Cappuccino, espresso, macchiato – we’ve all learnt how to speak coffee in Italian. Visit Italy nowadays though and you’ll find its bars serving a beverage that has yet to make it into the English lexicon: caffè al ginseng. A hit with those cool cats, the Milanese, when it arrived in the city from south-east Asia just over a decade ago, the arabica bean coffee, flavoured with ginseng root extract, has since conquered the nation, even winning over the far south, where tastes tend to be more conservative.
Try it in Milan where it all started. I’d recommend the Bistrot Centrale in Milan station. It’s a great place for watching the hip Milanese grabbing something to drink before heading to or from work. At €1.50 (prices range from €1.20-€1.80 elsewhere) it’s also not expensive, which is not something you can say often in Milan.
It’s typically about twice the volume of an espresso and is warm, milky and very, very sweet. However, there’s a reason why you need only ask the barista for “un ginseng” rather than give its full name, for caffè al ginseng tastes nothing at all like coffee. But then it doesn’t really taste like ginseng either. It is, though, meant to be an aphrodisiac – but it’s unlikely there have been any clinical tests.
• More on slow food at Bistrot Milano Centrale at horecatrends.com
