by Luigi Odello *

Anyone who travels knows that the expression “Italian espresso” is often improperly used to describe a kind of coffee that has nothing to do with the real Italian espresso essence. It is a reality showing the lack of real product culture and sometimes even bad faith.

In recent years, much has been done to try to effectively defend this “Made in Italy” symbol. The Italian Espresso National Institute, in collaboration with the International Institute of Coffee Tasters and the Centro Studi Assaggiatori – Italian Tasters encoded the Certified Italian Espresso profile and then launched an appropriate certification.

The efforts of the Italian Espresso National Institute did not remain unheard: today that sensory profile has international legitimacy. However, if we want to defend the Italian Espresso tradition we must gather everyone who, also in far countries, believes in this product and its culture.

This is the reason why the International Institute of Coffee Tasters, which boasts a register of more than 8,000 students in more than 40 countries worldwide, has decided to create a new position: the Espresso Italiano Trainer. The aim is to train ambassadors of the Italian Espresso culture spread to the four corners of the Earth who will pass on information and basic tasting techniques to students in order to evaluate the drink. They will have only one objective in mind: prepare their students to expose false Italian Espressos and reward the best ones.

If you want get more information, just write to carlo.odello@italiantasters.com.

* Chairman of the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters

Espresso Italiano Tasting, the official handbook of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters, has just been published in Chinese. And more courses and seminars on tasting Italian Espresso are coming in Guangzhou next week (July 26th-31st). The classes will be held by Carlo Odello, member of the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters. For  more information about the courses and the book please contact Ms Jolin (jolin@acoffee.cn).

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

There is a strange combination in the chemicals of foods, which can be very useful to understand how the coffee industry is less mature than that of wine.
Both drinks contain the trichloroanisole (and their companions), perceptible at the level of one part per trillion (threshold of perception in the air, in coffee and wine is a little higher), which is seen by our sensory system as a threat and then declined in the most categorical way.
In fact, even a suburbs medium-level restaurant refuses to replace a bottle of wine to a customer if it is corked, while for coffee, people close their nose and drink. Yet from a data base we have been filling for years we understand that a significant amount of coffee on the market has trichloroanisole concentrations well above the threshold of perception, even 500 times. Yet they continue to circulate without limits.  
However, if we go on talking about defects we can consider geosmin’s smell of rotten wood and earth, pyrazine that gives a vegetable taste (pea, chicory, depending on what accompanies it and on the levels of presence), dimetilsulfide and dimetildisulfide, both donors of fetid scents, or the more calm vinylguaiacol that, when highly concentrated, confers smoke and burnt taste.
These are just some examples, because in the course about the defects in the coffee, which the International Institute of Coffee Tasters is developing, the tasters will have the opportunity to try about twenty, spending an unforgettable day. It is necessary to make this step to create an embankment to the product of poor quality circulating unpunished on the market to accurately identify and tell the barista that he can drink it himself!  
Precisely for this reason many topics related to sensory vices and virtues of coffee, as they originate and by which compounds are given, will be discussed during the modules of the Professional Master of Coffee Science and Sensory Analysis which will be held on next 22-24 September.
 

IIAC Japan will organize three license courses in September:

• Tokyo (09)
• Osaka (10)
• Fukuoka (11)

More information: info@coffeetasters.jp, ph. +81 3 54116191.

by Sergio Cantoni, chairman of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters

In 2007 the International Institute of Coffee Tasters (Iiac) celebrates its 15th anniversary. Its results are flattering: more than 5.000 registered members from all five continents, more than 500 ‘didactic’ events in most European countries – but also Japan and South America – a book on coffee tasting methods which has been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian – and will be soon translated into Japanese and Korean, tens of tasting sessions and at least as many conferences.
All this makes us proud and it is, first and foremost, the reason which lead the Iiac to promote this newsletter: we have important messages that we want to put across to a world that is rapidly changing. Indeed, coffee is no longer a mere commodity for an inattentive consumer. On the contrary, it actually is a beverage that is brilliantly matching knowledge and taste.
We are taking our distance from the idea of the species and the origins seen as generalisations of quality. The values coming from the combination between territory and sensory characteristics of the finished product are now being devoted new attention. Put it in other words, luckily enough, the times when the consumer asks the supplier to know more about the product, where it comes from, its composition and how it is prepared and, afterwards, comes up with a severe verdict by resorting to sensory abilities are now at the horizon. The espresso is no longer only made in Italy; whenever it is called “Italian” it must have specific characteristics, otherwise, it will just be an espresso from Seattle or somewhere else. The moka coffee will no longer be the classic brick that takes you up in paradise (thinking about the ad running on TVs), it will become increasingly a blend qualified by a specific narrative thread. In the wake of this, those who do not keep themselves always up-to-date and at high professional levels will lose their competitiveness. Our ambition, with Coffee Taster, is to make our small contribution to this sort of evolution which involves us directly. Therefore, this newsletter will deal with topical subjects and scientific research with an eye to sensory analysis. As Galileo used to say, there is no knowledge without the sensory experience.