The new Board of Directors of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters has elected its chairman. Luigi Odello, Professor of Sensory Analysis in several Italian and foreign universities and former general secretary of the Institute will be guiding the coffee tasters for the next three years. A three-year period that begins with the launch of a new study on the quality of coffee served in coffee shops. Over the next few months, in fact, members of the Institute, armed with tasting cards, will visit thousands of coffee shops, they will taste the coffee and then send their tasting cards to the Institute, which will process the data.

"A true barometer to measure the quality of coffee – comments Luigi Odello, President of the Institute – In fact the Institute will publish the results of the study on a regular basis. This study will involve a large number of Italian coffee shops, but not only: we must not forget that 10% of the 7,000 Institute members live abroad."

But the news does not stop here: a new course devoted entirely to the aromas of coffee will soon be available. "A whole day dedicated to the study of coffee aromas – Odello explains, – In the course we will use the new collection of aromas we have developed over the past two years."

In addition to President Luigi Odello, the Board of the Institute includes: Fausto Devoto (Vice President), Marcos Saña (Vice President), Stefano Abbo, Roberto Sala, Manuela Violoni, Gian Paolo Braceschi, Gian Luigi Sora, Giuseppe Battista, Pasquale Madeddu, Carlo Odello, Yumiko Momoi, Darcy Kai Sun, Lorenzo Quaranta, Dmitriy Emshanov, Lino Stoppani, Roberto Zironi. The auditors are: Alberto Cobianchi, Giuseppe Principe, Assunta Percuoco, Pierluigi Bosso, Fabio Verona. The arbitrators are: Cristina Dore, Vittorio Ventura, Erik Berglund, Angelo Greggio, Walter Pocobello. The secretary office is coordinated by Michela Beltrami.

From one to three cups: this is the new classification system chosen by the Italian Espresso National Institute to ensure greater transparency for the customers of Italian coffee shops. In fact, for the very first time, customers entering in coffee shops adhering to the initiative will find an impartial indication of the coffee quality and of the equipment and the barista professional competence. A sign with a single cup lets customers know that they are in a bar that offers a blend of coffee that has been qualified by the Italian Espresso National Institute. Two cups means that in addition to coffee, the bar is equipped with certified coffee machines or coffee grinders. Three cups are reserved for coffee shops that, in addition to having coffee and certified equipment, can count on the services of a barista who has been qualified by the Italian Espresso National Institute.

"For the first time in our country the customer will be able to understand the quality level of the bar at a glance- explained Gianluigi Sora, President of the Italian Espresso National Institute – The coffee shops which will join the initiative, potentially around 20,000, will display the sign with the number of cups they have been awarded".

"Ultimately, this is an action aimed at bringing certified transparency in coffee shops, too – confirmed Luigi Odello, general secretary of the Italian Espresso National Institute – In fact, the number of cups awarded will clearly indicate whether the coffee shops use products qualified by the Italian Espresso National Institute and to what extent.”

A new step, therefore, towards the end customer who pays for his/her coffee every day and will soon be able to know the level of the coffee shop he/she attends every day. "Yet another initiative that we hope can act as a stimulus for the entire industry and reward those many coffee shops that focus on quality – added Sora – An action aimed at increasing communication, which is the actual objective pursued by the Institute, along with other initiatives such as the Espresso Italiano Day, scheduled for this coming April 15th, and Io Bevo Espresso, the open-day that will be organised again in November.”

by Carlo Odello *

From Portland to Vancouver, via Seattle. Three cities, three states, two nations. But one great love for the quality of life and fine food. A love that express itself in a choice of high-level restaurants, expression of the diverse world cuisines that meet in this cities. A passion that involves the wine too, with its continued holding of more or less mundane events that bring in these cities the best producers worldwide.

And a visceral love for coffee. A fervent activity which is reflected in thousands of coffee shops, owned by the most important chains or independent. Yes, indeed: the independent ones, run by entrepreneurs who, in total financial autonomy, have decided to make coffee their business. And in many cases almost a reason for living. People that welcome you in the coffee shop with a pride and an enthusiasm that leaves you amazed.

Baristas who are not there by chance, people who made a precise choice and who prepared themselves for this. People ready to pull out a few thousand dollars to learn how to make a business plan for their shop, to understand how to manage it from a financial point of view, to develop a marketing that will give them a possibility more with respect to the fierce competition. Baristas who treat their equipment as objects of a liturgy: difficult to find a dirty machine, the metal always shines, the hoppers of the grinders are impeccable.

In any case there is something that leaves you a little confused. Because if it is true that the bow must be well tended if you want the arrow to go far, it is equally true that you must take a good sight. In most coffee shops you have the impression that the search for the perfection has led to a race in which who fills the filter the most wins. If you do not specify that you want a single espresso you will nearly always have a double, even triple one, considering that it is extracted from 20 grams of ground coffee. The feeling, as some Canadian friends confirm, is that they have misunderstood the concept of espresso: it has to be powerful, but someone said that power is nothing without control. Certainly, most of the cups go into cappuccinos, lattes and other beverages.

Yet, well begun is half done. And then, let’s start again, we said in the International Institute of Coffee Tasters. Well, we said, let’s see if we can bring the word of Italian espresso in such a complicated context. So we took the occasion of the invitation by Caffè Umbria, which for years has been working only with the Italian standard. So with the help of Pasquale Madeddu, Emanuele Bizzarri and Jesse Sweeney the first two Espresso Italiano Tasting courses were born. For the first time we went overseas, more precisely in Vancouver and Portland.

Our impression? At first a little difficulty by the participants to understand exactly the Italian standard, but at the end of the course, satisfaction on their part for the experience. It was helpful to them to hear the voice of Italy and they have finally taken the right measures of what is truly an Italian espresso. That’s the beauty of America: it is the land of opportunities. You just need to know how to catch them. The door is now open and some strange ideas about espresso have been eradicated, at least in the minds of our first students.

* Trainer and member of the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters

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.

Every day I pull up and down the shutter of my bar: we do this in my family ever since 1928. It’s now been 15 years since I started working behind the counter and preparing espressos and cappuccinos for those who, stopping by in this small town of mine in the North of Italy, decide to take a break or for the people who live here and regularly come to see me because they see my bar a part, so to say, an extra room, of their own house.

I love this job. And I like to do it thoroughly. Every single detail is important. This is the reason why I want to begin this column by speaking about the importance of details, which, at the end of the day, are not really details in that they make the difference between a skilled barista and a less skilled one.

Let us consider, for example, the resins of the softner. If they are not regenerated, as time goes by, the limestone will damage the mechanical components of the machine. In my bar I have a manual softner. I had an electronic one but I replaced it because I was not satisfied with its results. With the manual one I am using, I must devote at least one hour per week to its maintenance, a reason for which being that if the machine does not work properly, the coffee is less creamy. What sort of espresso is an espresso with a cream that does not deserve that name?

As I already said, details are important. The bell of the coffee grinder is often abandoned to the fat component of the coffee which coats it little by little with an opaque layer. Cleaning it is not simple because it is necessary to be careful and completely remove the oxidised fat otherwise the cup of coffee will be rancid. Normally, I use warm water and smell-less detergent – this is extremely important because I do not want to have in the air aromas other than those of the coffee.

Here is another detail: the steam wand. This is an important message to the client. First of all, at the level of the image you give, it is really annoying to see all those, too many actually, encrusted steam wands. It is also, and especially, important from the sensory point of view: if a wand encrusted with milk from a previous cappuccino is used for a new one how can the milk be whipped without leaving in it unpleasant aromas?

Mere details? Well, preparing an espresso is about details. Here are some other details. When I open a bag of coffee the first thing I do is observe the shape of the beans and sense their aromas. It is best to let it “breathe” for a while and not use it immediately. After one hour, approximately, I can put it in the machine. It goes without saying that I taste it personally to check the quality. The visual characteristics can be monitored for each espresso, while the gustatory sensations, the olfactory ones which are perceived directly and those which are perceived at the back of the mouth must be monitored all throughout the day. Indeed, many conditions can vary and have a negative impact on the sensory effect of the espresso. The basic parameters must, of course, always be kept under control: the pressure of the machine at 9 atmospheres, the water must be injected in the group at 88°C and the 7-gram dose of coffee must give in 25 seconds precisely 25 millimetres of espresso.

Some people might think that it is nothing more than an espresso. Some others might as well believe that the attention devoted to the very details in the preparation of the cappuccino is a gross exaggeration. Nonetheless, it is all about this: it is all the details that make the cup unique for our client. Otherwise, it is just a bit of ground coffee that undergoes a certain pressure. And so much for the pleasure of coffee.

New plant for Cma (Astoria and Wega) The new Cma, company that produces over 30,000 professional espresso machines – sold with the Astoria and Wega brands – each year, plant has been inaugurated. On its 40,000 square metres surface there are 4 production lines featuring lean manufacturing technologies. This is an industrial philosophy which belongs to the Toyota system and it is aimed at minimising – and actually getting rid of – all forms of wasting. This makes it possible to rationalise work flows and procedures for assembling the machines as well as to considerably increase productivity with a positive impact on overall efficiency.

Pellini partner in the Overland expedition Pellini Caffè took part in the Paris-Beijing expedition, the latest one organised by the Overland team, which will be soon broadcasted by RAI, the Italian national public television. One-hundred years after the competition won by the Prince Scipione Borghese on board of the legendary Itala, Pellini Caffè has accompanied the 4 Iveco lorries used for the expedition right to the heart of the Chinese Republic (the convoy covered in two months time a distance of 14.000 Km and crossed 11 countries). Recently, the Taiwanese importer and supplier of Pellini Caffè, You Chang Trading Co. Ltd, has opened an office in Shanghai.

This is how the nose talks to the brain How is the life-long connection between nose and brain created during the embryonic stage? The answer comes from a Telethon scientific research which also sheds light on the mechanisms of a rare genetic disease, i.e. the Kallmann syndrome, characterised, among other symptoms, loss of the sense of smell (anosmia) and severe reproduction deficits. The nerve endings start in the nose and, in order to go in the brain, must cross a border area which is a sort of barrier. Giorgio Merlo, a researcher from the Telethon Dulbecco Institute and his colleagues from the department of animal and human biology at the University of Turin have found out that some specialised cells act as if they were guards. This means that these cells are able to recognise the approaching signals sent by the nerves and they trigger a lowering of the barrier so that such signals can reach the brain. This takes place during the embryonic stage and creates the connection between the olfactory cells (which detect smells) and the brain (which processes them).

The photo exhibition of Illycaffè “From the beginning” in London The 6th of October was the closing day of the photo exhibition “From the beginning”. The photos by Sebastião Salgado have been taken in Illycaffè plantations in order to describe the culture of coffee in the countries where it is produced and to illustrate the various stages of the processing process. The exhibition has been organised in partnership with Amazonas Images, Contrasto and NBpictures and with the support of the International Coffee Organization and of the Embassy of Brazil in London.

Caffè Mokarico obtains the ethical-social quality certification Caffè Mokarico, from Florence, is the first roaster in the world that can boast three different certifications on environment protection, sustainable development and social accountability. It already had the ISO 9001 and the ISO 14001 certification and now it has received the SA 8000 (Ethical) certification for the company’s commitment to the fight against exploitation of child labour, to guarantying health and safety on the workplace, to the respect of human rights and workers’ rights with the support of all people involved in the production process and sales.

Enquiry of coffee tasters at the coffee shop The enquiry on the quality of coffee at the coffee shop, promoted by the International Institute of Coffee Tasters, has been kicked off. The tasters who are working all around Italy have already handed back several tasting cards. The tasters, apart from evaluating the coffee according to the strict method of the Institute, must fill in a tasting card which focuses on some of the most important aspects of coffee consumption other than the degree of pleasure perceived by the individual. This sort of investigation is complemented by a full-blown sensorial evaluation which is also focused on the analysis of the bar environment. To this purpose, twenty bars in the centre of Rome and Milan have been selected and analysed by judges – coffee experts – qualified in sensorial analysis. This research is supported by Altroconsumo, the first independent consumers association in Italy.

by Carlo Odello

We met Gennaro Pelliccia, Production Technical Manager at Costa, he makes sure that the quality of the coffee they produce is good value-for-money. He started off with Costa as a barista in December 1991, then he joined Gino Amasanti at the Roastery in 1997 after his studies in Mechanical Engineering.

First of all, let’s find out something more about Costa: its history and what it is today.
Costa was set up in London in 1971 by two Italian brothers, Sergio and Bruno Costa. The two of them noticed that there was some demand for good-quality, blended coffee so they started supplying such a product to catering services and specialised Italian coffee shops in the UK. In 1978, the Costa brothers opened up their first store in London. This was the beginning of their expansion with two new selling points being opened every year. In 1988, they moved to a bigger site, in the Old Paradise Street, in the Lambeth area, south of London. In 1995, Costa was acquired by the Whitbread Group: at the time it had 41 stores all around the country. Today it is the leader in its sector and it is also the operator growing at the fastest pace: at present, it has 600 stores in the UK and 222 abroad.

What does the coffee market in the UK look like?
According to April 2007 figures, there are approximately 9.300 stores which comprise branded coffee shops, independent and unspecialised operators. It is assumed that there will by a growth by 4.2% per annum which will lead to having 11.000 stores in 2010. As for branded coffee shops, the big chains market, from 2001 to 2006, there was a 10% growth per annum. At present, there are 2.973 stores of this type in the UK: the market share of the branded chains accounts for 32% of the global British market; this percentage should get up to 37% by 2010.

Do you believe that there is still margin for growth for Costa?
Yes, undoubtedly. Twelve years ago we carried out an investigation that made it clear that the market was open to the creation of places, not dominated by males, as is often the case with pubs, where people could meet. This was the ground on which the further development of Costa was built. There has been a positive growth trend for coffee shops also due to a major change in eating habits in the UK over time. Today people do not eat at home most of the time and tend to prefer quick snacks. This is the reason why the coffee shop is the ideal solution.

Let’s speak about quality in the UK.
No doubts that over the last 10 years espressos and cappuccinos are much better in our country. This is also thanks to the clients. Over the last five years, our most evolved clients – those that, after having been to Italy, asked us to offer products which were to a greater extent Italian-style. In addition, the attitude to the product is different: once upon a time, the espresso was chosen because it was probably the cheapest option on the menu. At the beginning there was also a certain linguistic concern triggered by words the pronunciation of which was deemed to be difficult, e.g. ‘caffè espresso’ or ‘latte macchiato’. Actually, nowadays, it is a real choice, part and parcel of the life-style.

How about the future?
This looking for Italian-style products and for better quality will not cease: whoever will not be able to meet this need will have no chances in the market. The next step will actually be the choice of the coffee shop depending on the quality. Costa has already prepared itself for picking up this challenge in an effective way. We measure ourselves against the parameters set by the Italian Espresso National Institute and we use machines and grinder-dispensers that are certified by the Institute. However, the monitoring is not just downstream, at the coffee shop, it starts well in advance on the entire production cycle.

Back to British consumers, do they tend to be loyal to brands?
They are, first of all, loyal to the experience of taking an espresso or a cappuccino in a certain type of place. For example, several clients of Costa are professionals who stop at the same coffee shop on their way to work or when returning home. Our baristas know their tastes and make them feel as if they were at home by offering a tailor-made service. So the clients are loyal because of that atmosphere and that place which looks familiar to them. The very wide product range gives them satisfaction and plays a role in making them loyal.

What is your view on single-dose coffee pods, and, more in general, on any solution that makes the espresso experience possible without a coffee shop?
In the UK there is for sure a developing market for consumption at home of this type of products, though we must not forget that most of the coffee drank at home is instant coffee. The single-dose coffee pods, or other solutions of this sort, are still not too common neither at home nor at the office. In the UK they are becoming increasingly popular at places that are not specialised in coffee, e.g. pub restaurants, where at the end of a meal some clients simply like to have a cup of coffee. In these places, the low sales volume and the high frequency in staff turnover make it difficult to afford having the proper complete machinery and the blend in the form of beans. This is the reason why they opt for the professional espresso machine with filter-holders for single-dose coffee cartridges. Also in the Costa stores we use this sort of solutions for the decaffeinated and Fair Trade products in order to be able to serve a product which is always fresh.

What is the policy of Costa Coffee on the international stage?
Currently, we have more than 200 stores all over the world: Ireland, Eastern Europe, Middle East, India and Pakistan. For the moment being, we have got no plans to enter Italy where there are already independent and well-rooted suppliers that provide an excellent product to the country. In general, in Italy, branding policies are not too strong yet.