Specialty coffee in Catania

Cold coffee is not a fashion in Catania, it is what was left behind by a bishops' monopoly. The bishops here held the exclusive right to collect and sell snow from Etna, and ordinary residents were allowed to take it only for their own use. In 1743 nearly three quarters of the episcopal curia's income from natural resources came from the tax on snow, which the nivaroli brought down off the mountain at night, on mules. Espresso only joined the puzzle at the very end — hence granita al caffè, a coffee that nobody here drinks, they eat it with a spoon.