Caffè sospeso (Italian for “suspended coffee”) is a cup of coffee paid for in advance by a café patron as an anonymous act of charity … paying it forward.
The tradition had its genesis in the working-class cafés of Naples, where someone who had experienced good luck, or just felt like it, might order a sospeso, paying the price of two coffees but receiving and consuming only one. The receipt for the second cup would be pinned to a board or stored in a jar … ready for redemption down the track.
A person – not necessarily, but often, poor – enquiring later whether there was a sospeso available would then be served a coffee for free.
The beautiful thing about this random act of kindness is that the donors and recipients remain completely anonymous to one another, and the recipients are always treated with dignity.
A 2008 article in the Italian Corriere della Sera reported the tradition had potentially become obsolete, the reporter having visited three bars where it had not been observed for at least 15 years. But the idea enjouyed a revival in Italy in 2011 with several small Italian festivals forming a Suspended Coffee Network to encourage solidarity in response to cultural budget cuts.
Then, in 2013, along came a young Irishman, John Sweeney. After learning about the caffè sospeso tradition, he was inspired to found a suspended coffees "movement". He did this by creating a Facebook page celebrating “Suspended Coffees”, with a mission “to bring communities together in hope, to inspire and empower people to change lives, and to restore faith in humanity”. By 2015 this had led to the purchase of over 15 million coffees worldwide.
Sweeney, in a 2024 conversation with Chris Anderson, the Head of TED, reports that although the number of registered cafés adopting the system was officially 2,000, some research was indicating an actual take up of over 10 times that number, located throughout 54 countries. As of 2024, the movement’s Facebook page has over 500,000 followers. Hooray for that good idea!
Sweeney receives daily messages of appreciation from both café owners and suspended coffee recipients. Win. Win. Win.
The Generous Coffee Shop in Denver, Colorado, takes the concept a step further. As customers enter the café, they are greeted with a large bulletin board arrayed with hundreds of handwritten credit notes:
- TO: A newly single mom. You got this. FROM: A single mom ($10)
- TO: Someone studying for the bar exam. FROM: Someone doing the same ($5)
- TO: Stranger with a broken heart. FROM: Soren and Ellie ($6)
- TO: Someone struggling in the first year of starting their own business. FROM: Someone who has made it (it gets better!) ($6)
That’s a bit of an anonymity breakdown … but heart-warming nonetheless.
Finally, have a listen to Sweeney speaking with Chris Anderson about the power of random acts of kindness, the beauty of gifting economies and how the philosophy of generosity can really make a difference to communities HERE.
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References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Caff%C3%A8_sospeso
facebook.com/SuspendedCoffeess
tim.blog/2024/01/22/infectious-generosity/
Images
1. Caffè sospeso. Photo credit: Devid Rotasperti
2. Caffè sospeso at Gran Caffè Gambrinus, Naples
3. John Sweeney. Credit: johnmsweeney.com
4. Suspended Coffee sticker: "It's about more than coffee"
5. Tru dat. Credit: Adele Barbaro via facebook.com/SuspendedCoffeess
6. The Moonridge Coffee Company in Big Bear Lake, CA
7. Video: Suspended coffees "it's about more than the coffee"
8. TED Interview: Exercising your generosity like a muscle with John M. Sweeney
9. Book: Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading, Chris Anderson, Crown Publishing Group, January 2024
