I am in New York City this week with my family and we are staying at a hotel right across the street from Madison Square Gardens. On a side street (31st to be exact) is a church and friary. 
The first time we passed it, I told my sons that the word cappuchino came from the Capuchin Monks. They both cracked up and didn’t believe me. They said that sounded just like me. Like something I would make up since I’ve always made up stuff to tell them. I’ve always told them stories and so sometimes it is hard to make them believe me when I’m telling the truth. This time I was telling the truth.
The Capuchin Monks are an offshoot of the Francisans. They believe in living much like hermits- in the way that St. Francis envisioned. They were forced into hiding in their early days because the Church authorities accused them of shirking their church duties. They took refuge with an Italian Order. They adopted the style of dress of the Italian monks and took on the brown habit with hood. Many of them wore beards and had the tonsured head. The hood they wore was called a capucchio. The look of the brown hood and tonsured head is where the word cappuchino comes into play. I am really not quite sure how people made that analogy because it seems odd to me. But there you have it. There are also monkeys called Capuchin Monkeys that have taken their name from these monks. Check out the cappuchino and the capuchin monkey and tell me what ya think. Remind you of a monk?
Join me on Sunday, June 20, when I will be guest blogging about Pensacola Florida at this blog: http://petitfoursandhottamales.com/ Great group of ladies blog there and I’m thrilled to be there on Sunday.
Jillian Chantal 
hth: The Capuchin robe is brown with a light brown fur trim.
Traditionally, a cappuccino drink is made by topping a cup of coffee with scalded milk, resulting in a brown liquid with light brown crown.
The steam-forced espresso machine was not invented until many years later, so the “modern” white froth from steamed milk is not contemporary with the naming of the beverage or the monkey.. That’s why your photo of a present-day cappuccino looks like neither the monk nor the monkey.
By: jenna on December 21, 2012
at 10:05 am
Nice correlation. I’d never heard the word tonsure, but have seen enough monks to know what type of style that is. 🙂
By: Laurie Ryan on December 22, 2012
at 6:51 pm
Glad you learned a new word. Lol
Sent from my iPhone
By: Jillian Chantal on December 22, 2012
at 9:08 pm