A Winning Formula for Traditional Espresso
Posted by TheShot on 13 May 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Local Brew, Quality Issues
In recent months, The Atlantic — much like the New York Times — has shown a heightened interest in coffee. Most of it has come from articles penned by Starbucks co-founder, Jerry Baldwin. But today’s article comes from Giorgio Milos, Master Barista for illycaffè: A Winning Formula for Traditional Espresso – Food – The Atlantic.
Yes, Italy: the birthplace of good espresso, and the perennial underachiever at barista championships. But even so, Mr. Milos has a few critiques to offer Americans on the deficiencies of our espresso — namely:
- too much coffee per shot — resulting in overly concentrated shots with a narrow aroma profile,
- coffee that is still gassing out after recent roasting — often resulting in sour flavors (akin to the brightness bomb we often mention),
- cups that aren’t pre-heated, and
- improper grind.
Italians take their espresso preparation very seriously. On the whole, our palate prefers some of the best North American examples to the best that Italy has to offer. However, Italy is far more consistent, the typical standards are much higher there than here, and the process of making a decent espresso is far more codified than the free-for-all we experience in America.
It’s not uncommon, however, to find sour expressions on the faces of Italian espresso experts when they try even the best examples this continent has to offer. The Italian espresso palate may be precise, but some in the Americas might say it can be a bit too precise.
2 Comments »
This is an interesting subject that illustrates how tastes for espresso outside of Italy have adapted to an extraction style which was originally tailored to accomodate the use of larger quantities of milk. It seems that some recent research outside of Italy (Jim Schulman – http://www.coffeecuppers.com/Espresso.htm, Scott Rao – http://www.professionalbaristashandbook.com/) may point back to some of the Italian standards after all, however, many of the recent non-Italian developments will certainly persist and evolve well into the future. This isnt necessarily a bad thing, but it is definitely important to be aware of the differences in style.
I should have read the article first! The author falls into the trap of “authorizing” what is and isn’t espresso:
“But what I didn’t expect were so many baristas using so many methods to prepare espresso, far from the authentic Italian technique. Once you stray from the formula that international associations agree on, espresso is no longer espresso”
Looks like Mr. Milos stuck the good ole foot in the mouth. Oh well.