All Obout My Coffee

Blends and packages

Obtaining pleasant and satisfying blends of coffee is one of the professional tasks of those expert tasters who, with their formidable sense of taste and smell, sharpened by long practice, are called upon to decide which raw coffees to buy, and to determine the kinds and quantities of roasted coffee necessary to obtain a successful blend; this to correspond to the taste that is to be conferred on it: for example, velvety, sweet, soft, full, fragrant, scented, dense, thick, persistent, etc.

Blending is thus the fruit of experience, art, technique, and a strict selection of the best coffees. For this reason, blending can vary in techniques and times (before or after roasting) and in the choosing of selected coffees’ qualities and ratios. These properties are nearly always a secret, jealously guarded by each producer. It is clear, however, that the better the coffees employed, the more refined and expensive will be the resulting beverage.

An equally important operation before coffee is put on the market is packaging. Carried out with modem methods and technologies, notably employing the vacuum technique (that is removing the air from the package before closing it), coffee can be guaranteed both a long preservation and the maintenance of its organoleptic and aromatic properties; qualities that would be lost with the oxidation and the subsequent rancidisation of inadequately sealed beans.

On the market today tinplate cans are used with extractable, flavour-saving lids; and also flexible packs, an expression of modem technology in the food industry which has invented soft packages combining aluminium and plastics.

The choice of coffee

It is the basic preliminary that conditions every subsequent stage. Real quality, preferably in beans, freshly and correctly roasted, gives coffee a flavour suitable for the most demanding tastes. Beans that are too dark are a sign of over-roasting, and confer on the beverage a bitter taste; too shiny and oily beans point to an insufficient or excessive roasting, and the oil on their surface goes rancid, impairing the taste.

As for the blends, individual taste plays an important role in the choice of a mixture more or less rich in Arabica, more or less "fortified" with Robusta.

Buying a blend that has been prepared with the experience of a big firm renowned for the selecting and processing of the best quality coffees, is already a 50% guarantee that the beverage will be a success. The other 50% depends on the right use of the coffee-grinder, the brewing device, and on a careful preparation.

Once the package is opened, coffee must be put into a hermetically-sealed jar, or into the airtight tins provided by the producers, lest the flavour evaporates. Obviously, it must be stored in a dry, cool place.

Grinding

In times past coffee was ground in wooden or marble mortars with a pestle. Later on the scene were different kinds of crank and drawer coffee grinders, and finally we have the electric ones. The old coffee grinders used by our grandmothers are to be considered better than the electric ones, because coffee must be "ground" by the wheel where the beans pass (adjustable to obtain the right granulosity) and not "minced", as happens with the various electric-blade coffee-grinders which, among other things, heat the coffee, thus further roasting it and causing it to lose some of its flavour.

In those days the wisest thing to do was to buy coffee beans and grind them just before use, in just the quantity necessary for the cups to be made (since extra coffee quickly loses its flavour).

The amount of grinding necessary has to be determined by the kind of coffee-maker used: medium-fine for the percolator; rather thick for the infusion coffee-maker; from medium to fine for the espresso machines. Too thick a grinding wouldn’t result in a full-bodied taste, while a too fine one would cause the fine grains to drop from the filter.

Today we can buy coffee already ground in boxes, packages and small bags, where its freshness is preserved for a long time; all the same, it is a good idea to choose the smallest packages available. Once the pack is opened, the powdered coffee must be put into hermetically-sealed jars because, besides losing its flavour, coffee is very hygroscopic and it tends to absorb the smell of food and such substances as are placed next to it. Ground coffee is available on the Italian market in two versions, one for the espresso coffee pots know in Italy as "moka", and one for the family espresso machines.

Cafes use the "grinder-dispenser", a medium size device, a small-scale industrial machine for grinding coffee and measuring it. In the big processing firms, where each time huge quantities of coffee are ground, complex industrial "mills" are used.

Water

Coffee must always be made with pure and light water, boiled for this purpose. Using already boiled water makes the coffee insipid. Water sterilized with chlorine should be avoided, because it confers a bad taste on the coffee.

Coffee and water must be correctly balanced in the ratio of about 6-7 g of coffee powder for each cup or, if not weighed, of a tablespoon for each cup. A lesser quantity of coffee would be overwhelmed by the hot water, resulting in a bad taste.

In the most used coffee-makers, like the "moka" or the "Neapolitan" ones, the ratio of coffee to water is already predetermined in proportion to the number of cups to be made.

The infusion must be carefully monitored, not leaving the coffee-maker on the flame, which would harm both beverage and coffee-maker. The coffee-maker should be taken off the stove when the coffee is ready, never allowing the beverage to boil, but turning off the gas just before the percolation stops.

The pleasure of going to the bar and drinking a creamy espresso, full-bodied and precious, with its inviting light foam is another habit dear to Italians. Coffee at the cafe is made with typically Italian machines by an expert barman who knows the technique of "small cup preparation". Skillful and careful personnel; capacity and skills, cleaniness and efficiency of the equipment; correct proportions between water and coffee powder; correct water temperature, time of water-coffee contact, and degree of powder exploitation; a correctly heated cup; these are the factors distinguishing a poor cafe from one willing to satisfy the most demanding of customers.

Jars, coffee-grinder and coffee-maker must be kept scrupulously clean. The coffee-maker must be rinsed in boiling hot water, with particular care for the filter, where sediments and dregs can easily hide. If it’s new or has not been used for a long time, before using it it is better to make coffee two or three times, with very little powder, and throw away the first cups.