Italian espresso is strong: Greek coffee is on the verge of extinction?

In fact, espresso came to Greece as early as 20 years ago, but it was not until 10 years later that it became popular there. Marianthi Milona, a Greek food critic, believes that locally, going to a coffee shop for coffee can give people a sense of social identity. She pointed out that although the Greek economy has collapsed in recent years, people will not begrudge the money for coffee. "as a Greek, you can stop buying expensive food or clothing, but you will definitely spend money on a cup of coffee." Milona explained. Even at home, Greeks prefer espresso. Sales of Greek household espresso machines rose 40% between 2008 and 2013 and will continue to rise over the next five years, according to Euromonitor International, a leading global data analysis firm.

In the streets of Greece, espresso is gradually conquering the taste buds of every Greek. There will be an Italian espresso machine in every newly opened hotel. "this was very rare five years ago." Said Yanis Yiannis Giannopoulos, an architectural engineer in Athens who has many years of experience in overseas architectural design. Chrysa Gerolymatou, general manager of Mikel Coffee, which has been open for six years, believes that Greeks like espresso because they think it is more up-to-date and fashionable. She believes that no matter what caused the Italian espresso craze, the vast majority of Greeks are now impressed by the coffee. "in the early 1990s, Greeks had only two choices, either traditional Greek coffee or instant coffee." She said.

The Greeks have loved to drink coffee since ancient times. Today, they drink even more coffee per capita than the French and Italians, on a par with Americans. The Greeks spend some time every week in the coffee shop, enjoying the delicious coffee. At the same time, Greeks are proud of their native coffee. If you think Greeks drink Turkish coffee, you'll be beaten anywhere on the Greek peninsula. But now, although Greece's native coffee is still a symbol of their country, more and more Greeks are drinking an imported variety of coffee: espresso. If we insist on adding reasons, then we can only say that economic globalization is responsible for all this.

In fact, this is not the first transformation of Greek coffee culture. As early as the middle of the 20th century, local Greek coffee experienced the impact of instant coffee. Although people are now dismissive of instant coffee, at that time, drinking a cup of instant coffee was considered to be one of the ways to approach modern western civilization. "this quick way of making coffee makes Greeks feel like they are part of Europe." "it makes them feel like they don't belong to the backward eastern world," Mirona said. " This inherent idea comes from the historical shadow brought about by Turkey's brutal rule over Greece during the Ottoman period.

At that time, locals also invented a local drink: Frappe, which beat instant coffee into smoothies and drank it with a straw. But now Frappe has been completely replaced by Italian espresso. This is because this kind of coffee is convenient to drink both cold and hot, which is very important for Greeks who are baked by the scorching summer sun.

So, is Italian espresso really going to completely replace local coffee?

"absolutely not." Mirona believes that the Greeks will never give up their traditional coffee culture. But Gianopoulos believes that now native Greek coffee is slowly disappearing from people's dining tables. Nowadays, only people over the age of 65 insist on drinking traditional local coffee, while those young people are more keen to pursue fresh coffee-making methods.

In any case, if Italian espresso continues, Greece's native coffee will face extinction. (this article is from the Internet)