The competition rules and the application form for the International Coffee Tasting 2010 are now avaiable on the website of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters.

The International Coffee Tasting 2010 is an international competition for single or mixed origin coffee, in beans, powder or single dose forms, for espresso, mocha or filter coffee. It will be held in Italy on October 26-27 and is organised by the International Institute of Coffee Tasters with the cooperation of the Centro Studi Assaggiatori (Italian Tasters).

The International Coffee Tasting proposes:

• to create a competition between coffees from throughout the world in order to emphasize the hedonic quality of the product which comes from particularly gifted areas and which is carefully grown, expertly selected, knowledgeably roasted and then, whenever appropriate, masterfully blended;
• to emphasis quality production by indicating to consumers the best products on the market;
• to stimulate producers to follow a quality path in its most modern definition: i.e. customer satisfaction.

For more information, just visit the website or send an email to info@coffeetasters.org.

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

 Why do I have to drink just 25 milliliters of coffee? There are moments in which you need to drink and our organism is satisfied only by a high quantity. And in these moments it is possible to commit two crimes: to water down wine and to order a ‘long’ at the bar.

Let go of the first and consider the second. What does happen in the 99% of cases in which you order a long espresso to the barman? He will let the liquid flow from the espresso machine till the cup is full. And if you have asked for a long in a big cup, he won’t make a different thing, and if he had a little good sense he will stop at three quarters.
The crime is then done: the espresso is not short or long, the Italian espresso, the best in the world, is of 25 milliliters because the blend is projected like that. Instant substances, suspended and emulsified, will reach the right balance in the cup to the strike of the 25th milliliter.

If it will be less, it means that a part of the components is not already pass in the extraction water, if it will be more the extraction will have effect of ever growing shares of unpleasant substances. But there is more. When the coffee is long the cooking is anomalous during the extraction phase and so the disgust grows. In many countries out of Italy, where less than 50 millilitres is not served, they maintain the grinding coarser and so they reduce the problem (more or less).

But what we can do if we want a real long coffee? The best long coffee that I have drunk in the world is the Peruvian ‘gota a gota’, made with a coffee syrup obtained with a particular coffeemaker. To make this coffee concentrate the real adepts need a couple of hours, keep on adding little quantity of hot water on the ground coffee and waiting that it goes down drop by drop. But then they have got coffee for a whole day: they just need to dilute the syrup with some hot water. And everyone can drink as much coffee has they want to. The only important thing is to use quality coffees as well as the washed Peruvians.

At home we have got different possibilities: the Neapolitan coffeemaker, the percolator, the siphon and the filter in last place because it isn’t useful to give quality. But if we have got an espresso machine, which you can find almost everywhere, or we are at the bar, how can we have a great long coffee? It is easy: a big cup and hot water apart. You extract the espresso in the right quantity and add as much water as you want. An excellent espresso holds till five parts of water, so you can have a big cup of 150 millilitres, like the cappuccino one. Pay attention however: do not you think you can do it without quality coffee just because you are drinking it long. Especially in this case you have to choose blends rich of washed coffees, better if there are some citrus aromas which are the best ones for dilution.

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

In November 2008, there will be the second edition of International Coffee Tasting, the only one international competition where coffee is tasted according to the scientific rules of sensory analysis. While for wine there are many competitions and they are now part of its history and tradition, in the coffee sector competitions are often focused on the barista and almost never on the product. Coffee Taster is aimed at promoting a competition between the coffees from all over the world as to highlight the degree of pleasure offered by the product that comes from well renowned areas, that is cultivated with all the necessary attention, thoroughly processed, skilfully selected, properly roasted and, when needed, finely blended. It puts emphasis on the most prestigious products and points out to the consumers the best products available on the market, thus stimulating producers to pursue quality in its most modern sense: customer satisfaction. International Coffee Tasting 2008 will be organised, just as the previous edition, by the International Institute of Coffee Tasters with the technical and scientific support of the Taster Study Center. Single origin coffees or blended, in beans, ground or in single dose for espresso, moka or filter will be admitted to the competition. During the 2006 edition, 81 coffees have been evaluated by three commissions of expert tasters. Medals have been awarded based on threshold scores in full compliance with the competitions rules which established that the coffees which could be awarded a prize had to account for maximum 30% of all participants. It was a very tight competition and some products did not win a medal just for a few tenths of a point. There was a very strict selection that awarded prizes only to high-level products. The announcement of the competition and the application form are available at www.coffeetasters.org. For further information please write to info@coffeetasters.org.

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.