by Carlo Odello

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

When I arrive in Taipei on Saturday afternoon, the city welcomes me by light rain that is getting heavier. It often rains here in Taiwan. My interpreter Raffaele always jokes about this and tells me that the rainiest city in the country is the one he comes from, which is even worse than Taipei!

When I get to the hotel I’m told that unfortunately I’m too early to check-in. I have to wait: Taipei is like a small Japan and yet they speak Chinese here – however I don’t intend to upset the orderly balance of this island. Raffaele, who apart from the Italian name is one hundred percent Taiwanese, suggests that we go and visit a good friend who has just changed his job. I think it’s a good idea. Three subway stops and twenty minutes later we get there.

The place is new and manages to combine Asian refinement with that modern touch that one can find in similar coffee bars in the United States (everyone knows that the Americans are good at exporting their formats). However, this one is not part of a big chain and it serves up the espresso of a famous Italian brand.

My friend wants me to try the coffee and give her my opinion on it. To say no in Italy would be rude, so never mind in Asia, where good manners are everything. And then again I haven’t had a real coffee in over 24 hours (why do they always serve up that dark broth on the flight?).

After a short wait we are served a cup of coffee of a known Italian brand. The first sip confirms what I had observed from looking at it: it’s under-extracted. It’s watery and bitter in the mouth and the aroma barely reaches my nose. It is well known that this coffee is delicate even when fully extracted, so under-extraction destroys it. The problem is not the quality of the product; you can drink far worse in Italy, as I tell my friend. With her beautiful Asian smile she asks me what I really think of it. And I explain the problem using all the tact that I possess. I do so in technical terms because she is a taster of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters.

She nods in agreement: it is under-extracted and she explains why. Basically, the owner of the coffee bar does not allow anyone to adjust the grinding, as he is probably terrified of the possibility of wasting coffee. In a country where the least that you can expect is rain, getting up to typhoons during the summer, grinding coffee correctly becomes very important.

I think to myself that the issue is not the owner of the bar who imposes this strict diktat. The point is the Italian brand which should probably check up more on what goes on in the bars that serve up its coffee. Business is business, but not checking what customers are doing in a turbulent market such as the Taiwanese market means that you stoop to the mediocre quality offered by the American and Japanese chains that are popping up everywhere on the island.

The good news is that meanwhile it has stopped raining and I can take up the road towards the hotel. The under-extracted coffee has given me a coup de grace: I’m totally ready to enjoy the comfort of my room now.

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 Pasquale Madeddu *

Today I would like to talk about espresso, and specifically about preparing and serving a good espresso, or even better, a perfect espresso in your restaurant. We have had several great meals here in Anaheim, but we haven’t had any great espresso served at a restaurant. Every time, the espresso has been prepared and presented poorly. That means that we (coffee roasters) still have a lot of training to do to help the restaurant people prepare, serve and present a perfect espresso. Coffee roasters and restaurant owners need to work more closely together to establish guidelines and ongoing training for staff.

It is with this final taste experience that your customers will leave your establishment. So, I would like to present a few tips on preparing and presenting this great drink that has become as popular in the United States as it is in Italy.

The two most important considerations for a perfect espresso are preparation and presentation. These are very critical, especially after the coffee roaster has done so much work in choosing the beans, preparing the blend, roasting and packaging, and sending it to the restaurant. Once at the restaurant, the coffee also needs to be stored properly.

Sometimes we talk about coffee as being similar to wine. A lot of time and expertise goes into creating a great bottle of wine, but once the wine has been shipped to the restaurant, it just needs to be opened. In the event a red wine is selected, you let it breathe and it is ready to pour. If the wine is good, if the winemaker did all the right things, you will enjoy a great bottle of wine.

But for us, the coffee roasters, and for the coffee, it’s a different situation. There is art and science involved in choosing the beans, making the blend of coffee, roasting it to maximize flavor, packaging, storing, and sending it to the restaurant. What happens once it gets to the restaurant? In many restaurants our carefully roasted coffee is  prepared with machines that are not clean, giving the espresso a burnt or bitter taste. The espresso is over-extracted or has no crema. The espresso is served without a demitasse spoon or sugar.

For example, just this week, I had an espresso served with an iced tea spoon. I have seen a lot of things, but I have never seen that!

At another 4-star restaurant, we had an espresso served in a cappuccino cup. The espresso was over-extracted, and was served without the sugar bowl or spoon, and a lemon twist.

Just as you would never serve a steak without a steak knife, or wine in a tall water glass, there are guidelines to follow when serving espresso. Our task as roasters is to educate and inform so that this great drink is prepared and served in the best possible way.

When we talk about espresso, we are referring to an Italian-style espresso made with a blend of coffee. A true Italian-style espresso or espresso all’Italiana, by tradition and definition, always means a coffee prepared with a coffee blend.

An Italian-style espresso is one that follows the standards and guidelines established by two organizations in Italy: the International Institute of Coffee Tasters (IIAC), and the Italian Espresso National Institute (INEI). These two organizations have done extensive research with Italian consumers and professionals to establish exact guidelines for the typical Italian-style espresso.

In Italy, we are very passionate about espresso. People have arguments in bars discussing how good or bad the espresso is or where to drink the best espresso in town. Sometimes, even in the bar around the corner from my house, if the young son of the owner is behind the bar, it’s not uncommon for customers to send him to get his father to prepare the espresso because they think the son can ruin the preparation. It is only one ounce of coffee, but it needs to prepared with passion and artistry.

Carlo Odello of the Italian Espresso National Institute is here with us today. As an advocate for Italian-style espresso, he often explains that espresso needs to be a caress, not a punch. Espresso has a social aspect, and it needs to be very delicate. It has caffeine, but also needs to be well-rounded with a clean and elegant finish. Sometimes you get an espresso, and it really wakes you up, but is that the only reason we drink an espresso?

At Caffè Umbria we follow the standards of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters (IIAC) and the Italian Espresso National Institute (INEI). These two organizations grade the espresso in four different areas: the visual aspect, the taste profile, the aroma, and the aftertaste.

The visual aspect of an espresso is what the espresso needs to look like. It needs to have a rich brown (hazelnut) color crema, the crema needs to be dense and compact, without air bubbles. The crema should not show any white marks and should definitely not show liquid underneath.

The aroma of an Italian-style espresso needs to be rich and intense but not have an overly roasted flavor, it should be of a full body, elegant and clean.

The taste profile should be well rounded, with well-balanced acidity and bitterness. Bitterness is a component of the espresso taste profile, so it is not necessarily bad to have some bitterness in an espresso as long as it does not overwhelm.

In many bars in Italy, it is the custom to serve a glass of water with the espresso, in order to rinse the palate prior to drinking the espresso, so that you will leave with the taste of coffee lingering on your palate. You should not have to drink the water afterwards to rinse out the taste of an espresso that was too strong, too syrupy, very bitter, or over-roasted. This is the after taste, which needs to be pleasant and clean, you should enjoy the lingering taste.

I have talked about what an espresso should look like and taste like, and now I would like to talk about what you need in order to prepare a perfect espresso. Three things are essential to achieve the perfect espresso preparation: the coffee blend, well-maintained equipment, and trained baristas.

You need to have good equipment that is well-maintained and clean. I often check espresso machines that have not been cleaned in months, that are not calibrated correctly, where no water passes through the screens.

Good barista training is essential in order to achieve rapid and consistent results. After all, espresso means ‘veloce’, which means fast: espresso should be served fast and hot. This is manly the responsibility of the coffee roaster, the people that sell the coffee and implement the coffee program. Here in the United States, especially in coffee houses, coffee roasters have done a great job of training baristas in the last ten years, so you can get a really good espresso. We need to make this same sort of effort with the busboys, waiters, baristas, and anyone who prepares and serves espresso in a restaurant.

As a traditional Italian-style coffee roaster, we prepare blends of coffees from different origins. In Italy, there is practically no market for single origin coffees; every roaster works with blends of coffee. They believe, as we do, that only in this way can you achieve a well-rounded, well-balanced, very interesting type of coffee for your espresso. To describe the difference between a single origin espresso and one made with a blend, it is useful to think of the difference between a soloist and a symphony: they are both good, but there is a difference between them.

As roasters, we need to explain the importance of clean equipment on the restaurant owners. The responsibility for cleaning the machine should rest with the owners. The roaster should provide training, and can also lend their knowledge and experience in the choice of equipment. The type of equipment used in a restaurant or hotel facility is very important in order to achieve the best preparation. Our recommendation is for a restaurant is a regular espresso machine, but in meeting areas, convention centers, meeting rooms or other hotel facilities, perhaps it’s more appropriate to install a super automatic espresso machine or a machine that uses pods. Often the people making coffee in these areas are not as well-trained, so these machines will ensure a level of consistency.

The most important on the list is the barista, as he is the one that is going to put it all together. Barista training is one of the expectations that the restaurant owner should have from their coffee company. The training should include good knowledge of the coffee they are serving, the maintenance and cleaning of the machine, and of course drink preparation. Baristas should know what the coffee tastes like. Often the people serving the coffee don’t like coffee, or don’t drink coffee, but I think it’s important for them to taste it in order to prepare it properly.

Finally, once all the pieces are in place, we are ready to present the espresso. The espresso should be the last thing that is served at the table, after the dessert. If the customer asks to have them served at the same time, we should comply, but we should avoid serving the coffee before the dessert. The espresso should be the last thing that is served before you leave the table.

A proper presentation of the espresso includes a saucer, a demitasse spoon, and sugar served on the side. Unfortunately, I have had some restaurants serve the espresso without a saucer. One of my pet peeves is to have rock sugar served with an espresso. The rock sugar looks great, but how long does it take to melt the sugar in the espresso? You have to pound the rock sugar with your teaspoon for minutes in order to dissolve in the liquid, and by the time the sugar is dissolved the espresso is cold. If you are serving rock sugar, at least give the option of regular sugar so I can decide if I want a nice rock sugar and cold coffee, or if I want regular sugar in a nice hot coffee.

Another thing that I have never seen in Italy or anywhere else but here in the United States is the lemon twist served with the espresso. Ah, the lemon twist was big in some nice restaurants, right? I can tell you that lemon doesn’t have anything to do with an espresso, so please do not serve lemon twist with the espresso, save it for the cocktails.

Finally, I would like to share some ways you can implement your espresso program in the restaurant. You can have your standard café menu, which has the basic drinks such as
Espresso, Macchiato, Cappuccino, Caffè Latte, Latte Macchiato, Mocha and Americano.

The espresso drink you don’t see often over here is the Latte Macchiato. It is popular in Europe and in Italy, and it’s the opposite of Espresso Macchiato. Macchiato means stained, so an Espresso Macchiato is an espresso that has been ‘stained’ with milk. Latte Macchiato, for those people who don’t want to have too much espresso or caffeine, is a glass of steamed milk with a very short shot of espresso on top. The espresso shot poured over the milk leaves the stain of the crema on top.

You can also have an espresso specialty drink menu. Some of the drinks popular from Italy are: Marocchino, Espresso Corretto and Affogato al Caffè. Espresso Corretto is my personal after dinner favorite. It is an espresso ‘corrected’ with a splash grappa or Sambuca. Affogato al Caffè is a good combination of dessert and coffee: a nice cup of vanilla gelato ‘drowned’ with espresso.

There are also several espresso cocktails that will work well in a restaurant setting. For example, the Espresso Martini, the Mojito, Espresso Saronno (very traditional in Italy with Amaretto di Saronno liqueur), American Wings and Caffè Olandese (made with an egg liqueur like Vov).

The Perfect Espresso, a combination of the right blend of coffee, good equipment, excellent training, and a beautiful presentation (don’t serve it with an iced tea spoon). I hope I gave you some insight about espresso all’italiana.

Enjoy your espresso, arrivederci!

* Transcript of the presentation held at the SCAA Exhibition 2010 in Anaheim, California. Pasquale Madeddu is a coffee taster and the sales manager of Caffè Umbria. Equipped with a state-of-the-art roaster and a great passion for blending and roasting, Caffè Umbria produces five boutique Italian-style blends, including the classic espresso blend, Gusto Crema.

from the correspondent Antonello Monardo *

The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Wagner Rossi, signed a measure that delineates a series of criteria to ensure quality of coffee for the end consumer.   The new regulations will be applied to roasted coffee in both bean and ground forms.

The measure, which will go into effect in nine months, has already been published in the Official Register.  It will determine the requisites that will define the maximum percentage of impurities, setting the basic sensory standards for coffee, the second most consumed beverage in the country, second only to the water.

The coffee that is produced in Brazil, or imported into the country, can have a maximum impurity level of one percent.  The humidity in the roasted and ground coffee cannot exceed five percent.  Other specifications in the regulation have also been set, including the criteria for the coffee’s sensory characteristics at aromatic and taste levels, the definition of the acidity, bitterness and astringency, as well as the body of the coffee.

An expert accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture, who is either a technician or an agronomist specialized in coffee, will be entrusted with the sensory evaluation.  The test will be carried out in a firm accredited by the Ministry.

"I consider the measure a milestone in the national coffee production," the Minister said.  "It is a form of respect to the Brazilians who are accustomed to drinking and appreciating coffee."  According to the Ministry, the regulation will also increase its market value which has been growing, on average, by 5% a year, making Brazil the second largest consumer of coffee in the world.

The new legislation has been approved after three years of work by government representatives and members of the private sector, such as the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association.

* Antonello Monardo is living in Brasilia since 1992 and he his delegate of the Italian Brazilian chamber of commerce and industry. Working for café gourmet and special, he won the gold medal at the International Coffee Tasting 2008. He works on and manages classes for barmen and barwomen, he takes part to conferences and events in universities, spreading the culture of the quality coffee.

Coffee Experience 2010, the largest coffee tasting event in the world, has made its verdict.  And it has done so based on over 8.000 tastings (a 17% increase from 2009) carried out in Verona from the 8th to the 12th of April at the Agrifood Club, a show hosted within Vinitaly.  Thousands of visitors from nearly forty countries came for the tasting and tried 35 Italian coffees through this event organized by the Taster Study Center with the support of the Italian Espresso National Institute and the International Institute of Coffee Tasters.

An interesting trend has emerged from the data that was collected: the percentage of consumers read the coffee shop sign and look for a specific brand has increased (from 3% in 2009 to 4.6% in 2010).  "These are people that refuse the simplification of ‘100% Arabica’," says Luigi Odello, president of the Taster Study Center and professor of Sensory Analysis in Italian and foreign universities.  "The world of clients is beginning to focus on specific sensory qualities and on the brands  People are starting to choose the coffee shop accordingly to the coffee that is served."  In fact, the number of consumers that claim to choose coffee based on their own personal tastes is increasing (from 35.2% in 2009 to 37.4% in 2010).  "These small variations in percentage indicate a trend that could have a strong impact on the market," Odello states.  "We must remember that in Italy about 70 million espresso cups are served every day."

The position on the sugar is also changing.  In fact, the results of this research show that the number of people consuming coffee without sugar is increasing (from 30% in 2009 to 32.4% in 2010) as is the number of people choosing the macchiato (from 16.6% in 2009 to 18% in 2010).  "These two tendencies are compatible but need to be further investigated," Odello remarked.  "Those who prefer bitterness do so because they choose coffees well. On the other hand, those who prefer the macchiato prefer it because they normally drink a lower quality coffee and add milk to improve it?  Or it could be that they are using milk to simply avoid the calories from sugar."

by Carlo Odello *

Consumer Reports, operating in the field of mass consumption product assessment in the United States since 1936, have just tested 37 leading coffee blends on offer on the American market. Their report reads:

None of the 37 caffeinated and decaffeinated varieties tested by Consumer Reports coffee experts earned an Excellent or Very Good rating.

And that would be fair, as we know that the American market is accustomed to all sorts of products, mainly of mediocre quality (mind, the same could be said about us). The following statement is less convincing:

However, java lovers can still find at least a few Good cups of coffee. Starbucks House Blend and Green Mountain Signature Nantucket Blend Medium Roast perked to the top of the 14 caffeinated blends that earned a Good rating from Consumer Reports.

At 26 and 23 cents per cup respectively, both the Starbucks House Blend and Green Mountain Signature Nantucket Blend Medium Roast offer a good combination of taste and price. Both have an earthy, woody taste, but Starbucks was found to be a fairly bitter to very bitter darker roast, while the Green Mountain has green/sharp flavor.

In other words, the findings point out that, despite their earthy and woody aroma, Starbucks and Green Mountain lead the ranking of the tested coffees. Which could make sense, as such blends might at any rate be the less unappealing in the ambit of American coffee for mass consumption. But it is surprising to find out that Consumer Reports’ assessment is however positive. That means that two intolerable faults, such as earthy and woody aromas, are tolerated after all.

Such America is absolutely different from the one influenced by the Third Wave (or is it already Fourth Wave?) and by specialty coffee which, leaving aside some twisted principles, pursue total quality. And by no means equal to those Italians who continue proposing high level products, either exported from fatherland or produced in the States by operators of Italian descent.

Yet if, as we love doing, we compare ourselves to the United States we will realise that mediocrity is promoted by many in our country, too. And that such people, forgive me if I sound a little old fashioned, are active in educating the mass to appreciate faulty and disappointing coffee. This time the States do not rank first.

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

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.

Costa and OJSC Rosinter Restaurants Holding “Rosinter” have opened today Costa’s 1,000th store in Moscow’s Pushkin Square. The opening of this store marks the arrival of Costa Coffee in Russia.
Costa is the UK’s largest and fastest growing coffee shop chain and plans to open its 700th milestone UK store next month. It now operates over 300 stores overseas in 22 countries (Europe, the Middle East, China and India). Rosinter is the leading casual dining restaurant chain in Russia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), operating 216 restaurants in 8 countries and 24 cities. The new joint venture, formed in December 2007, plans to open 200 Costa stores in Russia over the next 5 years, focusing on Moscow and St Petersburg in its first year, then expanding to other Russian regions thereafter. The partners’ initial investment is approximately 10 million dollars USA and they also intend to open Costa stores in Ukraine and Belarus at a later date. After the first opening, 11 coffee shops currently operated by Rosinter under its proprietary brand Moka Loka will be converted to the Costa brand.
Over 50% of the 11 million people in Moscow visit coffee shops regularly and to date. There is a wealthy demographic of young Russians whose average income is growing by 16% per annum. Increasingly, they are spending a higher proportion of their disposable income in coffee shops.

(Carlo Odello)