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[–] 18 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caff%C3%A8_americano#Origin

That said, why not Canadiano. Sometimes you want more and a litttle hydration in there. It's hard to sip an espresso for more than a couple of minutes.

Agree it feels kind of "freedom fries"-ey but remember that freedom fries were a US republiQan idiocy in a pathetic attempt to mock the French for being too smart to get balls-deep in the Iraq II war. No one but complete koolaid-drinking Qanuts say 'freedom fries' now because (a) the French were correct anyway and (b) fries are Belgian.

In that sense, this is probably better and has a chance of sticking.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    It's not the same situation as freedom fries at all, but it has the same sort of cringe feel to me. Just like french fries, the americano isn't really american. We're not 'sticking it' to anyone here, so it rubs me the wrong way a little. I hardly have a strong opinion on it though.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caff%C3%A8_americano#Origin

    Wait, so does it refer to American as in USA or belonging to the western hemisphere? I'm asking this as someone who doesn't live in the Americas and don't drink coffee at all and didn't know the term before reading this post.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    It refers to the US (American) servicemen stationed in Italy during WWII.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    According to the link in my parent comment, I quoted in my first comment, it doesn't but what do I know

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    There is a popular belief that the name has its origins in World War II when American G.I.s in Italy diluted espresso with hot water to approximate the coffee to which they were accustomed.[9] However, the Oxford English Dictionary cites the term as a borrowing from Central American Spanish café americano, a derisive term for mild coffee dating to the middle of the 1950s.

    Yeah but 1950s > WWII so

    Bonus points: what was the lemon peel for?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yeah but 1950s > WWII so

    Just looked up Google Ngrams to see if I'm right and I am. "Caffè americano" took off in Italian much later than "Café americano" in Spanish. That people think it was used in Italy in WWII doesn't mean that is was.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I suppose if Google is the authority and "taking off" means . . what, 1980? Then yeah.

    I don't agree, but that's okay too.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I mean, Google Ngrams is written language so slower than the spoken one. The point is more that Spanish < Italian.

    But if your mom or who ever telling you this is a greater authority than a company analyzing data with no agenda in this case, than that's ok too. But maybe I'm misreading the graphs. The Italian one has kind of a peak in 1921 but a bigger one in 1814. It only goes above those random peaks around 2000 in Italian and Spanish looks less random to me before that.

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