Coffee or Caffè?

Sunday was the first day that the new Pantheon Institute students had a “truce,” as one would say in Italian. Despite the day off between Orientation and the first day of classes, students still piled into the dormitory’s fourth floor lounge for Caffè 101. Student services coordinator Zach Nowak (himself an admitted “foodie”) gave a short “lecture” on the botany, history, and economics of coffee. What’s the difference between arabica and robusta? What does Lloyd’s of London have to do with coffee? What’s the only product, in terms of dollars, more sold than coffee? But the workshop wasn’t only theory: students also saw how to use an Italian coffee maker and went through a long list of different Italian coffees and their Italian meaning, learning that cappuccino is primarily a morning drink, while a caffè in vetro (espresso in a glass cup) is the mark of elegance. The food workshops will continue next week with cheese.