Espresso was born as a completely Italian product. As a matter of fact, both the methodology of production of the drink and the industrial production of Espresso coffee machines spread in Italy as an improvement of a prototype presented at the Paris International Exposition of 1855.
In coffee brewing, the hot water was already known for centuries but at the end of the last century there was the necessity to create an equipment able to make coffee instantly in order to produce a product without the presence of dust. A lot of people tried to engage this enterprise, but prototypes aside, the first company that launched into market and on an industrial scale, a machine capable of working under pressure was the Italian Bezzera in 1901. It was the first example of coffee machine and had obvious limits: the pressure was given through an ingenious and very complicated steam mechanism and it was difficult to use. In the following years, many other mechanisms were introduced. Gaggia, for example, turned his attention to another energy source to generate pressure: a mainspring which produced the pressure to push hot water through the coffee in 15 seconds. In 1961, Carlo Ernesto Valente, founder of Faema, tried to alleviate the muscular work of many bartenders with the creation of a new way to push the water through an electric pump. Thus, he founded the modern espresso machine.
Until 20th century nobody knows the place where the coffee plant originated. At that time, people believed that the plant grew in Persia and Yemen, but especially in Ethiopia. Pellegrino Artusi, an Italian gastronomist of 1820, in his famous cookbook "The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well", said that the best coffee came from Mocha (Yemen), therefore Yemen became the coffee plant’s origin. Before 1000 AD, the coffee cherries had been eaten green or with the extraction of the seed. Then, the Arabs thought to boil the beans in the water to prepare an infusion. Around 1615, this "Wine of Arabia" was imported to the West by Venetian merchants. It was first sold in pharmacies as an antidote to many ills, then coffee shops were born. The first Italian coffee shop was open in 1683 in Piazza San Marco (Venice) and within two centuries others coffee shops appeared. Some coffee shops became intellectual meeting place for the best thinkers and philosophers. Caffè Florian and Caffè Quadri in Venice had among its goers, various intellectuals like Byron, Rousseau, Canova and Pellico. Other famous coffee shops were Caffè Michelangelo in Florence, Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua and Caffè Greco and Caffè Aragno in Rome. Then coffee shops or modern bars have continued and continue to be aggregation points for discussions of various kinds: sport, politics, art and other current topics.
The coffee is cultivated in the tropics, by the Equator. The coffee plant belongs to the family Rubiaceae, genus Coffea. This genus has different species and among these, Arabica and Canefora are the most important. Canefora is well known as Robusta. Between these two main species, the most popular is Arabica, as a matter of fact three-quarters of world production comes from its cultivation. It is able to produce an aromatic drink, less bitter and less astringent than the Robusta. The propagation of the coffee plant takes place through two main methods: by striking (plant cutting) or sowing (process of planting seeds) that is undoubtedly the most used system. On secondary branches, white flowers with an intense fragrance sprout and they have a very short flowering. From the flower stems the drupe, a fleshy fruit, similar to a cherry. The drupe has a thick and glossy peel which is initially green, then bright red at full maturity. The flowering of the coffee plant is closely related to the phenomenon of rain, as a matter of fact, this process occurs each time there is rainfall throughout the year. The cherry contains two elongated oval seeds that are arranged head-on. The seed of Arabica is green and has a furrow similar to the shape of "S", while the seed of Robusta is more rounded, pale green with shades of gray and has the furrow almost straight. The two seeds are covered with a thick, whitish film called parchment, which has a protective function, while in the lower layer there is a second silvery film which is perfectly adherent to the seed.
There are two methods to harvest fruits: stripping and picking. The former consists of tearing the fruits of a small branch by forcing it between the fingers. The result is a low harvest quality. Indeed, the latter is the most expensive because of the use of hand-harvesting only of the red and ripe cherries. The result is a final high-quality product.
After harvesting, there is the seed extraction from the fruit with the dry seed treatment or wet seed treatment. If the method used is stripping, first of all, it is necessary to separate the fruits from leaves, pieces of wood or stones. After that, it is possible to proceed with dry seed treatment: the cherries are dried in the sun for several days and when the peel and the pulp are completely dry, the cherries pass through a machine which decorticates peel, pulp and parchment releasing the grains. Then, the grains are separated and divided according to type and size (sieve). The dry seed treatment gives rise to natural coffees also known "unwashed". The wet seed treatment is more long and complicated. To practice this method, it is necessary the use of hand-harvesting through picking-method that ensures a more size and fruit ripeness uniformity and a sufficient pulp softness. As a matter of fact, the cherries just picked, are placed in special machines that release the seed contained in the parchment. After picking, there is the phase of fermentation that provides the immersion of the beans in large tanks of water for two or three days. This treatment removes the pulp remaining, but also develops a series of chemical reactions that improve the aromatic qualities and the taste. After fermentation, the beans in parchment are sifted by a further wash with which the grains not perfectly ripe, rise to the surface to facilitate their selection. This leads to drying. If the drying is carried out in the sun, improves the characteristics of washed coffees. After drying, there is the elimination of parchment. The larger waste of time and energy involved in the wet process is compensated by an excellent product quality and a greater consistency and uniformity of lots of beans.
Roasting gives coffee its proper aroma, taste and colour. It consists in bringing the coffee beans at drum temperatures between 200 and 230 degrees, using special equipment which are essentially of two types: traditional rotating drum machines with a discontinuous cycle, in which the coffee is gradually heated by hot air, for a time ranging from 15 to 25 minutes. These machines are now the most suitable for the roasting of Espresso coffee; fluid bed roasters with a continuous cycle, in which there is a vortex of hot air that keeps the grains in suspension for a minute or so. With the use of the second type of machines the process becomes cheaper (more production per unit of time and less weight loss), but considering the speed, the aromas are not formed properly. At the desired moment, the roasted coffee is poured into a cooling drum in order to obtain the required temperature reduction for Espresso coffee. It is done only with fresh air. By roasting the coffee bean profile changes radically. It is also possible to notice a series of chemical changes, fundamental for the characteristics of the future drink, such as new substances, that when roasting is completed, represent even 30% of the weight of the grain. In relation to quantity, the most important are the caramel and carbon dioxide, while in relation to aromatic or qualitative aspect, the main role is played by over a thousand volatile molecules which differ for neogenesis. The same mixture can produce Espresso coffees organoleptically different in relations to the ways, the time and roasting degree. As a matter of fact, with the temperature, varies the amount of aromas, but also the relationship between bitter taste and sour taste: with the change of time and temperature can increase and decrease the bitter-sour relations. The mixture performance, an essential operation in the Espresso coffee preparation, has three purposes: it improves the coffee quality in the cup as it combines the features of the best Espressos filling the gaps; it offers the roaster the opportunity to reward the consumer through the tangible expression of his competence and ability; it allows the roaster to give always a product of equal organoleptic value remedying the continuous changes of the raw materials due to natural ecosystem cycles in which the coffee is produced. To achieve these objectives, it is necessary to know the world coffee market and the behavior during the cooking of any coffee type, in order to obtain, through formulas widely tested, the right bitter-sour-sweet balance and an aroma characterized by more positive notes in the absence of negative ones. The characteristic of each coffee type should not predominate over the others but it should merge in an harmonic complex, highly pleasant to the target market. Of course, the mixture varies according to the coffee used and their quantity.
After the roasting that makes coffee beans dark brown, coffee should be stored in special maxi-containers strictly hygienic at a temperature above 10 degrees. This procedure is necessary to preserve the "taste and freshness" and to avoid freezing of oils and natural fats that would prevent the properly done Espresso performance.
Now the coffee is ready to be consumed and should be packaged for trade. The packaging is an important and delicate phase of the coffee’s working process because it has the task to preserve and protect it from the weather conditions after the roasting. The problem to preserve the aroma of coffee until the consumer is a big one. For this reasons and thanks to numerous studies, there are now a series of packaging techniques, more and more responsive to the different needs. Today, the producer can choose from a wide range of packages which are technically valid, in order to meet the commercial needs and to convey an integral mixture to the consumer. There are soft packets of aluminum and it packages in the presence or absence of oxygen (vacuum) or with an inert gas. It is increasingly used and with excellent results. Besides, there are the white latten (tin), which is airtight or sealed with the application of the unidirectional valve and many other methods, depending on user type and time of storage.
Category: About us
Brand:
English
Italiano