Milan/Lodi trip booked

[Bassclef]

I am going to Lodi, outside of Milan, on the 7th. It's all booked now. This raises an interesting point that we discussed a little bit earlier. Because Italy has always had better coffee than northern Europe (sweeping statement there, but stay with me please) you will most probably notice that there will be little or no "craft" or "boutique" style coffee places there. Does this mean that the quality of the coffee will MERELY (ha ha) be down to the staff's skill and pride, or can I look for 'brand allegiance' (Illy vs. Lav vs. Segrafredo) as being the defining characteristic of what I will recieve?

I'm doing this for the team - I am going to drink as much coffee as I humanly can in 2 days. Wish me luck!

Marc

P.S. In November I am going to Poznan, Poland. Anyone know if coffee exists there? Oh the things I do for dogs!

[Raf]

Hm, I'm afraid coffee in Italy will be a disappointment: I haven't found a decent coffee in two weeks in Italy (from San Gimignano to Naples to the Amalfi Coast). What amazes me - compared to passionate coffee bars in northern Europe - is the lack of love or even the faintest degree of interest in the end product. It's just blablabla ram the pf in the machine with some theatrics, throw a spoon in the general direction of the saucer and put on the bar with a sweeping gesture. In the cup will be a bitter, more often than not overroasted cup of mud. The pity of it Iago. The pity of it.

I will now continue work on my misanthropic and existentialist novel 'Pessimism', if you'll excuse me.

[Bassclef]

Ok, now we have the downside...

[Bassclef]

OK - I am back from my extremely un-scientific survey of Milanese (well, more Piacenzese) coffee locations... I must have had 20 cafes' over the 2 days - and they really ran the gamut of quality. I won't bore with more than the pertinent details:

Tamping: I only found one place that tamped as if they meant it... he used a tamper and was quite firm. Shame the coffee was stale and a bit underextracted (I think... I still need to learn to identify which flavour faults are caused by what - someone make a handy reference card?) About 1/2 of the places tamped in the 'lazy' fashion, and the rest tamped not at all.

Quality: Gosh - compared to my London wanderings, almost EVERY espresso I had was 'very good'. A number were slightly 'sour' (what causes that? citrus tangy...) but not to a level where it was predominant or 'yukky'. I ran into only 2 bad-ish espressos... Now many of you I am certain would have 'sinked' probably 75% of what I drank... but I am comparing this to London!

The Best: This is embarrassing, but the BEST espresso I sampled was on Sunday afternoon at an Autogrille (for those that don't know, a motorway services!) on the Milano - Bologna autostrade. It was completely untamped, about 24 seconds (I counted) and was rich, deep, not burnt or overpowered by anything. I loved it! I assume this was the best because it was the highest volume place I went to.

Marc

[Bassclef]

Oh I forgot to add the second favourite espresso I had. The dog show I went to was catered by the Italian equivalent of a "burger van" - the similarity between the two ended with the fact that both burger vans and this thang had wheels and an engine. Sigh. Why do we do casual food so terribly in the UK (normally!) Anyway, I had an espresso in a teeny tiny thimble of a plastic cup with a teeny tiny stirrer. It was very very nice... But I wasn't there when it was made (I was photographer officianale...) so I don't know about machine, tamping or grinder!

But oh they had some nice panini...

Marc

[Andretti]

Quality:
The Best: This is embarrassing, but the BEST espresso I sampled was on Sunday afternoon at an Autogrille (for those that don't know, a motorway services!) on the Milano - Bologna autostrade. It was completely untamped, about 24 seconds (I counted) and was rich, deep, not burnt or overpowered by anything. I loved it! I assume this was the best because it was the highest volume place I went to.

Marc

I also had a lovely capuccino along the moterway. Can't remember wich one exactly. I think Venice-Verona. Also a very high volume place. The guy behind the counter was a real performer in numbers and quality.

I noticed in most places there usualy is only a light tamp from the tamper attached to the grinder, but most times still a pour of about 20-25 seconds.

Could this be achieved with a very fine grind?

[bruceb]

Could this be achieved with a very fine grind?

That's the way they're made every day in my kitchen.