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Food /
Food culture
Dec 20
reading time 2 min

Caffè Sospeso: The Neapolitan Tradition of Buying Coffee for Someone Who Can’t

by Bianca Spaggiari

“Quando un napoletano è felice per qualche ragione, invece di pagare un solo caffè, quello che berrebbe lui, ne paga due, uno per sé e uno per il cliente che viene dopo. È come offrire un caffè al resto del mondo.”  –Luciano de Crescenzo

 

“When a Neapolitan is happy for some reason, he offers a coffee to a stranger, because it’s just like offering a coffee to the rest of the word.” 

Caffè sospeso, or “caffè suspiso”, is a deep-rooted Neapolitan tradition based on a simple act of kindness: paying for a coffee for a stranger. It roughly translates to “pending coffee”. In this anonymous act of charity, Neapolitans pay for two espressos at the bar, one for themselves and another for someone who can’t afford it. This means that coffee in Naples—which runs at 70-80 cents a pop—is never denied to anyone, no matter their social or economic standing.

As it is in much of the world, coffee is an excuse to quickly catch up with a friend or acquaintance. We are always down for one more, and nowhere is this more true than Naples. Here, coffee is ordered with three C’s: “comm, cazz, coce,” a dialectal term that roughly translates to “damn f*!kin hot.” 

Here, coffee tastes different, and many say it’s the water that makes a flawless espresso. I’ve asked many locals when the tradition of caffè sospeso started, and nobody seems to know the exact date. It’s like asking when they started drinking coffee—it’s basically always existed.

However, according to Gambrinus, a bar located next to the historical landmark of Piazza Plebiscito, this practice boomed at the time of Italian Unification in 1861. Yet, it wasn’t until World War Two that it found fertile ground. Naples is a city well known for its grit as well as its resistance, and in hardship, this practice actually increased. In 2010, on the occasion of Gambrinus’ 150th anniversary, the caffè sospeso network was initiated: now, you can pay for a coffee for anyone around the world who can claim it, sharing this value beyond the seaside city. 

Besides being one of life’s great pleasures, coffee, in Naples, is an excuse to help out a stranger.

P.S. December 10 is caffè sospeso day, a very Italian way to celebrate kindness and restore faith in humanity in conjunction with the International Humans Rights. This occasion is also used to exchange food and essentials.