by Carlo Odello

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

 This year, the International Institute of Coffee Tasters is organising the fourth edition of ‘International Coffee Tasting 2012’, the only international competition among coffees. I have been working as a member of this Institute board of directors for years and I am proud to say that this is maybe the most important event of the association. It is an honour to work organizing it and, honestly, it is also a pleasure to be able to propose this showcase to coffee roasters from all around the world. There are some very good reasons for taking part to this event.

The first one: International Coffee Tasting is truly the only event which focuses on the preparation of coffee. There are other excellent events dealing with the coffee beans, others the baristas, other more or less original preparation methods. On the contrary, we focus our attention on the coffee for the market: the coffee which will be really used by baristas or by coffee lovers at home, in pods and capsules. Who wins the competition, wins the challenge of the market.

The second one: from this year, all winners are involved in the open-day the International Institute of Coffee Tasters will organise in 2013, the year of its 20th anniversary. A day in which all the winning products will be showed to the press and opinion-leaders. This extra visibility is combined with that already achieved by press releases, publishing the winners them on our website and, most importantly, by using the winner’s logo on the coffee bags.

Briefly, International Coffee Tasting 2012 is a competition among the coffees everyone of us can find on the real market, pointing spotlights on the best. We are not making anything up: in the wine world competitions are on the agenda, the big ones have thousands of participants. The returns for wine companies are unbelievable: winning a competition supports the trade policy in an excellent way, it represents an edge over all the others.

In the last three editions, we have helped winners in this very way: to highlight themselves and provide their customers another good reason to buy their products.

Please, find the participation form to International Coffee Tasting 2012 at:
http://www.assaggiatoricaffe.org/site/?q=en/node/428
 

by Carlo Odello

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

We all knew the International Institute of Coffee Tasters was landed in China. We held the first Espresso Italiano Tasting courses in Guangzhou and Beijing in December 2010. Thanks to our member of the board Darcy Sun, from March of this year, our manual Espresso Italiano Tasting is also available in Chinese. Furthermore we organized in July a new series of training courses and seminaries.

Now we are back again in Guangzhou where the International Institute of Coffee Tasters together with the Italian Espresso National Institute has patronaged a new edition of Caffè Italia. So, after the editions in 2010 held in Tokyo, New York and Paris and the 2011 Tokyo one, a new building block is added to the plan of spreading the real Italian espresso culture.

From 24th to 27th of November a Caffè Italia strengthen by the presence of 16 different blends will enter the scene during the Guangzhou Coffee Expo 2011. A tasting point proposing the Iespresso in its regional variations to the Chinese public, ranging from the region of Piedmont to Sicily. There is just one idea in mind: to continue spreading our espresso principles in China.

What is the most challenging thing of this new Chinese episode? The fact that Caffè Italia knew how to capture the attention of more roasters, a lot of which will be present in the area (if you are curious to know who they are, I redirect you to the coffee list that follows). The journey of our espresso in China is rather long but meanwhile we are making our way, and we sincerely thank those who are supporting us.  

Caffè Italia at Guangzhou Coffee Expo 2011, click to enlarge

by Carlo Odello

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

The world of coffee shops in Italy is afflicted by a widespread lack of planning. A small number of coffee shop owners know their business and are able to plan and are joined by hordes of operators living hand to mouth. Although outside Italy the situation is not always at its best, it really depends on the country taken into account, you generally meet sharper operators who think in real terms of marketing.

GREENTREECaffè is one of these cases. Vittorio Ventura and Dana Hruba have created a chain of coffee shops in Bratislava; to be precise, five coffee shops in only two and a half years, in a very competitive market such as Bratislava. The Slovakian capital has only half a million inhabitants but is a remarkable tourist crossroads surrounded by Vienna, Prague and Budapest. This is why at least two other chains other than GREENTREECaffè exist, everyday playing “the coffee battle” in the city. It is obvious that the staff at GREENTREECaffè plays on Italian espresso and related products.

GREENTREECaffè is now the first Permanent Training Point of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters in Central Europe. The coffee shop in Venturska, with a splendid room with hundred-year-old vaults, within the last few days has entered into the International Institute of Coffee Taster’s network, bringing the number of the Permanent Training Points to 28 (four of which are outside of Italy: Stuttgart, Dneperpetrovsk, Tokyo and now Bratislava). To inaugurate the Institute new embassy, on Saturday 5th November a Espresso Italiano Tasting course was held to license new coffee tasters, which followed the course held last year by GREENTREECaffè. 

Vittorio Ventura receives the plaque for the GREENTREECaffè’s new Permanent Training Point in Bratislava. Photos of the new PTP are available on our Facebook page.

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

by Carlo Odello *

The blend seems to be regaining ground in several countries where for many years the espresso has been seen as a single origin product. We are actually receiving signs of interest in the blend from the United States, and the same can be said for Japan.

This situation often leads to a double interpretation. Some rejoice saying that the rediscovery of the blend is a clear sign of more complex aromatic research. Others however, perhaps the more pessimistic, see it from a different light: the carefully selected single origins, particularly some washed Central American origins, have become very expensive in their pure form. Laws: the profit margin has fallen drastically compared to the past.

However the fact remains that for money or for love, the blend seems to catch on again. Not a bad thing for the Italian espresso which has always cherished the blend.

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

The 2011 Professional Master of Coffee Science and Sensory Analysis will be held in Brescia (Italy) from June 27 to July 1. The Professional Master will be taught in English.

The goal of this Professional Master is of providing, through sensory analysis, criteria and practical application tools for orientating production, along the whole production process, towards the achievement of a product able to ensure customers’ maximum pleasure.

Practical training will explain and illustrate the tools for recognizing through senses qualities and defects in the cup, how to obtain maximum sensory potential in extraction at the coffee shop, sensory analysis tests for assessing quality and stability of production result and, finally, sensory analysis data and the specific tests for fast selection of green coffee, roasting and blending methods, supported by scientific confidence. The whole with the aim of achieving consumers’ best satisfaction at cup stage.

More information: please download the form.

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.

The International Institute of Coffee Tasters will organize a new edition of Caffè Italia, the Italian Espresso event, at Foodex 2011, the most important food exhibition in Japan (Tokyo, Makuhari Messe, Hall 3, booth C01, March 1-4).

The second edition of Caffè Italia will give visitors the opportunity of tasting six different Italian Espresso blends and evaluate them. For the first time visitors will have to judge the espresso blends using a tasting card. Caffè Italia will also host training sessions held by Chihiro Yokoyama.

Carlo Odello, member of the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters and communications manager of the Italian Espresso National Institute, will be at Caffè Italia, too. "We aim at spreading the culture of the real Italian Espresso and Caffè Italia is a great opportunity for us – Mr Odello said – Japan proved to be very sensitive to Italian Espresso, we now have more than 300 tasters in the country. We recently launched the Espresso Italiano Tasting classes in China and are looking for partners in other Asian countries such as Korea and Thailand".

Caffè is organized in cooperation with the International Institute of Coffee Tasters – Japan, the Italian Espresso National Institute and the Italian Trade Commission.

For more information: info@coffeetasters.jp, carlo.odello@italiantasters.com.

by Carlo Odello *

 Chinese people drink wine, they like it. But the wine they drink is French, not Italian…. They are starting to drink coffee, too, and here the risk is that in the future they will not drink Italian espresso, but the espresso of other countries.

Bloomberg reports that in China the per capita consumption of coffee totals about 22 grams per year. Yes, 22 grams (while Japan, a much more mature market, has a per capita consumption of around 3.3 kilos). Chinese people associate coffee to Western lifestyle, and this is why they drink it. But they are certainly not absent-minded consumers. Accustomed to a highly complex and refined cuisine, they are now discovering the sensory potential of coffee.

Where do we start then, with Italian espresso in China? Shanghai and Beijing are an immediate solution, but there are more interesting prospects in the region of Guangdong, in the South. Guangzhou, also known as Canton, is the capital of this region which is almost twice the size of Italy, with a population of 17 million people. Guangzhou is the third largest city in China. If a food product sells well in Guangzhou, it sells well all over China. The same phenomenon does not necessarily occur when a product sells well in Shanghai or Beijing.

This is why the International Institute of Coffee Tasters started its training courses in Guangzhou. We completed the first Coffee Taster Licensing course last December, and another will soon be held.

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

The first Espresso Italiano Tasting courses will be held in China in Guangzhou (December 27-28), Shanghai (December 30-31) and Beijing (Jan 1-2).

Carlo Odello, trainer and member of the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters, will teach the classes. Mr Odello will also attend the Coffee Expo in Guangzhou (December 23-26).

The courses are organized in cooperation with Coffee Secret Company. For more information please get in touch with Mr Darcy Sun Kai: +86 (20) 62352855, darcysunkai@gmail.com.