Which brings me to my main point. I live in Italy and have grown accustomed to drinking straight espressos while standing at the bar in the local cafés. (In Trieste we call these single shot doses of caffeine a "Nero", or "Nero in B" when served in a small clear "shot" glass.) The most prestigious (or at least most expensive) Italian brand of coffee is Illy! It's really quite good but to be honest, it's not my favorite but for a long time I couldn't quite figure out why. Then, while I was in the US several months ago, I stopped in at a Starbucks and ordered a doppio espresso. As I sipped the warm, somewhat bitter liquid I had a revelation. Strarbuck's espresso lacked a certain depth in it's flavor profile, the same thing that was missing in Illy's espresso. How could this be? Two of the brands who pride themselves in excellence and use only the best coffee beans and most advanced roasting methods with the same problem? What's the world coming to?Having worked for Starbucks, roasted my own coffee for many years, and studied Illy fairly extensively (Illy is made entirely in Trieste), I immediately put my finger on the common missing component, robusta. You see, the robusta coffee bean takes a back seat to it's brother the arabica bean. Arabica beans have a much larger flavor profile, have a more pleasant aroma, are typically less acidic or harsh, and they pack about half the amount of caffeine as the robusta bean. Being such purveyors of excellence these two coffee companies (among many others) have a strict Arabica Only policy but in setting the bar so high they've missed the mark. They've excluded the lowly robusta bean with which, in my estimation, they could polish off the complexity of their espresso roast. Unfortunately for them, excellence just hasn't paid off.
1 comment:
Interesting! I've always wondered what was missing too, and as you know, when it comes to flavor I'm as much a snob as you. But I don't have the expertise you have; thanks for clearing up the mystery!
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