Italian Espresso certification programme and certification for Espresso Italiano Trainers in Fall 2016

New certification sessions for Italian Espresso and for Espresso Italiano Trainers will take place in Brescia (Italy) from the 25th to the 28th of October 2016. 

The Italian Espresso certification programme is run by the Italian Espresso National Institute (Inei) in cooperation with the International Institute of Coffee Tasters (Iiac). It is made up of two modules (M1 Espresso Italiano Tasting and M2 Espresso Italiano Specialist). The two courses will take place on the 25th and 26th of October.

The certification programme for Espresso Italiano Trainers will immediately follow on the 27th and 28th of October. Candidate trainers have to attend two more modules (M3 Senses Brain Sensory Analysis and EIT Espresso Italiano Trainer course). Certified trainers will be entitled to hold the sensory seminar Espresso Italiano Experience on behalf of the Iiac. The content of the seminar includes information on espresso and tasting techniques with the final aim of teaching the students how to assess the quality of Italian coffee. Each student receives a certificate after passing the thoery and tasting exams at the end of the seminar. There are more than 190 Espresso Italiano Trainers in the world.

For more information, please see the attachment or write to carlo.odello@italiantasters.com.

Italian Espresso certification programme and certification for Espresso Italiano Trainers in October 2015

Espresso Italiano Trainer - International Institute of Coffee TastersNew certification sessions for Italian Espresso and for Espresso Italiano Trainers will take place in Italy from the 19th to the 22nd October 2015, just before the international trade show Host.

The Italian Espresso certification programme is run by the Italian Espresso National Institute (Inei) in cooperation with the International Institute of Coffee Tasters (Iiac). It is made up of two modules (M1 Espresso Italiano Tasting and M2 Espresso Italiano Specialist). The two courses will take place on the 19th and the 20th October and are valid for the Inei’s certification Italian Espresso.

The certification programme for Espresso Italiano Trainers will immediately follow on the 21st and 22nd October. Candidate trainers have to attend two more modules (M3 Senses Brain Sensory Analysis and EIT Espresso Italiano Trainer course). Certified trainers will be entitled to hold the sensory seminar Espresso Italiano Experience on behalf of the Iiac. The content of the seminar includes information on espresso and tasting techniques with the final aim of teaching the students how to assess the quality of Italian coffee. Each student receives a certificate after passing the thoery and tasting exams at the end of the seminar. There are more than 150 Espresso Italiano Trainers in the world.

For more information, please download the PDF or write to carlo.odello@italiantasters.com.

 

Italian Espresso certification programme and certification for Espresso Italiano Trainers in October 2014

Espresso Italiano Trainer - International Institute of Coffee TastersNew certification sessions for Italian Espresso and for Espresso Italiano Trainers will take place in Brescia (Italy) from the 27th to the 30th October 2014, just after the international exhibition Triestespresso.

The Italian Espresso certification programme is run by the Italian Espresso National Institute (Inei) in cooperation with the International Institute of Coffee Tasters (Iiac). It is made up of two modules (M1 Espresso Italiano Tasting and M2 Espresso Italiano Specialist). The two courses will take place on the 27th and 28th October and are valid for the Inei’s certification Italian Espresso.

The certification programme for Espresso Italiano Trainers will immediately follow on the 29th and 30th October. Candidate trainers have to attend two more modules (M3 Senses Brain Sensory Analysis and EIT Espresso Italiano Trainer course). Certified trainers will be entitled to hold the sensory seminar Espresso Italiano Experience on behalf of the Iiac. The content of the seminar includes information on espresso and tasting techniques with the final aim of teaching the students how to assess the quality of Italian coffee. Each student receives a certificate after passing the thoery and tasting exams at the end of the seminar. There are more than 100 Espresso Italiano Trainers in the world.

For more information, please download the PDF or write to carlo.odello@italiantasters.com.

 

Italian Espresso Abroad: A True Story In Taiwan

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.

June 2011: advanced coffee training in Italy

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.

 

Italian espresso abroad: training will save us Italians

by Carlo Odello *

Some people still believe that simply by virtue of being Italian we are entitled to talk about espresso with greater authority than others. It is a comforting thought cherished by many. And yet it could not be further from the truth, at least in some of the markets much coveted by us Italians.

Let’s take Japan, for example, a country that loves Italy and its products: the food, wine, fashion, history (because history is also a product that has to be sold through adequate marketing; who knows, perhaps sooner or later some of our politicians will wake up to this fact). Italian espresso therefore has an advantage over the other products. And yet let no one believe for a moment that being Italian is enough in itself to sell coffee in the Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese are careful buyers: their selection of products is extremely accurate, long and complex. But once they choose a product, they stick to it faithfully, unless of course the supplier himself turns out to be unreliable.

Let’s take the USA, which have a very strong home market boasting thousands of coffee roasters. The specialty coffee and the so-called Third Wave dominate the market. And the West Coast, from Portland to Vancouver via the legendary Seattle, is a stronghold of espresso made in the USA (but luckily there are exceptions, such as Caffè Umbria which stubbornly and successfully continues to offer the tradition of Italian-style espresso). So let’s face it: the Americans are only relatively interested in Italian espresso.

What is the best way to enter both the Japanese and the American markets? Training, of course. The Japanese want to have certainties rather than half-truths. They want to have the tools to judge the quality for themselves. For this reason they appreciate the tasting courses designed to teach how to assess the quality of Italian espresso. As for the Americans, we just need to explain to them our espresso: the training periods are therefore vital to explain to them the importance of our seven grams per cup, of our 25-millimeter extraction, the centrality of the blend, and so forth.

A student of mine, who is a celebrity barista, told me recently in California: “The coffee tasting course has opened my eyes on what you Italians mean by espresso”. There are still many more eyes to be opened. And only through training can real culture and experience be passed on. The rest is important but nowhere near as effective.

P.S. Talking about training: from 18th to 20th May there are advanced courses in Brescia run by the International Institute of Coffee Tasters.

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

Italian Espresso and North America: let’s re-open the game

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

I’ll be a barista when I grow up

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.

I’m increasingly committed to training. Alongside my job at the coffee shop, I’m frequently asked to teach. Recently I had the opportunity to teach to a group of will-be barista who all started basically from scratch. People of all ages and without any experience. What to do when you find in front of yourself a bunch of pupils who have no idea whatsoever on the work they’re going to do? You start from the basics. This is the reason why I tried to teach them all the basics bearing in mind the fears and difficulties that learning a new job comes with. I taught them the basics of coffee-making, I introduced them to the machines, I told them when and how to use and clean them, and about the preparation of the product. We went, as much as the available time made it possible, into the very details and I tried, above all, to pass on to them my personal experience. I also taught them about aperitifs and cocktails but I preferred focusing on the preparation of coffee, stressing the rules of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters and the Italian Espresso National Institute. I had one thought in my mind: it was fundamental to me that the pupils understood the importance of espresso and especially that they understood that the coffee at the bar must trigger emotions in the client. The pupils had to face up to several difficulties many of them coming mainly from the fact that they had no knowledge of the machines. I also noticed a certain mistrust in their abilities and a bit of fear in facing a product they did not know. Time was against them: they had to learn everything in a few hours only. They were, however, supported by a strong desire to learn which reassured me. Beyond technical doubts, the pupils were all nervous for the start of their new business, some of them were afraid about not being able to face the client. How can you become self-confident in doing your job, how can you make sure that the client will come back? An ages-old question with a similarly ages-old answer: offer high quality products with kind manners.

Baristas in Italy: which training?

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.

How do you become a barista in Italy? The reply to this question might surprise several non-Italian colleagues. As for any job, there are people who choose it and other who wind up doing it, almost by chance, but then they find out that it’s a fantastic job and fall in love with it. Then there are those who do it carelessly and they make, form morning to evening, horrible espressos and cappuccinos – maybe without even realising it. As for any other job, formal training is very important. Before being told that I am being too obvious, I would like to introduce one of the problems of the HoReCa sector in Italy: training.

The point is not that there are no courses; actually, there is plenty of offer. When I started this job 15 years ago, there was not that much, it is increasing now. We have courses offered by many organisations, first and foremost by professional schools for the food and hotel sector (where, unfortunately, too little time is devoted to the bar). Then there are the courses, with varying levels of competence and seriousness, proposed by the roasters. So we can say that at present, compared to the past, there are courses for just about any taste and any wallet.

Where is the problem? Here it goes: all too often several issues are dealt with in general terms. This makes them lose the focus and you are left with the idea that just scratched the surface of a lot of issues. In addition, all too often, theory wins on practice. This happens also in courses that are meant to be more focused on doing things. A typical example of this is coffee courses: in those I have attended, I would have appreciated a greater focus on doing things, something which is crucial for the daily activity in the bar.
In Italy, it might be difficult to make the right pick not only for the would-be baristas but also for the experienced ones. This is a problem that must be faced uphill, by carefully thinking of what we want the core business of our bar to be. This makes it possible to rate the courses according to the contribution they can make in the short-to-medium term to our activity. After which, we can upgrade the knowledge we have with other courses. Then, we must keep ourselves continually updated: books, magazines, DVDs, the Internet. Any source that might give information on techniques, trends and new products is more than welcome.

Apart from the courses, we can learn lessons from our colleagues. At the beginning of my career, I decided to acquire experience working in other coffee shops. My family has a bar from more than 100 years, but I did not want to immediately grow roots in our family business. I did some training in other coffee bars. Looking at other baristas doing their job was extremely useful for me. Even today, I take any occasion to drink a coffee prepared by other colleagues just to give at look at how things go in their coffee shops and spot things I might improve in my own.

As for any job, curiosity is of paramount importance: be curious!