espresso mixed with milk and chilled. It’s a good thing that I have an Italian espresso machine at home in State College; I’m never going to be able to drink caffè americano again.