L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 6 C lick, click, tamp, swoosh! Click, click, tamp, swoosh! Clouds of steam plume above the shining, eight-spout Gaggia and a thick stream of unctuous, dark coffee trickles into tiny espresso cups, some topped with a velvety cloak of frothed milk, before clattering down on the marble-topped bar. The break- fast crowd presses forward utter- ing rapid fire calls for "un caffè!," "un cappuccino!," "un macchiato!" When the coffee arrives, a space at the bar opens and a rare moment of calm descends. There is nothing besides the hot, bittersweet taste of the coffee and a word or two of conversation with your fellow bar flies. One sip, two sips, pos- sibly three and its gone, and the day surges on. Given their love of the bean, you might think that Italians invented coffee. They didn't. Coffee is native to East Africa and the first records of it being roasted and drunk come from Sufi shrines in Yemen in the 15th century. But ever since the so-called "wine of the Arabs" reached Europe, landing on the quay in front of the Basilica di San Marco in Venice in the 17th century, the Italian passion for coffee has created a culture unri- valed anywhere else in the world and which now underpins an industry second only to crude oil, valued at over US$100 bil- lion. It was after all an Italian, Angelo Moriondo, who first patented a steam-powered coffee machine. His prototype was fur- ther refined by Luiggi Bezzera and Desiderio Pavoni, who pre- sented the world's first espresso (meaning "made on the spur of the moment") machine at the 1906 Milan Fair. Roughly the same technology still exists in modern machines today although it took a further 40 years before Milanese café owner Achille Gaggia developed his ground-breaking lever machine with spring piston pres- sure, which did away with the need for large boilers, standard- ized the size of the cup and enabled the creation of the sig- nature crema, the amber froth that tops a good espresso and speaks to the freshness of the coffee. Aside from science, technolo- gy and design, there is an art to making coffee that is distinctly Italian, too. The talent of the barista is as important as the quality of the beans and the reli- ability of the machine. A good espresso depends on the four M's: macchina, the machine; macinazione, the proper grinding of the beans – a uniform grind between fine and powdery – which is ideally done moments before brewing; miscela, the cof- fee blend and roast; and mano, the skilled hand of the barista. Because even with the finest beans and most advanced equip- ment, it is the style of the barista that ultimately delivers the per- fect shot of coffee. These days Italy's centuries- long dominance as the world's leading coffee culture is being sorely tested by global giants. Swiss firm Nestlé stole a march on the market for personal espresso-makers with its Nespresso system while Ameri- can coffeehouse Starbucks announced its first Reserve Roastery will open in Milan in 2018, followed by a possible 200-store expansion nationwide. Ironically, it was the Star- bucks chain that launched Italian coffee culture into the wider world in what is now known as coffee's "second wave" (follow- ing a "first wave" in the 19th century when coffee became a mass-market product). Visiting Milanese bars in the early 1980s, founder Howard Schultz was dazzled by the theatre of Italian café culture where waiters in waistcoats and bow ties served great cups of coffee to a loyal, neighborhood clientele who vis- ited regularly as much for the social aspect of the bar as the short, sharp jolt of caffeine to kick-start their day. Here he con- ceived the notion for a global chain where people would come to "hang-out" and enjoy a range of different coffee blends and styles. Shows like Friends and Frasier cemented the idea of cafés as social hubs, much like they were in the 18th century when revolutions were fomented in Padua's Caffè Pedrocchi, love affairs instigated in Venice's Caffè Florian (the only café to admit women) and new ideas born (like the modern Italian state) in Turin's Caffè San Carlo. This popularization of coffee drinking benefited the Italian PAULA HARDY Challenging tradition: Italy's third wave coffee scene coffee market enormously, but in adapting Italian coffee culture to suit the tastes of the American market (increasing the volume of drinks and sweetening them with a whole host of milks, syrups and sprinklings), today's Starbucks coffee bears little resemblance to the Italian traditions that inspired it and many fear that the chain's advent in Italy will erode a cen- tral and centuries-old culture. Antonio Baravalle, CEO of fami- ly-owned Italian coffeehouse Lavazza, however, sees the arrival of Starbucks as a positive challenge. Challenge and innova- tion have always been part of the Italian identity, he believes, and Starbucks Italian opening is a wake-up call to the local market to up its game. In anticipation, both Lavazza and Illy Caffé have opened flag- ship luxury cafés in Milan. And, earlier this year, Lavazza also opened the doors of a brand new 30,000sqm, LEED-certified headquarters in Turin. It incorpo- rates a coffee museum, a land- scaped garden, an archaeological area displaying a 4th-century basilica and, in 2018, a restaurant presided over by the world's most famous molecular gastrono- mist, Ferran Adrià. Things you're unlikely to find in your local Starbucks. Founded in 1895 and run by four generations of the same family, Lavazza shows how to strike a critical balance between tradition and innovation. Here the past informs rather than dic- tates the future, allowing space for evolving innovation while maintaining the quality and val- ues that have made Italy a lead- ing light in the coffee world for the last 300 years. In 2015, Lavazza even collaborated with aerospace engineering firm Argotec to create the revolution- ary ISSpresso machine, the first espresso machine to travel into space with Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Further- more, Lavazza has its eye on consumer concerns of the future and is already heavily invested in ethical and economic sustainabil- ity with 50 coffee schools around the world. Also answering the challenge of the latest "third wave" special- ity coffee movement, which specifically rejects Italy's signa- ture multi-bean blends, dark roasts, in favor of artisanal, sin- gle origin roasts, is a new wave of Italian coffee aficionados. Award-winning roasters like Rubens Gardelli and Paolo Sci- mone, who runs His Majesty The Coffee in Monza, see the job of re-educating palates to the extra- ordinary range of fruity flavors presented by single origin beans as an exciting opportunity. After all, coffee is a fruit and, like wine, different terroirs, cli- mates and roasting methods dra- matically affect the profile of each cup. They've found a will- ing audience in their young Ital- ian customers, who like the canny 17th-century Venetians before them are open-minded and want to explore new things. Seek out these new pioneers at ORSO – Laboratorio Caffè in Turin, Faro in Rome, Orsonero in Milan and Ditta Artigianale in Florence, and you'll discover a new Italian coffee scene that bodes well for the next century. The art of making coffee may be Italian, but its origins and its many modern representations are an international phenomenon NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS

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