Thoughts on an Italian Espresso Blend - Page 3

#21: Post by **tekomino** » September 28th, 2010, 10:28 am

Yeah, but to be honest with you, I could not drink this type of blend every day. It is too heavy, dark and musty with no dynamic range. Its a lot like listening to music coming out of closed car, only thing you hear are muted bass notes...

September 28th, 2010, 10:43 am

True, but i think it's more what you're accustomed to. Italian drink it every day, so i wouldn't be surprised if they drank one of our premium roaster blends and said "wow, this is bright like burning!" and not like it that much.

Then again, anything drunk every day gets old. I just finished a 5 lb bag of Redbird, which started off awesome, but i have to admit, but the 4th or 5th pound in a row i was just drinking it to be done with it and get my next blend. Lesson : don't buy 5 lb batched. 2-3lbs per coffee at once, at the most.

#23: Post by **peacecup** » September 28th, 2010, 10:50 am

I been drinking 100% Arabica Italian blends every day over the past two years, and rather prefer them over a lot of N Am. blends I used to get (but I've never compared them directly). It might be my Italian genes, my preference for knife-fighting over gun-fighting, or just a simple preference for boring flavor profiles.

One thing for sure, the Italian blends I use are NOT temperature tolerant. If they're not within a couple degrees of 90C they don't taste good. Fortunately I have open-boiler machines to manage this.

Even without the robusta these blends produce thick, lasting, and complex crema. Anyway, since my cupping skills are even worse than my HB MVP rating, I'd like to see Jim get around to tasting a 100% Arabica blend.

Time for another...

#24: Post by **tekomino** » September 28th, 2010, 10:54 am

Hey Jack, what do you like as 100% Arabica blends?

September 28th, 2010, 1:31 pm

Every few years, I vacation on the bay of Salerno, an area that has lots of small roasters who do fresh Arabica blends. These are low acid too, but milder than the Masini, and more adapted to the extreme ristrettos everyone there likes to pull. I would say there quality level was no higher and no lower than the Masini.

A few years back, Sandalj sent Abe and me a sample of their best espresso blend (they sell 16 different green blends

) This was roasted as light as a cupping roast, hardly out of the first crack, and led my "discovering" low doses -- i.e. the coffee was undrinkable except as a 7 gram single, where it was delicious. However, even with this blend, the knowledge of what can be done with espresso was far higher, but the quality of coffee was not.

Even the premium blends are on a much tighter budget in Italy than they are here; so this gives North American, Scandinavian, English, and Oz roasters the advantage. On the other hand, the sheer numbers and range of Italian espresso blends are unequaled even by the rest of the world's put together. So I am pretty sure that if the Italian public ever develops a taste for 2.50 euro a shot espresso rather than the current 1 euro ones, they would beat us fairly handily.

#26: Post by **Viernes** » September 29th, 2010, 11:06 am

another_jim wrote: All the shots have a dense layer of crema and heavy mouthfeel. There is no acidity. Shots pulled at high doses or ristretto flow rates taste mostly of wood, but dosed at the Italian 14 grams and ground for normal flow, the taste opens up into a complex mix of roast flavors. The experience is reminiscent of oak paneling, leather chairs, brandy and cigars. If you are looking for fruit, acidity, crispness, you are in the completely wrong place.

Thanks for point this out. This is perhaps the flavor I've been looking for more than a year. I tried an espresso on a Bar of Stockholm a long time ago which it tasted like "strong caramel with liquor"... so perhaps Brandy is the word to describe it.

peacecup wrote:I been drinking 100% Arabica Italian blends every day over the past two years, and rather
prefer them over a lot of N Am. blends I used to get (but I've never compared them directly). It might be my Italian genes, my preference for knife-fighting over gun-fighting, or just a simple preference for boring flavor profiles.

One thing for sure, the Italian blends I use are NOT temperature tolerant. If they're not within a couple degrees of 90C they don't taste good. Fortunately I have open-boiler machines to manage this.

Even without the robusta these blends produce thick, lasting, and complex crema. Anyway, since my cupping skills are even worse than my HB MVP rating, I'd like to see Jim get around to tasting a 100% Arabica blend.

Time for another...

Could you tell us which brands do you use, please?

... and where to buy them in Europe

September 29th, 2010, 1:08 pm

I plead guilty to the indictment of stereotyping Italian blends as stale and inferior.

So I thank you very much for the in depth information and knowledge in this article that will provide me with some new things to try and some more things that I need to understand.

#28: Post by **yakster** » September 30th, 2010, 2:48 am

Went looking for Esse Caffe and Jaa Semeru at the super in the mall here in Vimercate and failed. Lots of Illy and LaVazza, a fair amount of ginseng coffee and a bag of River Steamer Coffee House American Coffee. The bag of an Italian premium looking whole beans had a 2012 date on the back.

I tried to take pictures, but one of the employees made me delete them, but I didn't see anything worth buying so I left empty handed. It may be as hard to buy good coffee in Italy from a supermarket as it is in the USA.

#29: Post by **peacecup** » October 1st, 2010, 1:49 pm

Musetti is a favorite of mine, and Molinari. I've had a few others, but don't recall their names.

http://www.musetti.it/home.php?id_lang=3

#30: Post by **farmroast** » October 4th, 2010, 12:13 am

just saw this thread, I like the thought of looking at roasting and resting robusta in a different way. Maybe matching a controlled stale with an appropriate profile with a fresh roast. I've got a few lbs of robusta packed away I might try a couple roasts.