Bicerin
Hot Turin drink of coffee, chocolate and milk cream served in layers in a small glass, born at the Al Bicerin café facing the Consolata.
The bicerin is a hot, non-alcoholic drink from Turin, made of three layers: coffee, chocolate and milk cream, served in a small handle-less glass. The name, in Piedmontese, means precisely that small glass[1]. The drink is tied to a single address, the Al Bicerin café at piazza della Consolata 5, which opened in 1763 facing the Sanctuary of the Consolata[2][3], and in 2001 the Piedmont Region recognised it as a traditional Piedmontese drink, listing it in the regional register of traditional agri-food products[1][4].
From the bavareisa to the small glass
The ancestor of the bicerin is the bavareisa, a drink widespread in the 18th century and served in large glasses: coffee, chocolate, milk and syrup. In the 19th century the three main ingredients, until then brought to the table separately, were combined in a single glass[1]. There were three combinations: pur e fiur, similar to today's cappuccino; pur e barba, coffee and chocolate; 'n poc 'd tut, “a bit of everything”, with all three ingredients. It was the latter that prevailed and became the bicerin as it is drunk today[1][3].
The price stayed fixed for a long time: three soldi, that is fifteen centesimi of a lira, from the mid-19th century until 5 December 1913, when it rose to twenty centesimi[2][3]. Part of the drink's fortune is attributed to pilgrims visiting the Consolata: hot chocolate was not considered food, so the bicerin could also be drunk on days of Lenten fasting[2][4].
The café on piazza della Consolata
The café was opened in 1763 by Giuseppe Dentis, a seller of acqua di cedrata, in a small shop furnished with wooden tables and benches facing the entrance to the sanctuary[2][5]. In 1856 the building that still houses it today was built to a design by Carlo Promis, and the café took on its current look: wood panelling on the walls, mirrors, round white marble tables, a wood-and-marble counter and shelves holding jars of sweets; at the end of the 19th century an external iron frame with display windows, little columns and cast-iron capitals was added[2]. A different chronology instead places the building's renovation at the start of the 19th century[3].
For almost the whole of the 20th century the café was run by women. Ida Cavalli, known as “la cicolatera d'piazza d'la Consolà”, ran it with her sister and then with her daughter Olga: from 1917 to 1971 according to the history published by the café[2], from 1910 to 1975 according to TorinoClick[3]. After the brief management of Silvia Cavallera (1972-1977), from 1983 the café passed to Maritè Costa, who for more than thirty years, until her death in 2015, oversaw the restoration of its original fixtures and furnishings and research into its historic recipes[2][5]. In 2001 Gambero Rosso named it Italy's best bar, in 2004 it received the honorary diploma of Europe's Historic Cafés, and in 2013 Maritè Costa received the Premio Bogianen[5]. Today the café is run by her family[5].
Cavour and other customers
The name most closely tied to the bicerin is that of Camillo Benso di Cavour. The story handed down by the café is explicitly presented as a legend:
«According to legend, it seems that the Count, a liberal, secular and anticlerical man, rather than accompanying the royal family to the sanctuary, would wait for them to come out while sitting comfortably at the table under the clock, watching the entrance to the Consolata from behind the curtains.»[6]
The phrase “the bicerin loved by the Count of Cavour” has also become a commonplace of the city press[7], and from the “Cavour” bicerin the marocchino, the coffee-and-cocoa drink found throughout Italy, is sometimes said to descend[8]. Among the customers remembered by the café are Alexandre Dumas the elder, who in a letter is said to have listed the bicerin among the things not to be missed in Turin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Giacomo Puccini, Silvio Pellico, Guido Gozzano, Italo Calvino and Mario Soldati[6][5]. Maria José and Umberto II stopped there before leaving for exile in 1946, and a thank-you letter from the former king is displayed in the café[6]. The list of guests also includes Gianni Agnelli and his brother Umberto, Erminio Macario, Wanda Osiris, Mario Merz and Pina Bausch[6].
In literature
Umberto Eco set some passages of The Prague Cemetery at the Bicerin, with a long and detailed description of the café[6][5]. The writer Giuseppe Culicchia devoted a page of Torino è casa mia (Laterza, 2005) to it:
«Sitting at the Bicerin is one of the great moments of life: the low ceiling, the red carpets, the light wooden walls, the floor worn by customers’ footsteps, the boxes of crumiri biscuits behind the display cases…»[6]
In the same passage Culicchia recalls the door to the workshop, where the chocolate cooks for four hours before ending up in the glass[6].
The recipe
The recipe of the Al Bicerin café is not public: according to Mole24 staff are bound to confidentiality[4]. Three elements are stated: a light, aromatic coffee blend, a chocolate of selected cocoa cooked for a long time in copper pots, and milk cream, the fior di latte[1][4]. The layers should not be mixed, because the different densities and temperatures meet as you drink:
«The secret to best enjoying a true bicerin is not to stir it.»[1]
Outside the café on the Consolata, the bicerin can be found in the city's historic cafés[9] and appears alongside the gianduiotto among Turin's sweet symbols, as at Cioccolatò, the chocolate exhibition held in Piazza San Carlo and via Roma[7]. Slow Food's gastronomic guides list a snack at the Bicerin as a stop on a walk along via della Consolata[10].
Pages linking here
- Gianduiotto
- Gianduja chocolate
- Grissino torinese
- Guida Torino
- Guido Gozzano
- Santuario della Consolata
Related articles: Gianduiotto, Gianduja chocolate, Grissino torinese
Sources
- Caffè Al Bicerin
- Caffè Al Bicerin
- TorinoClick — 31 July 2015
- Mole24 — 27 September 2022
- Mole24 — 28 September 2018
- Caffè Al Bicerin
- La Stampa - Torino Sette (rassegna stampa Slow Food) — 20 November 2015
- Slow Food — 22 June 2021
- La Stampa (rassegna stampa Slow Food) — 22 September 2016
- Slow Food — 11 May 2018