Look, a drink was created in Vienna by mixing coffee with cream and sugar. It was called Kapuziner. This was in the 1700’s. Wait a sec…just to clear the confusion if there’s any, Kapuzin is a German name, and Capuchin is an Italian name. Alright, let’s continue. It’s said that it’s called so because of the brown color of the robes of the Kapuzin monks, and the drink also had a similar brown color, hence the name Kapuziner. In Italian, that’s gonna be cappuccino. Another thing, it seems that the monks who had put on brown robes had shaved heads (fair in color as they’re in Europe), and brown hooded cowls. And the coffee drink had white foam sitting on it’s top, with a ring of brown crema encircling or surrounding it. Thereby the top of the drink too had a lot of resemblance to the monks. So, maybe all these things put together were the inspiration behind naming it as kapuziner (i.e cappuccino).
Some recipes call for adding spices to it too. This drink kapuziner was quite popular in Viennese coffee houses. You know what type of coffee was consumed before that? Before that, it was black coffee with sugar which was boiled and consumed (not with milk) during the Ottoman Empire times, kinda like Turkish coffee.
Ok, so kapuziner spread to other parts of Europe as well. Filtered and brewed coffee became the norm and that later led to advanced equipment, one of which is the Espresso machine, which was invented in Italy. After the initial creation of the espresso machine in 1901, the first record of making a cappuccino using an espresso machine is to be found in the 1930’s. Post World War 2, espresso machines became cheaper and easier to use, and there was also an increase in cafe culture, thereby the modern cappuccino came into picture. It had 3 components…espresso, steamed milk and foam. In Italy, cappuccino was a hit, and it spread to England and Continental Europe, where it became popular too. As the Brits were anyways drinking black coffee with milk and sugar, cappuccino wasn’t something alien for them. With its wonderful frothy texture and flavor, and requirement of an espresso machine to prepare it, which used to be only in cafes due to its very high price when compared to small home brewing equipment, and the spread of cafe culture…cappuccino caught on.
After that, it spread to Australia, South America and the remaining parts of Europe. It was in the 1980’s that marked its beginning in the coffee shops of America (they were kinda like restaurants that also served black coffee). A decade later, in the 1990’s, the cafe culture started to spread fast in the USA. By ordering an expensive drink, people could sit for an extended time at a cafe, chit chatting or working etc. That’s when cappuccinos became popular. Lattes, and other similar drinks too became famous. Based on this cafe concept, and its remarkable flavor and texture, cappuccino became a rockstar spreading all over the world. Starbucks and the likes of similar coffee chains have played a crucial part in this.