Coffee is one of the most common things and certainly one of life's pleasures: in the morning as soon as you wake up, for breakfast, after a morning of work or after a hearty meal... however, few people know that drinking or serving coffee involves little rules, and rituals, that become part of the much infamous etiquette. This "coffee etiquette" is a legacy of bygone times when every gesture mattered and had to be done and weighed in the best way.Nowadays, these conventions almost do not exist anymore, so we find it "curious" to know how our daily coffee should really be drunk and served.
The first rule, if you have guests at home, is to serve coffee not at the table but on a small table in the living room accompanying it, if possible, with a dessert or small pastry. Also according to etiquette, coffee should be served using a nice porcelain service with attached saucer and saucer sub, all arranged on an elegant tray. One should also ask the guest if, and how much, sugar he or she would like: it is forbidden to serve sugar according to one's taste. As for the exact dose of coffee, etiquette suggests serving it in preheated cups filled 2/3 full. Also important is the choice of teaspoons, which should expressly be mocha spoons that are of a smaller size than those used for tea.
Coffee drinkers, on the other hand, should know that sugar is stirred by moving the teaspoon slightly from top to bottom, and vice versa, and that coffee is drunk by bringing the cup to the lips with the right hand while, with the left, holding the saucer.
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