Sir, – May I add to Patsy McGarry's discussion of the cappuccino ("In a word", August, 25th)?
The drink originated as the coffee beverage kapuziner in the Viennese coffee houses of the 1700s though it is now known in Vienna as a melange, but in northern Italy, which used to belong to Austria, it is called a café Viennois.
Cappuccino as we write it today (in Italian) was first mentioned in Italy in the 1930s following the introduction of espresso machines.
It’s enough to make you reach for an Irish coffee, but that’s another story.
The entertaining myth that the name derived from Marco d’Aviano, the Capuchin preacher and miracle worker, emerged only in the 1990s during the process for his beatification.
It is true that the many bags of coffee abandoned by the OttomanTurks after their 1683 defeat in the Battle of Vienna led to the opening of local coffee houses that flourish to this day, and in one of which this letter is written – over a caffé latte. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Operngasse,
Vienna,
Austria.