> I was just told an interesting legend about the three beans...In Nazi
> occupied Italy, if a spy was thought to be in the bar, the people in
> the underground would be served their sambuca with two beans, not
> three. Three beans meant that the place was safe. I'd love to know
> if anyone has heard this before...
Exactly, this is just a legend. The three beans have absolutely no story
behind.
In Italy we put the coffee beans just upon customer's request and this is
normally called "con la mosca" which means with "a fly",this is just to give a
little extra flavor to the Sambuca and nothing else. The rest is just a
legend, just as you mentioned.
Dom