Cappuccino Experience

Espresso Yourself!

Today is Espresso Italiano Day 2009 – the first national day of the espresso and cappuccino, organised by the Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano. This is something Mr Cappuccino and all coffee lovers must celebrate!

The espresso is a small drink with a strong hold over the Italians. In fact it is estimated that about 70 million cups of it are consumed at the bar each day! That’s an amazing statistic.

There will be about 3000 selected bars distributing in omaggio half a million vademecum or handbooks describing the qualities of a Certified Espresso Italiano and giving useful tips on how to discern the professionalism of a barista.

So what is the perfect coffee? According to the Secretary General of the Institute “deve avere una crema di color nocciola, a tessitura finissima, senza bolle più o meno grandi“, in other words it must have a hazelnut coloured froth, a fine texture, and an even layer of bubbles.

And where should one drink the perfect coffee? Everyone probably has a favourite bar. Living in Turin I am spoilt for choice and maybe have the best bars in the whole of Italy (feel free to disagree). I highly recommend four of them: Caffè Torino, Caffè Ghigo, Baratti & Milano and Platti. But beware. These are historic bars so I normally have my coffee in piedi (standing up) otherwise I might have to take out a mortgage in order to pay the bill!

Do you have any coffee tips, favourite bars, links to sites ecc? Please feel free to share in the comment section below.