Introducing.....

Okay, so Phaelen was a no-brainer. But what do you name a cappuccino machine? Why name one? Because it makes life a little more interesting and if I want a Looooong vacation then I will have to be committed? I do not name cars as those in my family have a habit of doing? It seems the thing to do on the corner of the world that I live in? It's what I do?

I do not know really. Its just something that I want to do. So everybody meet the other studio mate, my exalted friend and cheering section....

Cappi? Ya know, because that would be short for cappuccino.
Fra Marco because that is who everyone decided invented the drink in the first place?
What about Luigi? He is the guy with the patent on the first espresso machine back in 1901.

I do not know. So I am doing a Little more research on how cappuccino got invented in the first place. There is no doubt that the mass marketing appeal began in Italy. But I have always wondered why it seemed so much like Turkish coffee. And now I know. It might actually be.

It would seem that way back in 1683 the Hapsburgs finally launched a campaign that would start to remove the infiltration of Islam from south central and central Europe in Vienna. Fro 300 years the European continent struggled to maintain its autonomy from Islamic advances. The Battle of Vienna marked a turning point in that struggle against the Ottoman Turks. It took 16 years for the Hapsburgs to remove the Turks from Hungary and Transylvania.

The 300 years of Ottoman Occupation would have provided more than enough opportunity for cultures to bleed as it does now in our modern wars. So the Italians fell in love with the drink but found it what? Too bitter? Too thick? Or perhaps to cumbersome a process to produce? But nonetheless, there was love for the Turkish drink. So, ingenious thinkers with time on their hands that they are, some group of monks perfected the production of espresso. Rich, dark, smoother and with less viscosity?

Those monks were a group of Franciscan Friars known as Cappucin because of their hooded robes. And the story goes that Fra Marco d'Aviano was the monk to refine the process.

Okay.

So why not, in the spirit of celebrating ones German heritage name it for one of the Hapsburgs? Oddly enough... I find I don't much like the goings on of that family. I know. We wouldn't have a Christmas tree if it were not for the Hapsburgs meeting up with the Mountbatten's. From what little I've read there seemed to be a tyrannical streak in them. I never have liked people who steamroll their own kind to advance their agenda. It's rather cannibalistic to me.

I'll have to give the name more thought. In the mean time, a cappuccino machine without a name still makes a damn fine eyeopener.