70 Cents for 25 Years: Why an Espresso in Cossato Never Got More Expensive

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents 70 Cents for 25 Years: Why an Espresso in Cossato Never Got More Expensive.

Imagine you walk into the same bar every morning, order your espresso, and the sign has read the same price for a quarter of a century: 70 cents. While almost everything else gets more expensive, Orlando Paldino and his wife Rosina Furiati in the small Piedmontese town of Cossato stubbornly hold the line. For many German coffee drinkers that sounds like a dream – in Italy, it's lived reality.

Unlike in Germany, where an espresso in a coffee shop quickly costs 3 euros or more, Italy treats the cup of coffee as something fundamental: no separate coffee tax, with VAT, but with the status of a national cultural asset. The story of the couple from Cossato shows why it works.

And what does it mean for you? When you pay 3.50 euros for your espresso to go at the counter next week, that's not just inflation – it's also because Germany and Italy categorize coffee in completely different cultural terms.

Who's Behind the 70-Cent Cup?

Orlando Paldino stands behind the counter, usually with his wife Rosina Furiati in the background. The two run a small bar in Cossato, a town with a once-thriving textile industry. Factory workers used to get up early, grab a quick espresso and head to their shift. The couple keeps up that tradition – with a price that hasn't been touched in 25 years.

When Furiati serves a guest today, she says in essence: the daily coffee is for them the symbol par excellence. Even if everything else gets more expensive, the cup of espresso must remain affordable for everyone. That's how it used to be, and that's how it should stay.

The daily coffee is for us the symbol par excellence. Even when everything else gets more expensive: We believe that everyone must be able to afford the cup of espresso.

Why Italy Treats Coffee Differently Than We Do

The difference isn't in bean quality – that's often comparable in Germany. It's in the system. In Italy, the state charges no separate coffee tax. Only regular VAT applies. Coffee is thus taxed differently than alcohol or tobacco, even though for many Italians it belongs to the daily routine.

Add to that an attitude you might call cultural self-understanding: the cup of espresso at the bar is not a luxury but an everyday act. It belongs to Italy's image like pasta, piazza and Vespa. Italians spend more than seven billion euros a year on espresso and cappuccino alone – a sum that only comes about because the price stays low and the ritual is everyday.

What You Can Take Away From the 70-Cent Espresso

For you, that doesn't mean your coffee to go will cost 70 cents tomorrow. In Germany, different logic applies: higher labor costs, higher taxes, a different consumer mindset. But the story from Cossato shows how much depends on a country's pricing culture – and how a family consciously decides against maximizing its own profit to preserve a tradition.

Paldino and Furiati haven't raised their price in 25 years. You in Germany often pay five times more today. That's less a competitive disadvantage than a matter of expectation: In Italy, espresso belongs to the basic provision of energy and conversation – in Germany more to the small reward in between. Anyone who owns a German espresso machine knows: technically, more for less would be possible here too. Only the expectation of price is tied to our everyday culture.