A bit of history Multi boiler concept is now existing in every machine but we can’t forget to mention the company that first introduced this feature, which is Dalla Corte. This Italian company was founded by Paolo Dalla Corte, his father Bruno and his sister Elsa in 2001. So, back to the system the idea was by having independent boilers we can control the temperature in both groups and steamer(s). …
Mahlkonig Peak Grinder – A bit of history Mahlkönig or the “Grind King”, translating from German into English, is a German company that makes high quality grinders as its core business. Focusing on promoting quality since the beginning of 1924, Mahlkönig is now one of the world leader for their grinders, from the innovation to the design of them. The company is known to introduce the “grind-on-demand” concept, explaining the …
The coffee scene is evolving quickly. Are we still in the third wave or are we enter already the fourth one? Now there’s another reason why we truly need to look at it and that’s the new toy by La Marzocco. On February the 1st the company announced a new coffee machine called LA Marzocco KB90, the ultimate version of the Linea PB. KB stands for Kent Bakke, the former …
Cupping can be seen as a funny way to evaluate and taste a table of coffee samples by determining their differences and our preferences, but if we look at it from a professional point of view, is more complicated. Key decisions are taken by cupping according to our business, such as checking and improve our roast profile (and our roaster), thinking about at how the potential of that sample can …
Consistency is one of my favourite coffee-related terms and it also sounds great, isn’t it? Consistency is the key and overlooking it, it’s a common mistake that most company does. It doesn’t matter if you are in the specialty business or in the chain one. I’m obviously a specialty coffee lover but what we (specialty coffee) should embrace is that consistency is a strong point of a chain; we can …
The aeropress was invented in 2005 by Alan Adler, who is famous for several inventions such as the Aerobie Pro flying ring which holds the Guinness World Record for the longest throw. The aeropress was designed to make a cup at a time. It reminds a syringe with a cylinder that fits inside another one. This tool relies on pressure to extract the flavours: a plunger pushes the air down …
I used to drink coffee just as a fuel so it wasn’t a good relationship at all. I used to make it with a moka pot adding sugar after brewed it to cover the unpleasant experience. Just after many years I realised what I was used to drink: a “first wave” coffee, hard to smell and lacking of good flavours. Mostly a burnt liquid (made especially with robusta beans) with …
When we refer to pesticides we need to consider a wide range of substances like herbicides, fungicides and insecticides.Unfortunately, coffee is one of the most sprayed crop in the world. The majority of the studies say that up to 250 pounds of fertilizers are sprayed per every single acre of non-organic coffee. Roughly 90% of the coffee are non-organic. So basically, we need to use pesticides whenever we want to …
Read moreThe harmful role of pesticides and how to minimise their impact
Still in America, the trip continues just up north: from Colombia to Guatemala. And yet again, Jesuit priests are supposed to be the ones whom first introduced coffee in Guatemala. Initially, around the mid-1700s it was meant to be just an ornamental plant. After a century, coffee starts replacing indigo and cochineal as synthetic dyes collapsed both markets. Coffee became then a crop along with oils, cocoa and bananas. Then, …
I have always believed that we make our own destiny. By better understanding the impact we human beings have on nature, we need to learn the impact we are already causing on climate change. What threatens the production of coffee? Deforesting, farming and burning fossil release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By doing that, we are rising the global temperature causing the so-called phenomenon “greenhouse effect”, a natural process in …
Read moreCoffee countries are in jeopardy. What’s the coffee industry up to?