The quality of true espresso assumes indispensable etiquette and serving of the coffee, in a so-called “coffee ceremony”. The value, according to the Certificate of the Italian Espresso, is the ware in which the coffee is served.

Ideally, what should be used for espresso (“ristretto”, “normale”, and “lungo” is a white cup made from thick-walled porcelain, covered with enamel proof. It should be the elliptic form, truncated inside, with a space of about 75 ml. Such a cup, at the expense of the big thermal capacity and the unique shape, gives a chance for the drinker to value the magnificent foam, fine aroma, and the warmness and softness of the espresso.

Despite the fact that the cup contains 75 ml, the maximum serving under the Certificate is 50 ml for “Lungo”. For “normale” it’s 30 ml, and for “Ristretto” it’s 25 ml. The most appropriate dosage is “ristretto”, because in the first 25 seconds under pressure the coffee blend extracts all the best substances: glukonats, proteins, minerals, vitamins, aromatic oils, and all other unnecessary substances remain in the filter.

How does a barista preparing Italian espresso define whether a product corresponds to the accepted standards? First of all the taste – a well trained expert can give a good estimate of the contents of a small cup thanks to their excellent senses of perception. However, if he doesn’t want to try too many coffees in one day, there are also other ways to define the quality.

For example, true espresso is made with a quality machine at a speed of 1 ml a second. So, in order to prepare, for example, “lungo”, only 50 seconds is required. Therefore, the design of a good espresso machine guarantees that when using correct grinding, you will receive 25 ml of a drink with all the best components of coffee present.

If the preparation takes less than 15 second, it means that the hot water did not take with itself all the necessary parts for good coffee, leaving a part of them in the final mix that leads to an unbalanced, more bitter taste. If the preparation lasts longer than necessary, then some unpleasant and caustic elements are getting into the coffee.

From here we can say that the coffee shouldn’t be too bitter or sour. A light hint of charcoal would be acceptable in some blends, whereas an aroma with a smoky flavor would be inexcusable.

No matter what type of blend is used, however, there should not be any one element dominating the others. The taste of an excellent espresso should be well balanced and memorable. This harmony and refinement is the gamut of taste that will spread in your mouth with many nuances, will set off a light bulb in your head and give you an incredible aftertaste.

In order for the taste to be roundish and “playing”, it’s not enough to just take good coffee and correctly roast it. It’s necessary to draw up coffee blends with a different parity of flavoring parameters.

Italians jealously protect recipes of the best blends, and the matter is not only one of selection and the variety of brands. There are many other important points – from the way of gathering the coffee beans to the method of storing and processing the beans.

The way coffee is grounded and on what equipment it’s prepared is very important. If the grinding is too coarse, extraction will be weak and all the aromatic and other flavorful and useful substances will remain in raw materials and thrown out, and the taste of the drink will be rather mediocre. If the grinding is too fine, and the espresso machine does not provide the necessary pressure, water hardly passes through the pressed coffee.

It also might be dangerous for the barista, because in the attempt to clean up the portafilter and to see what happened, coffee can splatter around the room, splashing the unfortunate barista with hot brown water.

Hence, in order to say that you personally tried real Italian espresso, you should check that the bar or restaurant where you drink coffee works under the mark of the Certificate of Italian Espresso. To such institutions there are strict requirements:

* Use of certified mixes of coffee

* Use of certified equipment

* Use of certified personnel

What does the document of the Certificate of Italian Espresso represent? These are strict requirements for coffee, developed by the Italian Espresso National Institute and approved by a certified committee in accordance with the standards of ISO 45011, namely Certificate CSQA No. 214 from September 24th,1999.

The certificate states that Italian espresso is made of a blend of roasted beans of varied origin prepared in a special device so that the drinks made had a well distinguished organic taste corresponding to the requirements of the scientific censor analysis.

There should be an intense taste with notes of flowers, fruits, and roasted bread and chocolate – this scale can very depending on the name of a coffee blend, but the taste should invariably be oily, strong, and velvety. All the flavors should give a good aftertaste, and the aroma should remain for a few minutes.

Another important point is that there shouldn’t be any artificial flavors! The taste of true espresso doesn’t require masking. To distinguish the additives in a coffee is possible, by recognizing a strongly pronounced non-coffee aroma (usually it’s imitation caramel, Irish Cream, or almonds), and a strong chemical aftertaste.

If the institution serves you coffee in pods, make sure that the pod is pressed in a special filtering paper instead of a plastic case. Besides the distinct smack of plastic, such a product is also bad for your health. There’s a reason such coffee pods are officially forbidden in all of Europe.

All across America, the story is the same. Someone enters a retail store, purchases an appliance at what he or she thinks is a good price point, takes it home, and tries to put it to use. After the while, a time increment, ranging from a week to a few month, the appliance stops working and needs to be replaced.
When that someone goes about replacing the worn-out appliance, one of two things happens. That person had either learned his or her lesson and spends more money to purchase a better appliance or the same appliance again or one at the same price point and develops the same problem down the line.
The market for every appliance is different but it’s accurate to generalize and say that frugality isn’t the consumer’s friend. This is particularly true when it comes to our area of interest, espresso machines.

When espresso machines first came onto the market over a hundred years ago, they were most likely status symbols. They weren’t perfect, but since there were half a handful of manufacturers, a certain level of quality was maintained. The prices of espresso machines were high and they were machines built to last.

Today, you’ll find that espresso machines are no longer a status symbol. The consumer market is saturated with cheap and low-quality espresso machines just as the consumer market in general is saturated with low quality appliances.

This form of market egalitarianism is great for manufacturers and for China, where half of the world’s manufactured appliances are produced, but not so great for consumers who have to wade through a market littered with low quality appliances. It might be said that if consumers choose to remain ignorant about what they’re purchasing then what they get is their own fault.

I disagree. I don’t think anyone should have to deal with espresso machine lids that don’t close, faulty wiring and boilers that scald . It’s unclear, (meaning no one has come forward to claim responsibility) went wrong here but somewhere the message that factory workers are producing items to help people, not hurt them got lost. It’s a really a sign of the times, isn’t it?

Products used to be made by made manufacturers to help people…but now, it seems, many of them are made mostly to meet earning expectations of stockholders. (The irony is that customer service has become a distinctive department in all businesses in the last 25 years.) Public outcry won’t change the environment that creates shoddy and sometimes dangerous products and that’s an unregulated environment of intense economic competition.

Work and supplies are sub-contracted more than ever, making it difficult to locate the original suppliers of materials.

Due to these unchanging circumstances, the use of lead paint used on name brands food poisoning and the practice of using cheap and dangerous substitute materials by isn’t going to go away completely.

There are safety laws in China and there have even been people “put to death” to make amends. But it remains dubious to whether China is willing or able to enforce the safety laws that it has on the books , because it will be, as they’ve put it, ‘difficult’.

Among the hundreds of items that are recalled everyday, are espresso machines, all of which are made in China.

Here are some of the worst offenders.

Black&Decker Spacemaker Coffeemaker
Manufacturer: Black& Decker
Made in China. Cost $40

The main problem with this machine is that its brew basket can become dislodged allowing hot water to spill out. This presents a general hazard for scalding. They can be returned to the Black& Decker, if they were purchased recently, for a new one. That is, if someone wants another one.

Jura Impressa Automatic Coffee Center Espresso Machine.
Manufacturer: Eugster/Frismag
Made in: Switzerland.

It’s surprising that this product was made in Europe which is known for its strong safety laws.

The problem with this machine is its faulty circuitry. Electrical connectors erode which creates a significant fire hazard. To give Switzerland the benefit of the doubt, the creation of the electrical connectors may have been outsourced to China. On Eugster/Frismag’s website, they note that they have moved “production” into a tax free zone in Shen Zhen, China. This is great for investors but precarious for consumers.

Vendors:

SeattleCoffeeGear.com
Located in Seattle, Washington. Just to show you that shoddy products or services aren’t just limited to faceless strangers working in other countries.

What they do: Sell obviously used coffeemakers but list them as new.

The only thing more frustrating than a deficient espresso or coffee machine is deficient customer service. Apparently, they refuse to do refunds. To their credit, they have an online presence which they use primarily to control public image. In other words, they’re out there Googling their company and actively replying to deny anything they’re accused of in online discussions.

There are a lot of other shoddy brands out there. There are more than I can reasonably address…but there are a few good brands out there. These brands will be considerably more expensive but you will, in most cases, get what you pay for.

One brand that sets the bar for excellence is Lelit. Founded twenty years ago and located in Brescia, Italy, an area known for high caliber manufacturing, owes its excellence to a healthy R&D department in addition to its highly skilled workforce. It sounds cliche, but they’re truly one of those manufacturers “committed to excellence”. I’d recommend the Lelit PLO 42LET model. It’ll bring you many years of great espresso.

There are a few other brands out there. New products are introduced and disappear all the time so it isn’t easy to keep track of but there is no other guidance that can be given than to be other than to be informed. (Starting with love4espresso.com is a good start). How much information is enough appears uncertain. It’s impossible to have all the information needed so there needs to be constant vigilance from everyone; industry, government, independent consumer groups, and consumers themselves.

Be proactive,
By Sergio Louissaint
The Coffeemaestro

notes:

Another thing to make a note of is that espresso machines are never repairable. If one breaks, it has to be thrown out completely. Because repair involves skilled labor interchangeable parts, and standardization it is avoided. Standardization would equal regulation of some sort. The silver lining of this cloud is if recent trends in product customization pick up pace, Sooner or later, the appliance market will move in the direction of standardized parts and customization, the way cars have.

In Italy, a country where secrets of coffee blends and long-lasting traditions of preparation are passed from one generation to the next and are kept close guarded, the Italian Espresso National Institute (Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano) was created.

This organization was created to develop standards for true espresso, and in order to have rigid control over production of Italian coffee manufacturers in order to avoid lowering the quality standard of espresso.

When we drink coffee, we, of course, don’t think about any standards. We’re just happy to be enjoying the taste. But let’s take this time to talk about the taste a bit more in-depth. It’s possible to tell the difference between true espresso and expensive but low quality espresso, if we pay attention to certain signs.

The first one is the aroma. By the way, if you’re brewing, for example, Turkish coffee, and the air is filled with a wonderful smell, take note that the aroma itself is not in the cup anymore.

The majority of the aromatic substances have evaporated in the first minute of preparation. And if the coffee has begun to boil, it’s not coffee at all.

The second sign would be the crema. It should be dense and homogeneous, with a light brown velvet color.

Finally, the most important sign would be the taste itself. Imagine the taste of sugar. So sweet! Now the taste of lemon. Very sour! And now imagine the taste of say, a peach. It’s sweet and sour at the same time and even a little bitter, but in any case it’s very fragrant. There’s no one aspect that dominates, but somehow it’s delicious in a special way.

(to be continued)

Regardless of how the coffee has been processed, blended, and ground, the quality of a serving depends on one major factor – it should be fresh.

So how do you properly store coffee in your house?

There is no simple answer to this question. Coffee beans easily absorb any outside smell, therefore it’s often suggested to store them in a refrigerator. However, some say that if you store coffee that way it’ll lose its initial properties. Others say that it should be placed in an air-tight area with no access to oxygen, but no matter how densely you fill something with the beans, there’s bound to be oxygen anyway.

The best solution is to buy coffee in small quantities, and very often. This is the most obvious way to ensure that the coffee you drink is always fresh.

Some more good advice includes:

1. Store the coffee in a cool, dry place.
2. An opened pack of ground coffee should be drank in a week, an open pack of coffee beans within two-three weeks. Opened coffee loses its aroma and taste every day.
3. Grind coffee beans right before using them; don’t grind them for future servings.
4. Try not to pour coffee from one container to another, as gases in it get liberated. If you store coffee in glass or metal container, make sure the space between the surface of the coffee and the top cover as small as possible.
5. If you store coffee in a soft package, try to squeeze out as much air as possible so the packing will be more dense.
6. If you store your coffee in your refridgerator, densely fasten the opened package, and fix it with a clip or tape.

Haven’t read it, but you might find it interesting

by Rebekah Denn

“When I first picked up Coffee Love, the new book by Daniel Young, I figured readers would welcome its ’round-the-world anecdotes and succinct nuts and bolts overviews: Storing and roasting beans, selecting a coffeemaker, steaming milk, and so forth. After reading it through, though, I — perhaps slow on the uptake here — realized it’s a resource for making the sort of coffee drinks at home that are usually reserved for coffeehouses or bars or ethnic restaurants. Even for those with home espresso machines (required for some, but not all, of the book’s 50 recipes), it’s rare to find a home kitchen brewing up anything more complicated than a cappucino. If at-home baristas have been waiting for recipes, now they can do anything from a Thai iced coffee to a flambeed Cafe Brulot.

Young, former restaurant critic for the New York Daily News, kindly answered questions on the book by e-mail from his home in London. Don’t miss his message to Seattle readers and Starbucks haters, at the end:

Q: As we Seattleites like to think the coffee universe revolves around us, I’m glad to see you divide the world (in the book) into pre-Starbucks, Starbucks, and post-Starbucks. But it does beg the question: Where do you see the specialty coffee trade going from here?

A: If the industry follows the geeks, I think the next wave is lowtech. Up until now, everybody wanted a coffee at home like the one they got in their favorite coffee shop. Soon they will want a cup at the coffee shop like the one they can have at home. There has been too much coffee technology, too much automation, too much hype about $10,000 brewers. And there’s almost a stigma to the pod machines that do everything except harvest the beans. I see a return to the hands-on, coddling-the-coffee experience that’s possible with a pour-though manual cone filter (Chemex, Melitta), a Japanese vac pot (siphon brewer) or even a Thai coffee “sock” (muslin bag filter).

Q: I’m curious to hear more about how the book came about, and how you researched it.

A: Prior to COFFEE LOVE I co-wrote a Greek-English book FRAPPE NATION, which was less about frappé (the fabulously frothy iced coffee cherished by Greeks) as it was about the culture and lifestyle surrounding it. I thought it would it would be rewarding to compile the stories and recipes of other national coffees and this evolved into COFFEE LOVE. Much of the research required my visiting coffeehouses in Rome, Milan, Venice, Budapest, London Prague, Vienna and of course Seattle, speaking to experts, then testing coffees, recipes and equipment at home. The travel part of the research goes on, thankfully.

Q: What sort of coffeemaker(s?) do you have at home?

A: I have 1 manual ceramic cone filter, 1 Hario vac pot, 2 moka pots, 3 espresso machines, 1 French press, 1 Vietnamese filter pot.

Q: If you have the necessary equipment, the recipes aren’t technically difficult. Plenty of them don’t even require special equipment. Any thoughts on why more people don’t make these drinks at home already, instead of regularly, almost automatically, shelling out $5+ apiece?

A: Often you’re getting more for $5 than a coffee. It’s a real estate transaction, too, a prime spot for peoplewatching, Tweeting or escaping work and responsibilities for x amount of minutes. Still, they say that dining in is the new dining out. So hopefully my book will encourage that to happen with coffee.

Q: There’s a lot of personal preference at play when it comes to buying coffee beans… that said, are there any brands you particularly enjoy or would recommend?

A: Were I in Seattle I would support the home teams and buy local (Zoka, Victrola). I don’t just love their beans. I love the passion of the best microroasters and their sharing their observations and discoveries with you. The extra expense, per cup, is very small. If you must cut expenses, better to use less shampoo and conditioner in the shower and keep brewing a good Ethiopian coffee.

My message to Seattle readers: When you travel around the US and the UK or even surf the Web you find so much hatred of and backlash against Starbucks. It’s an obsession. I did not find much of this at all in Seattle. This pleased me very much because:

(A) Though Starbucks may be ruining the world, as some insist, we do have Starbucks to thank in large part for the vast improvement of coffee in the US.

(B) The Zokas and Victrolas have Starbucks to thank for letting the quality of Starbucks coffees and service deteriorate so. If Starbucks were doing a great job, sourcing and custom roasting the very finest coffees and hiring the most passionate and conscientious baristas, than there would be less demand and business for the indies.

(C) Starbucks may deserve the abuse and it pains me to think of the seas of water they waste every day, but I think the bashing has gotten really boring.”

Source:http://www.eatallaboutit.com/2009/04/03/coffee-love-qa/

Normally, cups for espresso are small, porcelain cups of 60 ml.

The cup should be made from thick porcelain, and shouldn’t be too wide, so the coffee will stay hot longer. As a rule, the average espresso cup has a diameter and height of about 5 centimeters. However, there can be various other forms.

These days it’s not surprising to see espresso served in disposable plastic cups, a simple glass, a regular mug, or even in a wine glass. In general, though, good coffee houses serve their espresso in the thick porcelain cups mentioned above, usually with their logo on them.