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Food

Why Italy Is Freaked Out About the Possible Arrival of Starbucks

Though the coffee megachain calls the possibility of them touching down in coffee's cultural epicenter "rumor and speculation," Italians are concerned.
Photo via Flickr user Ames Lai

Italian cuisine is a global heavyweight that regularly throws down with some stubborn European neighbors, but when it comes to black tar liquid caffeine, Italy is the reigning champ. Half of the drinks on your Starbucks menu are in Italian, after all, as is the confusingly named Venti.

Yet despite the reliance and historical underpinnings of the Starbucks menu and ethos, there isn't a single Starbucks in Italy. Yet.

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Corriere reports that Starbucks is in talks to open a store in Milan in collaboration with the Italian businessman Antonio Percassi, a former soccer player who owns a chain of cosmetic stores and other interests. He helped bring Victoria's Secret and Zara to Italy. Though Starbucks declined to comment on "rumor and speculation" for this article, the very idea of an Italian Starbucks has some Italians up in arms.

"The shame of it!" a 62-year old restaurant owner, Michele Grimaldi, told The Local it.

That's pretty fair coming from a country where your average highway rest stop features a coffee counter manned by a wizened espresso maestro ready to whip up a top-notch cappuccino for a little over a euro. When you're slurping down the very last drops of sugary oil from a gran caffe at Sant'Eustachio, thoughts of a grande peppermint mocha in a paper cup with a disastrous take on the spelling of your name ("Wyet," "Wiot" in my case) can seem blasphemous.

READ: This Is Why Australians Hate Starbucks

But foreign coffee cultures have been making inroads in the country synonymous with espresso. Whereas Italians drink their coffees in incredibly concentrated forms, new waves of coffee dorks are introducing Italians to things like lighter roasts, filtered coffee, and cold brew.

The new coffee evangelists say that Italians look at espresso as a fuel rather than something to really savor, pointing out that an espresso is just a sip or two of bitter concentrated grownup juice to kickstart your day. Italian espresso is made with dark roasted Robusta beans, a cheaper bean than something like a lighter and more nuanced Arabica.

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But some fear that Italy's café culture, where an espresso or cappuccino is had at a bustling communal bar, could be at risk if a large chain came to town.

"It's disgusting," Grimaldi said. "Big chains like that destroy the individuality of places until you can no longer recognize them."

It isn't the first time the rumor of a Starbucks in Italy has made the rounds, and it's never come to fruition. But an Italian Starbucks would be a coup for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who was inspired to start Starbucks by his experience with Italian coffee culture.

If their resilience to outside coffee is as strong as their espresso, Italians have nothing to fear. Grimaldi takes solace in the fact that Italians won't embrace a coffee chain: "It won't work anyway; Italians are too protective."

Another café owner told The Local it that the idea was "ridiculous" and he wasn't worried. Italians, meanwhile, will have to sit tight and contain their desires for pumpkin spice lattes and "Beast Mode" frappuccinos, which are endorsed by Marshawn Lynch, who says, "I'd drink this before a workout… you can get your buff on with this."