Luciano Franchi and Benjamin Harnwell

LUCIANO FRANCHI presentsART OF ITALIAN COFFEE

The authors would like to thank Pier Paolo Barberis and CarolinaVergnano of Caffè Vergnano for their support and encouragement, andFederico Fregnan of Elektra for his technical advice. Monika Franchi andAdrianna Dziubek also read the final proofs and removed a number ofmistakes. Remaining errors, of course, are ours alone.

Introduction 3

Blends and Roasting 4

Grind and Dosage 6

Machines 8

Coffee 10

CONTENTS

ART OF ITALIAN COFFEE

The state of the UK coffee market today is an absolute catastrophe.

How can anyone make such a bold statement as this when there are at least a half dozen thriving coffee shops inthe centre of any town in the country? Because – simply – what is being sold on these premises is not coffee. Awhole generation of Britons has been deceived by the large American coffee roasters into buying and consuminga product that would be laughed at if served in its natural home – Italy. It is as if an American company wasrevealed to be selling to Italians the traditional English pint – but surreptitiously watering it down by around 90%!

What is even more scandalous is that it is not the palette of the coffee drinker which is motivating the market, butthe needs and convenience of the large coffee chains themselves. Their shopfronts are seared into our civic land-scape in much the same way that their boiling-hot, bucket-sized ‘cappuccino’ sears an unforgiving scar into thepoor unsuspecting throat. These unwanted money-grabbing giants are hijacking the traditional techniques, and noteven hijacking them very well.

We want to re-focus attention on the lost art of Italian coffee. Espresso, not latte, is coffee. We are not so embar-rassed about the quality of our blend that we try to hide its taste by diluting it with 90% milk. Latte is to coffeewhat Stock, Aiken & Waterman is to music. One day, we would like to say to any customer ordering latte: “Oh,I’m sorry, we’re a coffee shop…we don’t sell latte.” But this remains only an aspiration for the time being.

It is well said that there is no force more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Well, the force is CaffèVergnano, and the idea is to serve coffee across the whole of Europe to the same standard that it is served to theItalian market. It is as straightforward as that.

So the scope of this Guide is to say a little about what coffee actually is – it is not a recipe book of all the variousnovelties that have been tried from time to time. We intend to tell you all the secrets that they don’t want you toknow: how a few pennies are saved by sloppy harvesting techniques. How a few more pennies can be pocketedby burning, as opposed to roasting, the coffee bean. How the coffee goes from bean to espresso in front of one’svery eyes, and what actually happens. Why the quality of the machine makes a real difference.

Coffee is an organic product, not a synthetic one. It is also bought and sold on the free market without state inter-vention, so its trade is fair. Therefore all coffee is organic, and all coffee is fair trade. Any coffee trying to sellitself to you explicitly on these merits alone is obviously relying on a gimmick. Do not be fooled.

Finally, in preparing this Guide, we held to one basic premise: if the Italians possess a coffee culture at its zenith,then the English possess it at its nadir. As the distributor for Caffè Vergnano in the UK, we have written this Guideas much for coffee-lovers in Great Britain, as for those around Europe, and though our focus is on the market weknow best, much of these points will find a resonance across the continent. We celebrate all that is rightfully tobe celebrated; and we warn too against the ever-tightening eagle claw of the 52-starred menace.

Above all, oppose the very existence of these giant leeches dominating the coffee market with their undrinkabletar. These shameless rapinatori are serving cappuccino with milk so hot it would make molten lava blush. Theyshould be prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions Act, not encouraged with your custom.

Remember: coffee must always be treated with respect. We hope you enjoy our short Guide.

Luciano FranchiBenjamin Harnwell

INTRODUCTION

BLENDS & ROASTING

ART OF ITALIAN COFFEE

Of around the eighty or so different types of coffee bean known to exist, only two are used in the production ofcoffee: Arabica and Robusta.

What is true for the production of wine is also true of coffee. If one starts off with inferior raw materials – whethergrape or coffee bean – it doesn’t matter how good a production process one uses, or how state-of-the-art themachinery: the end product can only be inferior! You can’t polish a turnip.

There is also something else to be absolutely clear about when talking of high quality coffee. ‘High quality cof-fee’ is a misnomer. All properly produced coffee should be ‘high quality’. Only if corners are cut in productionwill ‘low quality’ coffee result. To guarantee a good coffee as an end-product, a good torrefazione (or ‘roaster’)will do all he can to pay special attention to obtaining the bean. The bean itself is the stone of a drupe (a berrysimilar to a cherry). There are two ways of getting the drupe from the coffee plant: by hand picking only the ripedrupes of the branch; or by stripping indiscriminately every drupe (and along with it, every leaf) from the branch.In fact, some of the more brazen torrrefazioni say they obtain their drupes by hand, when in reality, the only man-ual influence is in the stripping of the branches.

It is at this early stage that the intentions of the roaster are revealed. If the roaster is interested in choosing onlythe ripe drupe, he will be prepared to pay for a more expensive method of harvesting. If he is interested in thecheaper option, he will have the branches stripped (by hand, or even by machine). Either way, it would be point-less for a roaster to talk about the fantastic roasting machinery in his factory in Italy, if a couple of thousand milesaway in his plantation he was obtaining his drupes, ripe and unripe alike, with random abandon.

The difference between the two methods will be apparent in the ‘processing’; the separating of the bean from thedrupe-pulp (and leaves if obtained by stripping). A hand picked harvest can basically be washed (120 l/kg), where-as a stripped harvest cannot (the so-called dry, or ‘natural’, process). The hand picked coffee will be far more aro-matic, pleasantly acidic, and delicate in texture (which is good). The stripped coffee will be sweet (which is bad),have a strong texture (which is also bad), and possibly even possess a woody flavour.

Then there is the roasting process itself. The roasting of the green coffee bean is the crucial element of the wholeproduction process. Only a precise roasting temperature and cycle make the beans free their perfect aroma andflavour. The truly perfectionist torrefazione will roast the different origins separately, and then blend afterwards(because the slight difference of size, weight and humidity of the various origins demand subtly different roastingrequirements). Much rides on the skilled blending of the different origins. Single-origin coffees are largely afashion-driven fad, and cannot compare to a fine espresso that has been artfully blended by an experienced tor-refazione. People assume incorrectly that the principle is the same as single-malt versus blended whiskey, whenit’s not. It’s the opposite.

Again, there are different ways to roast a coffee bean. The longer, more expensive, method is by convection only:roasting by hot-air flow allows more accurate temperature control and better uniformi-ty of roasting: anything below 220oC or above 225oC, and the coffee will taste unpleas-antly acidic and bitter. The less expensive method is to heat by conduction as well asby convection: by roasting the bean inside a rotating drum (which is externally flame-heated). All other things being equal, the longer the roasting process, the better. Thevery best roasters in the world can take around 18-20 minutes: those with lower expec-tations can achieve the burning of their bean in as little as three minutes.

It is only if the roaster bothered to have the drupes hand picked manually, and washed,that he would see the need to bother slow-roasting the beans through convection-onlytechniques. Had the roaster simply strip-harvested the beans, and dry processed them,he will have lost any subtlety in the coffee he might have hoped to bring out throughmore precise convection-only roasting.

BLENDS & ROASTING

ART OF ITALIAN COFFEE

GRIND & DOSAGE

This part of preparing the coffee is the most sensitive area in the process: a slight fraction in the sizeof the coffee grind and there will be a dramatic change to the outcome of the coffee. Grinding thebeans too finely can cause over-extraction, which means the coffee will drip out very slowly – andwhen finally extracted it will be very dark in colour with not much crema (the creamy head on top ofthe espresso created by miniscule oil droplets formed during extraction). Alternatively, grinding thebeans too coarse and one will find that the coffee is under-extracted – the flow of water is too fast, andthe coffee from the grind is only partly able to flow into the cup: one ends up with a very light, weak,cup of espresso.

Another factor to keep in mind is a possible temperature and humidity change of the coffee environ-ment after it has been ground. This also affects the flow of coffee. The grind should accordingly beadjusted. The more Robusta in the blend the less sensitive it is to these factors, but the higher the (bet-ter-quality) Arabica content, the more difficulty one has. If anyone enjoys drinking Robusta coffeeread no further.

Grinding precision for the perfect espresso takes time to achieve, and having an on-demand grinder isthe perfect complement to a great blend of coffee. On-demand grinders, which grind the bean straightfrom the hopper into the group handle (also called a filter holder, or portafiltro), circumvent the pos-sibility that the ground coffee might experience temperature and/or humidity change, and guaranteethat a high quality premium blend does not end up a St*rbucks coffee. Furthermore, as soon as a highquality blend has been ground, it immediately starts to deteriorate (the exact chemical process is oxi-dation). This will be more noticeable in a high-grade coffee because the subtleties of the espresso arefar more delicate than in a poorer coffee.

The amount of coffee in the group handle, the dosage, has to complement thegrind precisely. The recommended dose is between 7g and 8g. Any more, orany less coffee than the amount established for the blend (and the particulargrind) and the resulting espresso will be far from satisfactory.

The cups should be the appropriate size for the particular coffee: always an espres-so cup for an espresso; and a cappuccino cup for a cappuccino. The conventionalsize is a 2oz cup for an espresso, and a 4oz cup for a cappuccino. The shape isimportant too. Espresso cups should never have straight edges – but shouldalways be based around the standard conical design.

Another good discipline is to ensure the cups are always hot. They are normal-ly stored upside down on top of the espresso machine, which is deliberatelysteam-vented, through the operation of the machine, to ensure the cups are kepthot to the touch – a good machine will cultivate a storage temperature ofbetween 55oC and 60oC.

In Italy our espresso is normally referred to as caffè, with the amount of cof-fee in the cup at just under a half. And that’s essentially what you get –coffee.

GRIND & DOSAGE

MACHINES

ART OF ITALIAN COFFEE

Coffee Machines are like motorcars – they vary in build, quality, size, shape and performance; and ulti-mately, one gets what one pays for.

There are several things for the trained eye to look out for regarding the machine and the shop. Check,for hygiene reasons, that the steam wand (the long thin pipe used for steaming the milk) has a polishedappearance and is clean to the eye. There is never an excuse for the disgusting build-up of dried milkon the wand, and this can only mean endemic bad practice. If you do see this unsightly deposit, pickyourself up and leave. Immediately.

To have the correct sized machine for the shop is vital for a constant delivery of excellent espressi dayafter day. Keeping the machine clean and fully-serviced augments the operator’s performance andgives reassurance, not least to the otherwise unsuspecting customer, that it won’t fail when needed.

Is the coffee bar seeking to impress you by the size of the machine, and snidely serving you minimalquality coffee? Perhaps the shop has a decent coffee, but skimped by buying an inferior machine. Theright choice is essential.

If the operator integrates into his working practice an instinctive habit of wiping stray grinds off thegroup handle before twisting it into the group head of the machine, then this will prevent the build-upof dried coffee around the inside of the group head, and the shower head. This action will ensure asatisfactory fit of the group handle inside the group head, and will allow all the water pressure insidethe machine to be pushed through the coffee grinds in the group head, and not to escape through theside, causing an under-extracted espresso. Watch out to see whether the machine-operator does this.

By far the most common way for an inferior machine to betray itself is byeither under-extracting, or over-extracting, the espresso. Espressomachines work by forcing under intense temperature and pressure hot waterthrough very finely compacted coffee grinds, which then collects into thecup below (the temperature of an espresso should be around 67oC). Thegolden-brown colour that flows down and rests on top of the espresso –the crema – is, when appreciated, almost hypnotic to observe.

Being able to sustain a nine bar pressure is necessary if the result-ing espresso is to be perfect. It is not enough for the machine sim-ply to achieve this pressure – the machine must also sustain thispressure right throughout the extraction of the espresso: only the bestmachines are able to – crucially – sustain this pressure.

The choice of which machine the coffee bar has chosen will tella lot about its ambitions. It is simple: an Italian manufacturershould always be the only choice, but if the owner couldn’t affordthis, and hasn’t selected from among the best machines on the market,then he should not be in the business of making coffee in the firstplace. He certainly shouldn’t be making your coffee.

MACHINES

COFFEE

ART OF ITALIAN COFFEE

Espresso can become like religion to some people. Obviously it is not the true religion, which is salvation throughJesus Christ. But it does demand a seriousness and dedication that approaches religion (and if one looks for a goodcoffee in St*rbucks, it requires a lot of Faith, if not a miracle).

When one starts to drink coffee at least twice a day one can recognise the arousal of the various senses. Notice thesmell, which is a major part of the experience. Furthermore, this olfactory impact is always, ridiculously, over-looked. Then the explosion on the tongue as the different tastebuds are stimulated. The addition of sugar is sacri-lege.

A good quality Arabica espresso can be identified by the pleasant acidic sharp sensation, almost a tingle, along themiddle-to-front sides of the tongue; and a rewarding, bitter character dispersed over the centre-rear (this is the caf-feine!). A cheap Robusta coffee, or an Arabica coffee that was ground too long before using, will give a horriblestab in the centre of the tongue (similar to over-brewed filter coffee).

Around 80% of coffees sold over the counter in the UK are cappuccini and latte, but it is questionable whether adrink which is 90% milk is even coffee. How can something be called coffee when it is 90% milk? People don’trealise that the word latte means milk in Italian! Tolerance leads to acceptance: this must stop. Stop funding thesepeople and support the recognition of real Italian coffee.

People have been conned into thinking that more is better, and the cups have correspondingly got larger. The milktherefore has to be hotter, so that the cappuccino is still warm by the end of the cup: the milk has to be so hot, infact, that it gets burnt. Thus the coffee has not only to be strong enough to be able to emerge through all that milk;but also blended in such a way so as to cover up the taste of the burnt milk itself. To attempt to take a blend gearedtowards mega-cappuccino as an espresso is to commit tastebud suicide.

It is impossible to drink an espresso in these shops because the coffee simply isn’t blended to be taken as espres-so. These blends are designed to power whole vats of burnt milk with the flavour of coffee.

Cappuccino, which has espresso at its core, is the drink that Italians wake up to. This is where the visually stun-ning art lies, and the mastery of the product is evident. It is where the sublime, instinctive vision of the coffee mas-ter is expressed, and where the texture of the foam must be just right – not a single bubble should be allowed tospoil the soft sheen of the rosetta. One knows a truly great cappuccino by the shine on top of the light fluffy tex-ture, and the superb taste. A cappuccino is coffee, milk and foam. Foam, that is, and not froth. It should be evenfiner than shaving foam.

Cappuccino is never hot, and the coffee should always be fully integrated with the milk and foam. Whole milkshould always be used, and – as with espresso - only a madman would consider adding sugar. The natural sweet-ness of the milk is aroused when it is at the correct temperature. True connoisseurs will take their cappuccino ataround 44.5oC, whilst personal taste can dictate a higher temperature – up to 55.5oC. What is quite simply anoffence to any civilised society is to permit the sale of ‘cappuccino’ at 70oC (Caffè Nero) or at even a blistering80oC (Starbucks). If the temperature were only one or two degrees higher than this, nuclear fusion would com-mence spontaneously.

Unless one lives the Italian coffee lifestyle, and seeks the perfect, one mightnever experience the transcendent apotheosis of coffee. The transmogrificationof espresso. As understanding grows, the shorter the coffee becomes. Finally,one might – just might – be initiated into the mysteries of the ultimate in cof-fee: ristretto.

COFFEE

New Street Square:Caffetteria•Bar•Ristorante2 New Street SquareLondonEC4A 3BF020 7936 3404newstreet@caffevergnano1882.co.uk

Southbank:Caffetteria•Bar•Ristorante10 Festival TerraceSouthBank CentreBelvedere Road, London SE1 8XX 020 7921 9339southbank@caffevergnano1882.co.uk

Charing Cross Road:Caffetteria•Bar•Ristorante62 Charing Cross Road, London WC2 H0BU020 7240 3512charingcross@caffevergnano1882.co.uk