MODICA CHOCOLATE

MODICA CHOCOLATE

Jul 6, 2024 | ITALY, ITALY

Modica chocolate is the exquisite gift from Valeria, whom I thank again!

I had heard a lot about it but had never tasted it, had you?

It was a total revelation at the first bite: I did not know its uniqueness.

The Modica chocolate is grainy, it has a very crumbly consistency, but at the same time the bar is compact.

You can feel the sugar very much. 

A perception made possible by the processing completely unique: cold.

I use the words of Hanns Josef Ortheil to explain better:
great is the amazement when I taste Modica chocolate because suddenly sugar crystals are on my tongue: like a whirlwind of seeds they slide across my tongue from side to side.

This astonishment is described in the book Die insel der dolci or The Island of Sweets in which the author speaks of miracles made of fruit, sugar, nuts, nourished by the aromas that only the southern sun produces.

A journey to discover sweet Sicily, from Catania via Palermo to the chocolate city of Modica, always on the trail of mysterious delicacies, together with his daughter: Lotta Ortheil, photographer, to represent the magic of the Island of Fragrances and Sweets.

And I don’t know if you have had a chance to see another magic of nature these days, as astounding as it is frightening: volcano Etna  in activity.

Back to taste explosions, which are undoubtedly less dangerous, I would like to conclude by adding that Modica’s PGI product  contains antioxidant and anticoagulant properties, but above all, as with all types of chocolate, stimulates the production of endorphins.

And endorphins induce euphoria and therefore a good mood, something we all need, do we?

E PER LA GENTE CHE … AND FOR THE PEOPLE WHO

E PER LA GENTE CHE … AND FOR THE PEOPLE WHO

May 4, 2024 | ITALY, ITALY, MUSIC, MUSIC, SPORT, SPORT

And for people who
love only you
For all those kilometres I have travelled for you
International you must win!

I particularly like this ‘and for the people who.’ 

The people.
The people who, on Sunday 30 April, celebrated Inter’s second star when the championship is not yet over, after a year of great satisfaction that made up for loooooooong let’s say more unfortunate times.

But also people with a passion,
People who sing, cheer, smile, celebrate. Positive people, joyful people.

Supporters world is a varied galaxy that encompasses many types of people and undoubtedly part of if has many faults and criticisms.

Anyway Sunday was the day of those who prefer brotherhood to violence, of those who share and unite.

I’ll tell you a little episode that happened on the underground: a platform quite crowded with people waiting with flags, scarves, shirts and whatever else.

Four or five very young boys arrive from the opposite railway, see the fans and shout “Go Inter!”

Immediately the supporters dedicated to them a chorus.

A little girl with very long hair, up to that moment on the sidelines with her daddy, pulls out a flag bigger than her and starts waving it.

Joyful eyes, smiles.

And then the youngest of the kids in front exclaims ‘He’s a Milan fan though!’

General laughter.

Joy.

There, far from all the dynamics of the market, earnings, business, rivalry, rancour, danger, a small moment that we will always remember.

That’s what I like about soccer.

🎵And for the people who …🎵🎵

I think that listening to the Inter supporters singing this song in chorus is very evocative, not to mention when the voices are added to the lights of the mobile phones that create like a firmament in unison, in a word magic.

It happened that this chorus of lights in the stadium was followed by a lucky action, and someone attributed the phenomenon to the Love Frequency.

The famous 528Hz representing the DNA frequency as if the body knows how to tune in to this frequency. Have you ever heard of this?

In these contexts, the boundary between the spiritual sphere and the concrete part blends, but the theory rests on real grounds.

You can find an explanatory study here. 

Note that the test subjects were asked not to consume caffeine!

Crazy stuff … 🙂

Joking aside, oxytocin should go up, for example.

What do you think?

Are you a supporter?

What would be an appropriate song to create your Love Frequency?

LAVAZZA BEST COFFEE ROASTER

LAVAZZA BEST COFFEE ROASTER

Dec 9, 2023 | ITALY

Did you know that Lavazza was rewarded at the European Coffee Awards?

The Coffee Awards gather the best leaders in the industry each year and winners are chosen by a team after deep analysis.

The award to Lavazza was delivered in Barcelona, where the fourteenth edition took place.

The creator of the European Coffee Symposium (ECS) is Jeffrey Young: since 2008 he has been working to realise the dream of bringing together the most influential minds in the coffee and hospitality industries across Europe.

Jeffrey Young is the Managing Director of Allegra Strategies with 20 years of experience in global market analysis and focuses on coffee through the Allegra World Coffee Portal. 

Lavazza was awarded the title Best Coffee Roaster 2023.

Personally I am delighted, what do you think?

Lavazza Red Quality belongs to my earliest memories as a child.

Lavazza in 1970 created a new standard by introducing the vacuum-packed aluminium foil pack for the launch of Red Quality.

I don’t need to remind you that the aromatic note of Lavazza Red Quality is chocolate, do I?

A product on the market from more than half a century while remaining consistently intact and maintaining the right balance between quality and price that has allowed it to serve 20% of the coffees in Italy.

How about that?

Not to mention that Lavazza gave us Caballero and Carmencita, remember them?

 

Carmencita just wanted Paulista ‘the man in sight with the conquering moustache’ but she would never have imagined Lavazza Best European Coffee Roaster.

PIAZZA DUCALE COVERED

PIAZZA DUCALE COVERED

Dec 2, 2023 | ITALY, WOMEN

I already told you about the Piazza Ducale in Vigevano: together we discovered the traces of Jewish presence, starting from the past to arrive at the present of the smart city version. 

We saw it as a coffee lounge but also as a setting for cosplayers of Star Wars characters.

I wish you wouldn’t miss the Piazza Ducale “covered” version.

Suggestive, isn’t it?

Impressive.

At dawn

and sunset of a whole day dedicated to sharing.

These beautiful coloured blankets are all made of four knitted or crocheted squares joined together by a red thread as a symbol of relationship and union.

For months, many women worked to make these blankets with multicoloured wool and lots of imagination.

Some alone, like Betty during convalescence, some in groups, like Carola’s mother during the weekly meetings based on chatting, knitting and good things to eat.

And more blankets arrived from all over Italy, answering the call of Viva Vittoria. 

Viva Vittoria is a relational work shared by women for women.

Knitting is understood as a metaphor for self-development and conveys a message of awareness: we are the creators of our own existence.

If we are able to bring about change in ourselves, change can also take place in society as a reflection.

The idea of bringing these blankets from moments of aggregation was born in Brescia in 2015 and the proceeds of the sale are used for charitable purposes.

In Vigevano, three thousand blankets were adopted in Piazza Ducale in a few hours, the sum collected will be donated to the association Kore alongside women victims of violence.

DESIRABLE FOR ANOTHER TEN YEARS

DESIRABLE FOR ANOTHER TEN YEARS

Nov 25, 2023 | ENVIRONMENT, ITALY, WORLD

Italy appreciates the great collective effort made by Member States, EFSA, ECHA and the Commission to finalize a new evaluation of glyphosate, which took place a few years after the previous one and involved the examination of a very considerable amount of data.

However, regarding some issues for further investigation as highlighted by the EFSA opinion and which emerged in the discussions to adopt the renewal regulation, Italy deems it appropriate to underline that it is desirable:

• to launch, at community level, of further integrative studies for collection of data to fill data gaps in order to protect biodiversity and the various environmental matrices;

• to complete, without undue delay, of the evaluation of the dossiers relating to the approval or renewal of the approval of active substances that are potential alternatives to glyphosate;

• that the use of the active substance is not authorized in the pre-harvest phase.

This is our ‘contribution’ … i.e. Italy’s signature on the extension for a period of ONLY TEN YEARS! To the use of glyphosate. 

Sure, why do not go on for a decade?

After all, Sleeping Beauty has been asleep for a hundred years, what can be ten in comparison?

In the meantime it is desirable, DESIRABLE! that Roundup is not used pre-harvest, of course, better not to have it freshly harvested in the dish, but nicely grown and integrated into the food.

Forgive my sarcasm, but I can’t stand these two sides: in recent years, governments have been ‘very concerned’ about our health, but apparently only about certain sides.

I wonder why, in this case, MORE studies are needed for at least ANOTHER ten years.

Yeah, another ten years, because, as I told you before, this story goes way back. 

All this while a Californian jury found Bayer, the company that acquired Monsanto liable in a lawsuit brought by a man who claimed his cancer was due to exposure to the company’s Roundup herbicide, and ordered it to pay $332 million in damages.

The verdict includes $7 million in compensatory damages and $325 million in punitive damages awarded to plaintiff Mike Dennis, who was diagnosed at the age of 51 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to a company spokesman. 

But it is desirable that the use of the active substance will not be authorised in the pre-harvest phase for another ten years.

LECCESE COFFEE

LECCESE COFFEE

Sep 9, 2023 | ITALY

 

Leccese Coffee is a specialty with a distinctive freshness.

We chatted about coffee in Milan,  delved into the three cs of Naples, n and discovered the Nero of Trieste. 

In Puglia, however, coffee is cold, because an essential ingredient is ice.

And it is no coincidence: ice constituted the business of Antonio Quarta who sold it by weight.

Who was Antonio Quarta?

My grandfather used to say that there was a need for a drink that would give relief to our sultry and scorching summers between the two seas. But because classic iced coffee often suffers from acidity if kept in the refrigerator for a long time, my grandfather Antonio had a brilliant idea: coffee on ice.

The process is simple but no one had thought of it before. Prepare coffee normally, sweeten it, and then pour it into a glass filled with ice cubes. Grandfather, who had a small ice-making factory, began to serve freshly brewed coffee this way. And, without meaning to, he had invented a real recipe for Caffè Salentino that soon spread throughout Lecce and the province.

 

These words are from Antonio Quarta (nephew), two-term president of the Italian Association of Coffee Roasters, and now a member of the Executive of the Italian Coffee Committee, as well as a director of the Quarta Caffè roasting company, a company that has been operating in Salento for more than 60 years.

 

In recent days a controversy has arisen in the Leccesi in Lecce group  with the slogan STOP CALLING IT LECCESE COFFEE.

 

The object of contention is almond milk: apparently someone in Lecce does not like it being associated with the ingredients of Leccese Coffee.

Iced coffee involves the strict addition of coffee in the cup where there are already cubes, as also confirmed by Antonio Quarta, who claims the idea of the extraordinary alchemy between the warm aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the coolness of water crystallized to the right point.

Widely taken for granted is the addition of almond milk to iced coffee, considering it an integral part of the ingredients.

Even according to the Silver Spoon Leccese Coffee is a preparation that has made the whole of Italy fall in love with it, and includes the recipe with almond milk.

The Leccese people, however, apparently do not intend to take almond milk for granted, calling it an extra addition, a Salento custom.

In fact, the story told by Antonio Quarta goes like this: another variation saw the introduction of almond milk into the iced coffee, instead of sugar, becoming a welcome breakfast drink for consumers to pair with the Leccese pasticciotto.

I would say that this Leccese controversy is indeed a “pasty”.

What do you think about it?

Have you ever happened to drink or order Leccese Coffee?

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