1. What's your earliest coffee memory?
My grandfather started to work as a marine
& cargo surveyor at the Port of Trieste in the Fifties – a profession that
was later passed on to my father. I remember that during the summer, when
school was over, my father would take me to his work in the port warehouses, where
millions of coffee bags were stored. I can clearly remember me running about
and jumping on the coffee bags while he surveyed the quality of coffee. I was
12 or so, I think – and I can also remember his voice saying “Watch out you don’t
fall!”.
2. How did you passion for coffee begin?
During my university years, I started
working as a marine & cargo surveyor myself, surveying green coffee batches
shipped to the port of Trieste from all over the world. In that same period, I
enrolled in my first, three-day training course on coffee organized by Trieste
Coffee Association. The course opened my eyes to a new world: a single cup of
coffee involved a universe made of people, places, travels and skills that
thrilled me a lot.
3. What makes the coffee culture in Italy
special? Which are the best Italian cities for coffee?
Italian coffee culture has deep roots: the
first coffee beans were shipped to Europe in the Eighteenth Century: nowadays, one
of the first coffee shops in Europe is still open and is located in Venice – I
am referring to the renown Café Florian in Piazza San Marco. In the early Twentieth
Century, the lively industry in Northern Italy devised two new brewing methods:
the espresso and moka pot systems, which have influenced several generations of
Italian coffee drinkers ever since. Nowadays, most Italian families start their
day with the ritual of moka pot coffee brewing. In Italy, people often drink one
moka pot coffee at home and then have breakfast at a coffee shop with a
cappuccino and a tasty brioche. The best cities where to drink a good coffee? Certainly
Trieste, Milan, Padua, Turin, Florence, Rome and Rimini.
4. What should people know about the coffee
in Italy?
In Italy, coffee drinking at a coffee shop
is a unique ritual that does not exist in other countries: to the Italian
people, the word espresso means “quickly
requested, quickly prepared and served, quickly tasted”. In Italy, people
usually drink coffee in company – it is a social rite that allows friends to
have a chat together, professionals to socialize after a meeting, workers to make
a 10-minute work break.
Let me give you some advice on how to drink
coffee in Italy:
-
people usually order
coffee at the counter and drink it standing there, in front of the baristas, and
sometimes chatting with them;
-
coffee is paid after
drinking;
-
people usually order something
to eat along with coffee only in the morning, for breakfast.
5. What's your coffee drink of choice? How
many cups do you drink in a day?
My favourite coffee drink is the espresso,
even though at home – particularly on Sunday or during my holidays – I use
filter pour-over brewing methods, like chemex. When I travel, I like bringing
my favourite coffee with me. I prepare it in the hotel room as soon as I get up,
using the Bacchi Espresso, an innovative espresso machine that works with a
heat source such as gas or electric ranges.
How many coffees do I drink in a day? Usually
4 or 5 cups if I don’t work; but I taste up to 50-60 cups on my busiest
espresso-tasting days.
6. Where and when did you have your best cup
of coffee? Tell me about the experience.
The best cup of espresso I have tasted in
the last 2-3 years was probably the one I drank at a roasting course I held at
Dalla Corte - Spazio Candiani in Milan, which awarded its attendees with SCAE Coffee
Diploma System Roasting Certification. For the roasting practice, I used an Ethiopian
natural Arabica, a specialty coffee from the Sidamo region. I brewed and tasted
it two days later and, although the roast was still fresh, the coffee gave off
intense berry aromas and had an excellent body and taste balance. Its fruity
aromas impressed me so much, that I immediately prepared a second cup and
poured 3.5 g of white sugar in it – this time, it reminded me a lot of raspberry
syrup: the extraordinary quality of this coffee triggered actual sensory
fireworks in my mind!
7. What are some of the mistakes people make
in ordering or drinking coffee?
Before ordering a coffee in a coffee shop, people
should check the barista’s professionalism and make sure that the milk-frothing
steam wand of the espresso machine and the bell of the coffee grinder are clean.
The barista is supposed to know the coffee type and the components of the blend
he is using, and must clean the espresso machine on a daily basis; remember to
choose a 100% Arabica coffee, which is the best botanic species. If one of
these requirements is not met, I usually leave the coffee shop and look for
another.
8. What are some of the best spots for
coffee in Italy?
Drinking a good coffee in Italy is not so
easy, it is necessary to know and choose the best coffee-shops/cafés.
Some interesting places are:
-
Trieste: Antico caffè
San Marco (via Battisti 18), Bar Tommaseo (Piazza Tommaseo 4), Bar Roma 4 (via
Roma 4), Bar Espressamente Illy (via delle Torri);
-
Milan: Bar Espressamente
illy (Feltrinelli bookshop, corso Emanuele) and Bar Ottimo Massimo (via Hugo Victor,
3);
-
Rimini: Caffè Pascucci (via
Vespucci, 3);
-
Florence: Ditta
Artigianale (via dei Neri, 32), La Milkeria (Borgo Albizi, 87), Shake Cafè (piazza
Santa Maria Novella), Caffè Gilli (piazza della Repubblica, 39);
-
Rome: Bar Cantù (Piazza
Cantù).
9. What are some things or activities that
coffee lovers must do in Italy?
First, they should visit one of the
historical, local micro-roasteries that have survived and are working in some
Italian cities such as, for instance, Dino Caffè (Androna Colombo, 10) and Torrefazione
Guatemala (via delle Settefontane, 37) in Trieste or Torrefazione Piansa (Ponte
a Ema) in Florence. Once at the roastery, I suggest that they buy a 100% Arabica
miscela bar (bar blend) for espressos
and a monorigine (single-origin) for moka
pot coffees.
Moreover, coffee lovers should travel with
an electric cooker, a manual grinder and a Bacchi Espresso, to be able to
prepare the best coffee in any place, at any time.
They should also visit the most important
Italian historic cafés, like Caffè San Marco in Trieste, Caffè Florian in
Venice, Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua, Caffè Gilli in Florence and Caffè Sant’Eustachio
in Rome.
Besides, they could visit the museum of
espresso machines – MUMAC in Milan, or attend the Umami Barista Camp. This is a
five-day training course that takes place every month in Florence, at the wonderful
Poggio Arioso farm on the Florentine hills, where four Authorized SCAE Trainers
offer high level education on green coffee, roasting, espresso coffee, tasting,
Latte Art and filter coffee (for info, please send an email to umamibaristacamp@gmail.com).
10. How to drink coffee like an Italian?
What are some things one must never do when ordering or drinking coffee in
Italy?
I suggest that you order a cappuccino in a
coffee shop only in the morning, for breakfast. During the rest of the day,
people usually drink espressos. Generally, coffee lovers prefer a slightly
short coffee without sugar. Coffee spiked with grappa or other spirits is
usually drunk at the end of a dinner, at night.
If an Italian family invites you for lunch
or dinner, buy a packet of ground Arabica coffee for the moka pot: it will be a
much-appreciated gift.
Another suggestion: do not drink coffee at the motorway service areas,
since coffee quality is generally very low, except at the service stations
serving Illy coffee.
