by Roberto Sala

Barista. His bar, the Mary’s Bar in Costa Masnaga, in the North of Italy, was set up by his great-grandparents in 1928. He was brought up surrounded by machines, bags and cups. Fifteen years ago he started his job behind the counter: from 2001, he is a coffee taster and Espresso Italiano Specialist.In February 2007, he has been appointed to the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters. He is the first barista who has been appointed to such a role.

I’m increasingly committed to training. Alongside my job at the coffee shop, I’m frequently asked to teach. Recently I had the opportunity to teach to a group of will-be barista who all started basically from scratch. People of all ages and without any experience. What to do when you find in front of yourself a bunch of pupils who have no idea whatsoever on the work they’re going to do? You start from the basics. This is the reason why I tried to teach them all the basics bearing in mind the fears and difficulties that learning a new job comes with. I taught them the basics of coffee-making, I introduced them to the machines, I told them when and how to use and clean them, and about the preparation of the product. We went, as much as the available time made it possible, into the very details and I tried, above all, to pass on to them my personal experience. I also taught them about aperitifs and cocktails but I preferred focusing on the preparation of coffee, stressing the rules of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters and the Italian Espresso National Institute. I had one thought in my mind: it was fundamental to me that the pupils understood the importance of espresso and especially that they understood that the coffee at the bar must trigger emotions in the client. The pupils had to face up to several difficulties many of them coming mainly from the fact that they had no knowledge of the machines. I also noticed a certain mistrust in their abilities and a bit of fear in facing a product they did not know. Time was against them: they had to learn everything in a few hours only. They were, however, supported by a strong desire to learn which reassured me. Beyond technical doubts, the pupils were all nervous for the start of their new business, some of them were afraid about not being able to face the client. How can you become self-confident in doing your job, how can you make sure that the client will come back? An ages-old question with a similarly ages-old answer: offer high quality products with kind manners.

The 2008 International Coffee Tasting was held in Brescia (Italy) on the 30th and 31st of October. 130 coffees from all over the world took part in the competition organised by the International Institute of Coffee Tasters with the technical cooperation of the Centro Studi Assaggiatori (Taster Study Center).

After two days of work, 26 tasters were able to award the best coffees with the Golden Medal. They evaluated each coffee blindly using a tasting card. The cards were collected and processed by the technicians of the Centro Studi Assaggiatori. A list of the winners was eventually issued.

“As far as the Italian market is concerned, the tasting sessions demonstrate an improvement in the average quality of coffee – told Luigi Odello, secretary general of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters and professor of Sensory Analysis in several Italian universities – Espresso confirmed as the best way to prepare coffee: the moka pot, the filter, the neapolitan and the home machines cannot reach its level of quality”.

All the winners of the 2008 International Coffee Tasting: the Golden Medals

Category: Italian espresso blends for the horeca

• Caffè Agust- Agust Natura Equa – Miscela di Caffè 100% Arabica da Agricoltura Biologica – Speciale Bar
• Caffè Haiti Roma di Azeglio Martella & C. Srl – Caffè Gran Riserva – Prodotto Italiano di Qualità
• Caffè Terzi Sas- Miscela Terzi n. 1 – 100% Arabica
• Costadoro Spa – Master Club Coffee – 100% Qualità Arabica
• Caffè Paranà di Giannelli Emilio – Espresso italiano in grani
• Holly di Ulivieri Raffaele – Torrefazione Caffè – Special Bar 100% Arabica 
• La Genovese Sas – Caffè Qualità Oro 
• Minuto Caffè Srl – Bar Gourmet Espresso 1 Kg – 100% Arabica 
• T.M. Srl dei F.lli Morandini & C. – Miscela Oro 90% Arabica Certificata in grani
• Torrefazione Artigianale Caffè Roen – Espresso Bendinelli "Gourmet 100% Arabica"
• Torrefazione Aryscaffè – Aryscaffè Eurobar 
• Torrefazione Caffè Avana – Miscela Degustazione "Sublime" 
• Torrefazione Gran Salvador Snc – 001 – Oro 
• Torrefazione Saturno Srl – Miscela 1 Bar Caracol 
• Torrefazione Taurocaf Snc – Caffè Alberto Miscela Pappagallo Oro – Espresso 
• Torrefazione Taurocaf Snc – Caffè Alberto Miscela Pappagallo Rosso – Espresso 
• Tris Moka Srl – Gran Caffè Gourmet

Category: Non-Italian espresso blends for the horeca

• Café Dromedario Sa (Spagna) – Cafè Colombiano Nariño Supremo "El Tambo" Café Dromedario – Café en Grano Natural
• Café Dromedario Sa (Spagna) – Cinco Alturas Cafes La Brasileña – La Tostadora – Café en Grano
• Café Dromedario Sa (Spagna) – Especial Espresso Cafè Dromedario – Café Natural en Grano
• Massimo Cerutti S.A. (Svizzera) – Cerutti "Il caffè" Qualità Extra Milano
• Monardo – AMeL Commercial de cafes e complementos (Brasile) – Antonello Monardo Caffè Espresso Blend – Sul de Minas Gourmet – 100% Arabica

Category: Home automatic coffee machine

• Caffè Mokarico Srl – Bar – Caffè torrefatto in grani

Category: Single-dose coffee machine

• Angelo Morettino Spa – Caffè Morettino "100% Arabica Espresso" – Cialda
• Caffè Cagliari Spa – Cialda Gran Caffè – monodose per macchine espresso
• Costadoro Spa – Cialde Costadoro – Coffee Pod
• Omkafè Srl – Cialde Top Quality Omkafè

Category: Moka coffee pot

• Angelo Morettino Spa – Caffè Morettino "Arabica Club" 100% Arabica – Morbido e raffinato
• Caffè Cartapani Srl – Miscela "Primeiro" 100% Arabica – macinato
• Café Dromedario Sa (Spagna) – Café Colombiano Nariño Supremo "El Tambo" La Tostadora
• Corsino Corsini Spa – Colombia Caffè Medellin Supremo – Compagnia dell’Arabica
• Milani Spa – Puro Portorico Yauco Selecto – 100% Arabica
• Minuto Caffè Srl – Fior di Aroma Macinato 250 g – 100% Arabica

Category: Neapolitan coffee pot / Filter

• Torrefazione Principe Gbr (Germania) – La Nera Espresso Casa

The International Institute of Coffee Tasters will hold a tasting license course in English on the 18th of November (one-day-course). It will take place at the Permament Training Point managed by Rancilio in Milan, very close to Malpensa International Airport (please click here for a map).

Making a perfect espresso is not a simple task. A large number of variables has to be kept under control: the coffee blend, the coffee grinder, the espresso machine and the barista’s hand of course. Every single variable will influence the final result and the judgment on the quality of the espresso in the cup is up to the taster. Learn how to distinguish good espresso from poor one and how to get a precise sensory profile of the cup in front of you.

What you learn

• espresso tasting: aims, enviromental and psychological conditions of tasting
• the judgment of the sense organs: the aspect, the aromatic profile, the taste
• the tasting card: what it is and how to use it
• the geography of coffee production and of its consumption, the coffee growing, the coffee manufacture, the roasting and its chemical and organoleptical transformations, packaging methods and their influence on the conservation of aromas, the blend and its influence on the final cup
• the coffee grinder and the espresso machine: different types, how to choose the machinery, how to use it to get always a perfect espresso, the ordinary maintenance

Training tasting sessions
You will taste and judge different espressos based on differet blends and prepared in different ways. Some of the preparations are faulty so that you learn to distinguish top-quality espresso from defective one.

Get the license!
At the end of the training class you can take the final examination to get the tasting license.

Information
–    about pricing and applying: please contact the International Institute of Coffee Tasters (novembercourse@coffeetasters.org)
–    about transportation & accomodation: you can enjoy special conditions for the transportation & the hotel, please contact Mr Renato Bossi at Rancilio (rbossi@rancilio.it)
 

Coffitalia 2008, the new yearbook dedicated to coffee in Italy, recently published by Beverfood, provides the picture and an update of the entire sector with precise and careful references to the markets, competition, the companies and the products.

The first section, dedicated to markets and products, starts off by focusing on the International business of coffee. Aspects such green production, import-export, consumption, price dynamics and International players as are dealt with. All this is followed by a detailed profile of the Italian market. This section also comprises some articles on the geography of coffee, sensory analysis of espresso and the machinery as well as an overview on the issue coffee and health.

The following section is, thus, the most interesting one. It is dedicated to coffee roasters divided by region: more than 600 Italian producers of coffee. This is, for the first time in Italy, a full-blown and detailed survey of the world of coffee roasting: 85% of all existing roasters which accounts for 98% of the total turnover of the sector. For each company, it is possible to find information on its structure and its products.

Also specialised suppliers have their own section in which 400 companies are listed: from raw material to machines for horeca and for vending, from packaging to sales materials and coffee consumption.

A special section focuses on vending. More than 550 companies running automatic machines are presented here and once again they are listed per region. Finally, there is a section with a review of all the entities, associations – national and international – in the coffee world, or connected to it, as well as of specialised press.

Coffitalia 2008

Author: AA.VV.

Format: cm 21 x 22,8

Pages: 456

Price: € 100,00

ISBN: 88-88152-19-9

At www.beverfood.com it is possible to read the presentation and give a look at the index of Coffitalia 2008. On the website it is also possible to find contacts and numbers to order it online or by phone.

International Coffee Tasting 2008 will be the record-setting competition. Actually, more than 140 coffees from all over the world have registered for the biennial competition organised by the International Institute of Coffee Tasters. A sharp increase of the number of coffees compared to the first edition in 2006, during which, for the first time ever, tens of coffees were assessed by commissions made up of judges from the International Institute of Coffee Tasters. «A unique initiative which already in 2006 attracted also the attention of the media – said Odello – The mission of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters is that of promoting a scientific method for coffee tasting. Praising the best products of the sector means also rewarding those who work in a competent manner in order to provide consumers with a truly high quality coffee». Currently, the tasting commissions made up of tasters, both Italians and foreigners, from the Institute are being formed. See you all then on the 30th-31st of October when the international competition will take place in Brescia.

by Roberto Sala

Barista. His bar, the Mary’s Bar in Costa Masnaga, in the North of Italy, was set up by his great-grandparents in 1928. He was brought up surrounded by machines, bags and cups. Fifteen years ago he started his job behind the counter: from 2001, he is a coffee taster and Espresso Italiano Specialist.In February 2007, he has been appointed to the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters. He is the first barista who has been appointed to such a role.

Summer months in Italy are characterised by heat, normally strong heat, and some changes in the way of working at the coffee shop. If in the breakfast hours they keep following their normal habits, the same cannot be said for the afternoon. The heat leads them to look for products other than pure espresso: they still desire coffee but they want it in cool solutions such as cocktails and ice creams.
Here goes immediately one of the thoughts I feel strongly about: in these products also, even if coffee is mixed with other ingredients and somewhat it is turned into something different, it is not possible to set aside its quality. For me, it is about sensory consistency and marketing: the clients are used to having their espresso and cappuccino without negative aromatic notes, the same result must be sought after also for alternative products and the ‘summer months’ treats.

For sure also during the summer months in Italy there are dangers for coffee. Humidity which grips the long days in the centre-north of the country is enemy number one for the beans and it attacks without mercy the ground coffee. The sudden changes in the weather, the not rare sudden storms are all the same extremely dangerous, especially for the ground coffee. In addition, the impact of air conditioning, which varies according to the dimensions of the room, should not be underrated. There are, therefore, several environmental variables which must be kept under control. Hence the need to do a long, thorough job when it comes to grinding in order to be able to rely on the availability of a fresh product at all times.

Such freshness and quality are not always, a real shame, offered to the millions of foreign tourists who come and visit Italy. As a client, for example at the seaside, all too often I have bumped into a barista who did a poor job with an excellent blend. No doubts that there are real professionals, the point is that those who do a bad job cause damage to the category and leave the tourist with a negative memory. The lack of attention to the product and a superficial manner of processing it give raise to a negative marketing of Italian coffee precisely in a moment when the bars are crowded with foreign tourists who could become our main marketing agents when they go back home.
Sometimes attempts are made to ‘hide’ the low quality of the coffee behind some complicated manufactures, which, unfortunately, do not survive the taste test. Some of my foreign clients told me that they were left pleasantly surprised because they came across some nicely decorated cappuccino. A nicely-rounded heart painted in the middle of the creamy froth. The surprise was for the mouth and nose: more than being a cappuccino they were more like a latte. Thanks to the observation of these foreign tourists, let’s go back to the concept expressed here above: the basics are important, before going for weird products, artistic to varying degrees, it is best to be sure that you can master them.

(Drafted by Viviana Zini)

By Carlo Odello

We speak about the Spanish coffee market with Emilio Baqué Delás. Baqué is one of the greatest experts of this market. Indeed, apart from being the vice-president of the Spanish Association of Coffee Roasters, his is managing director of Grupo Café Dromedario – Cafés La Brasileña (approximately €24m turnover with a production of 3000 tons of roasted coffee per year). He is, in addition, president of the Comercial de Materia Primas, the second biggest green coffee importer in Spain, owner of 13 roasters in the country.

Can you describe the Spanish coffee market?

In Spain there are approximately 250-300 coffee roasters of which 130 are members of the Spanish Association of Coffee Roasters and of the Spanish Federation for Coffee. Over the last decade the process of concentration of companies has accelerated and this will carry on in future years. There will be a significant reduction of the number of companies for several reasons: many are family run businesses with the related succession problems, the greater difficulties at an operational commercial level (coffee machines, funding for shops and so on), the fact that some companies are after volume and that some others lack professionalism.

If we want to identify the major brands, we should distinguish between those that operate in the market for both consumption at home and horeca and those that focus on horeca only. The home market is in the hands of three multinationals – Nestlé, Kraft and Sara Lee – and some brands of big distribution chains such as Carrefour, Mercadona, Eroski and others. The multinationals and big distribution chains account for 90% of the market. Then there a  number of roasters that operate at a regional level, however, they are no more than 30. The latter, alongside many other roasters, are present also on the horeca market in which no brand goes any higher than a 10% market share. The regional or local brand is fine for the horeca market.

How about consumers?

The Spanish consumers do not have a real culture of coffee. It is not their fault: the coffee sector in general, from the roasters to the machines manufacturers, has never had a culture of coffee. The explanation for this lack of knowledge is to be found in the history of our country. Till 1977, the State strictly controlled coffee trade. The State was the exporter of green coffee and defined the sale price to the roasters and the price of the roasted product of which there were only three categories: Superior, Corriente, Popular. The criterion applied by the State had more to do with volumes and the price to the end consumer rather than with quality. The roasters roasted what they were given by the State and had no access to the wondrous world of species, origins and blends.

After the liberalisation, at the end of the ‘70s, the change process has been difficult and slow: the roasters learned little by little thank to the generational change in the companies, some of them started to invest in training of the sellers and of the consumers and coffee shops started becoming popular.

Still today, however, many consumers see coffee as simple food and believe that all the coffee comes from Columbia on the back of Juan Valdez’s mule. These are the consumers of coffee with milk served in a crystal glass, those who defend the torrefacto, the coffee roasted with sugar added to it, these are the consumers who still believe in old clichés. In other words, they are those from the past.

There is an increasing number of consumers who have grater knowledge and want to chose, who look for a specific origin or for a blend of coffee with a majority percentage of Arabica, who abandon the torrefacto for naturally roasted coffees, which is to say, simply roasted without adding any sugar. Nonetheless, there is still a long way to come.

Let’s talk about the barista: what is their level of professionalism?

In Spain, there has been a time when the most experienced person at the bar automatically became the barista. This was the person in charge of the coffee machine, of its maintenance and of taking care of it. All this is history which dates back to decades ago. In the years of the economic crisis many sought refuge in the horeca and the average level of professionalism of the barista dropped. Luckily enough the specialised schools have been able to make up in part for this gap over the last few years. The level of professionalism improves as long as the roasters cooperate in the training activity in these schools.

The new problem of the Spanish horeca is that nowadays the country has an unprecedented life style and the horeca workers tend to leave to go in more comfortable sectors. This is the reason why there are increasingly high numbers of immigrants doing this job with very little training and with very high turn-over. Curiously enough, this is happening in a time when the Forum Cultural del Café, a non-profit organisation founded to promote the culture of coffee in Spain, and the member roasters are launching more and more competitions between baristas, training courses and events dedicated to them. The last two winners of the barista championship organised by the Forum Cultural del Café come from Peru and from Morocco. This shows that focusing on training for the barista, despite being difficult, is fruitful.

To conclude: in your view, what is the future of the Spanish market?

Spain is a country which must still come a long way in order to improve its cup of coffee. This is an effort that the sector must make in the next few years. The average coffee consumption in our country is of 4 kg of green per head per year, which means that we are the tail ender in Europe. If we keep working on training consumers, if we keep promoting the culture of the barista in the horeca too, if we keep caring about the offer of the product to the consumer – with more coffee shops, with more specialised shops, with a broader product range – if we do not let go on this and if we do not start looking for a short-term benefit, then we might as well take this market up to higher numbers. This is the incentive for those who do my job.

by Luigi Odello

Secretary General of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters, he is also a lecturer at the University of Udine, Verona and at the Cattolica in Piacenza. In addition he is the Chairman of the Taster Study Center and Secretary General of the Italian Espresso National Institute

Several of us kept asking ourselves the question during the course for the managers of the permanent training centres of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters  which was held not long ago in Brescia.

One of the attendees told us that during his training courses he has the habit of telling to the barista who gives him a wrong espresso: “If your coffee is like this, I wish your clients did not pay you”. Several people stressed that the barista who is not able to select the right blend and process it with expertise does not only a wrong to the world of coffee, thus encouraging alternative consumption, but also does a wrong to his colleagues in that the clients lose their passion for the coffee shop.
Therefore, an incompetent barista does harm to the roasters who market a good quality blend, to his own coffee shop, to his colleagues and, it goes without saying, to consumers.

Expressed in these terms, the situation seems to be extremely negative. Let us try and give a look at things from a different point of view. The espresso is without doubts the most difficult way to prepare coffee. It makes it possible to have the highest level of extraction of the contents of the cells – both good and bad – of approximately 50 coffee beans. In addition, it gives the highest concentration of the active sensory components. More than that: the quality of the blend is inversely connected with the ease of preparation. Put it in other words: the higher the quality, the more difficult it is to extract it in the right way. This is for sure an element of  decline of the coffee from the coffee shop: the barista wants an easy blend, the roaster might as well be happy because he save on the resources necessary to produce it, the consumer is left unsatisfied and moves on to alternative consumption or to preparing coffee at home or at the workplace. The coffee shop loses resources and its staff is less and less qualified.

Efforts should be made to try and reverse this vicious cycle into a virtuous cycle: reward the baristas who do an excellent job, stimulate their ambition, make them feel professionals. In this respect, the Italian Espresso National Institute  is doing a good job in that it has qualified more than 2.500 coffee shop operators. No doubts that also competitions are stimulating. But do these competitions really go in the right direction and do they really use assessment mechanisms which make it possible to reliably define the barista who is able to prepare a cup of perfect espresso? Trying to tackle this issue thoroughly would lead us very far away from the topic we started debating.
Falling back into line: just as the success of wine has been driven by the efforts to improve quality through bitter criticism and self-criticism, by the same token, the future of the espresso at the coffee shop rests in the hands of three components of the process: the machines manufacturer, the roaster and the barista. Of the three, the barista is the most important in that the barista is able to influence the other two. Nowadays, in any ‘trattoria’ a corky bottle of wine is immediately replaced with the apologies of the owner. Unfortunately, this is not what happens at the coffee shop with a flawed cup of coffee.

After Coffee Taster reported Starbucks plans to open 150 new stores in Europe, a number of Italian readers wrote to us to know how they can open and run a Starbucks shop in Italy. Coffee Taster asked the question to Mrs Bridget Baker, Starbucks spokeswoman.
"Starbucks Coffee Company is excited about the great opportunities that Italy presents to the company. However we do not have announcements to make regarding the Italian market at this time," Mrs Baker told Coffee Taster.
"When we open a new market, we take time to make sure we have the right joint-venture partner or licensee to help develop the brand," Mr Baker said. "As it is very important for us to find a partner with the right business and retail experience, as well as cultural fit for Starbucks, the process can be a long one.  We will open each market when the time is right, one store at a time."

(Carlo Odello)

Profits raised from Costa Coffee’s inaugural National Foundation Day, held over the weekend in its 700 UK stores, were donated to the Costa Foundation. The registered charity was set up by Costa Coffee in 2006 to help to build schools and improve the lives of coffee growing communities around the world. Costa customers helped to raise £150,000 on Saturday 14 June which will now help build three new schools in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Uganda. “We wanted to give something back to the communities where we source our coffee and local farmers have specifically told us that the best way Costa can help is by focusing on education through building schools for their children," David Hutchinson, Costa Coffee Marketing Director and Costa Foundation Trustee, said. Since 2006, the Costa Foundation has improved sanitation, developed land for families to grow crops, built teacher accommodation and built four schools in Colombia, Uganda and Ethiopia.

(Carlo Odello)