With new branches of coffee chains such as Starbucks, Costa and Caffè Nero opening almost daily and press reports of "coffee wars" on the high streets, Britain, like many other parts of the world, is in the middle of a coffee revolution. As Starbucks has spread around the globe and other chains have sprung up in its wake, coffee has become fashionable in many a nation of tea drinkers, including India and China as well as Britain.
We are, we're told, getting the real thing, as drunk in the home of international coffee culture, Italy. But how can those of us in countries more familiar with the leaf than the bean, who lack the Italian tradition, judge what we're being offered by the new breed of coffee bars? What are the finer points of coffee drinking we need to know in order to demand the best brew? Having owned a house in Umbria for the last 13 years, I'd picked up some basic Italian coffee lore - the crema is the sweet top layer of an espresso and the key to its quality; if you're making a caffè Americano (an espresso plus boiling water) always start with the water then add the espresso, rather than the other way around. So Italy seemed the obvious place for me to do some more intensive research.
In the tiny bar in my local village, owner/barista Laura advised "don't press the coffee down too firmly. Also, real coffee lovers have just a sip of water first to clear their mouths, then drink their hot coffee in porcelain, never glass." She was interrupted by a travelling salesman for Lavazza, one of the two mass-market Italian brands (the other is Illy). According to Angelo Petrini, "I sell three different blends to suit the three Italian tastes. In the north, they like it dark and sweet, in the centre a bit more bitter and creamy, in the south very bitter and very creamy." The different blends have different proportions of the two types of coffee bean - dark, sweet Arabica beans; and Robusta beans, "lively and fiery", and higher in caffeine.
Signor Petrini didn't succeed in persuading Laura to switch to Lavazza - like most of the professionals I spoke to, she felt Illy was better quality, though some people find it too weak. I left them arguing the point and drove up the autostrada to Florence, to the elegant and historic Rivoire Caffè with its painted ceilings and cases of exquisite dolce, to ask owner Aurelio Bardelli his secret for the perfect cup.
"Like everything in life, it's not a single thing - all the elements are important," Signor Bardelli said. "First, the quality of the coffee; second, the machine and the grinding; and third, the baristas who make it. The barista has to adjust to the weather, the humidity and the heat. The machine is always simply a machine, but the climate changes, so the barista is important." In Italy, a barista, rather than being the McJob we tend to consider it in this country, is a respected and skilled employee.
My next move was obvious. Back in London, I got in touch with Starbucks (400 UK stores), Costa (320), Caffè Nero (214) and Carluccio's - the last, owned by Italian chef Antonio Carluccio as a kind of quality check on the others - and asked to be trained as a barista. Costa's Gino Amasanti started by showing me round his Roastery, where they blend and roast Costa's seven different varieties. "You can make a good espresso at home with our coffee and a decent machine - a model costing £300 or more," Amasanti told me.
Coffee aficionados will debate blends and roasting techniques forever. However, Caffè Nero's Paul Ettinger feels, "people put far too much emphasis on the roast and the beans. The reality is, the way you make the coffee is much more important than the blend you use." That said, there is a basic difference between Starbucks and everybody else. While Costa, Caffè Nero and Carluccio's all use Italian-style blends with both Arabica and Robusta beans, Starbucks is all Arabica, making their coffee lighter and sweeter. Starbucks also use fully automatic coffee makers, thus minimising the work of the barista. In effect, Starbucks - which began when founder Howard Schultz drank coffee on holiday in Milan - took Italian coffee culture and added American branding and business skills to create a Hollywood version, which has proved hugely popular and commercial around the world.
With the beans blended and roasted, everyone agrees the next step, grinding the coffee, is very important. As Gino Amasanti said, "If the coffee is too coarse the water will run through too fast. If too fine, the water won't get through and will burn the coffee. You want a grind that will deliver 30 millilitres of liquid in 20 seconds through your machine."
That's an espresso, of course: espresso is the only kind of coffee the machines make. All other kinds are made by adding varying amounts of water (lungho, Americano), milk (macchiato, cappuccino, latte) or even alcohol (corretto) to the basic espresso. A "ristretto" is an even stronger and smaller espresso.
The standard "shot" for an espresso is 7 grams of coffee. The barista takes coffee from the grinder to fill the "group head", the circular metal sieve he or she then screws on to the machine. But first, she has to press down the coffee by hand, or "tamp" it. This is a key skill, because again you don't want the water to run through the coffee grounds too fast or too slowly. "Tamping is the signature of every barista: the end result must be to create a cake," said Costa's Gennaro Pelliccia; to which Starbucks' Mark Colcough added: "When the coffee runs out of the machine, it should come out like runny honey."
It's not an easy skill to master. Let loose on a Starbucks machine, I immediately made a mess of re-filling the group head by flicking the grinder too hard. Coffee grounds flew everywhere. Then I had to "tamp" with a tool like an old-fashioned darning mushroom before passing the flat of my palm across the top to brush away any loose grains - a procedure called "the blessing". Finally I screwed the group-head on to the machine, pressed the button and watched as two rats' tails of dark liquid streamed out. It was at that moment I understood why Gino Amasanti had said, "making great coffee is a passion".
According to Priscilla Carluccio, "The Italian's three M's of coffee making are materiale, macchina, and mano (by hand). We only use Gaggia machines and very high grinders. All the staff will have at least a week of training and shadowing, if not longer. The other thing which is important, is that you should only use white sugar. Brown sugar leaves a residue and reacts differently."
Coffee is a delicate substance. Oxygen, light, heat and moisture - all involved in its preparation - are its enemies. Machines also need to be kept clean. Italian baristas clean their machines meticulously.
Gino Amasanti said, "Coffee is like wine. Years ago, if wine was the right colour and you could get drunk on it, that was enough for the British. Now they smell it, sip it, send it back if they don't like it. It will be the same with coffee - and it should be!"
