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.

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

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

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.

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!