Too Much Coffee

Leaving at 8 this evening for a small town in the mountains of La Marche, County Ancona to visit our partner town there. The barista in the local café is a friend and I'm looking forward to some memorable shots. Report follows.

Have a lovely trip Bruce

Spero che ti piace la tua vacanza!!

bruceb wrote:Leaving at 8 this evening for a small town in the mountains of La Marche, County Ancona to visit our partner town there. The barista in the local café is a friend and I'm looking forward to some memorable shots. Report follows.

It's a great region, home of Nuova Simonelli and my parents

It was terrific! I had a fabulous time, fabulous food, wonderful wine and many excellent coffees. The event was a meeting of our village with our partner village, Rosora, the second time we were there. I don't think I've ever felt as welcome anywhere in the world and our hosts were as warm and open as only Italians can be. We left by bus at 1 o'clock in the morning and the whole village turned out to wish us goodbye, with hugs and tears in eyes, laughing and singing. What an experience for a little group of conservative German villagers. We all loved it!

I had some excellent espresso in Rosora, Ancona and surrounding areas. Deep, dark, redish crema (which I did not bother scraping off), sweet, balanced flavours, dark roasts, but highly complex and with wonderful mouth feel. Most used coffee from "Spezial," a medium/small roaster in Ancona. Freshness is NOT a problem as they get a shipment every few days and the coffee is used within that time. In fact, the roaster ships only after the coffee is two days old to avoid anyone using the beans sooner than that. My friend who is the barista in Rosora (there's only 1 café) has been using coffee from Spezial (www.spezial.it) for a number of years and is very happy with it.

I was highly impressed by the barista techniques; careful dosage, distribution and tamping, extraction times of 25-29 seconds, cups pulled out of the stream when optimal extraction was obtained rather than waiting for the pump to switch off. Most of the machines were Spaziale with a few Gaggias and even a 2-group CMA Astoria with gnarled walnut trim just like mine! That machine was in a little bar in the Parco del Conero and was run by a girl who looked to be about 17. The espresso was so good I licked out the cup. Most of the others in our group had cappuccini and they were lovely, with beautifully crafted latte art. I was stunned as I had not expected anything special at a bar in a national park.

All-in-all it was a wonderful 4 days and I am looking forward to my next visit there...but by plane, not by (17 hours) bus.

Wow Bruce, that sounds amazing. It's certainly heartening to hear of such good coffee that is fresh and with good milk work too. Wow!

I'm really pleased you had such a lovely time.

im salivating

An additional note about my trip: We drove straight through to Verona where we enjoyed an excellent guided tour of the city. I asked our guide where I could get a good coffee, albeit in an area where it was unlikely to even be possible, and she said, "follow me." Suddenly we were standing in a little room with a bunch of vending robots and she asked me, "Espresso, cappuccino, caffe latte or something else?" I started to beg off, but she insisted it was ok. I told her I would try a cappuccino and she began pushing buttons, "how much sugar," "dry foam or moist foam," "small or large," etc. I then gave her 2€ and she dropped it in. The sound of a grinder, a bunch of clicks and other noises and down dropped a plastic cup. A black liquid began to drizzle in and I was surprised to see brown crema on top, then milk and foam and after about 50 seconds a light that indicated it was done.

The resultant drink was not comparable to the other cappuccini that I had while in Italy, but it was better than anything I can get outside of my own kitchen around here. The coffee was obviously fresh, the milk obviously HT, but all-in-all it was passable. Later on I saw the insides of one of these machines and they are quite formidable. The grinder looked like the insides of a LaCimbali Junior, the complex looking brew group was powered by a Procon pump and the milk cartons were in a stainless cooler with some kind of punch and needle arrangement.

I asked our guide whether these things were getting to be commonplace and she said they were, but only in places in which you could not have gotten a coffee at all a few years ago. She said she didn't think there was any fear of them replacing the warm-blooded bariste because Italians love their coffee shops and bars and won't be pacified by a machine, no matter how good the coffee might be. In fact, however, this was the only machine of this kind that I saw on my journey. Even the dreariest filling station bars had a Spaziale or Vibiemme with a more-or-less competent looking barista.

It would certainly be nice to get some half decent 'auto' vending machines over here if they are able to produce reasonable coffee as you describe. Oddly, round here, the 'Pret' LaCimbali superautos produce a better cup than the 'warm blooded' types at the local 'buckies and Costas. That sid, other fairly local 'Pret' outlets don't compare. Consistency issues as ever.

I had an auto experience in Venice a couple of years ago. Certainly better espresso than anything I can buy locally.