| The Director’s Editorial |
| WORLD NEWS: AN EUROPEN PERSPECTIVE
Hardly has anything been uplifting in the world news lately, except our inspiring Pope Francis, who has been bringing an air of simplicity, humbleness and humanitarian empathy to the Roman Church – a much needed repositioning of its pompous and outdated ideas. He made news today by announcing a trip to Gaza on a mission to stop the war – a man of great courage, given the intricacies and dangers of this conflict. Before I say more, let me remind our readers that the separation between state and religion is the foundation of all modern states and of the American Constitution. Let me also remind all Israeli fans, before you label me for my frank opinions, that your commentator, me, was part of a targeted family during Fascism. Please, keep these things in mind, as the never-ending conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has taken the umpteenth bad turn. It has been hard rain in Gaza, lately. However, this time we are witnessing the destruction of children and civilian-filled houses and hospitals, which has caused an international uproar, with even U.S. based Jews threatening a divorce from Zionism, demanding a separation between religious extremism and spirituality. I happen to know more than most about this conflict: it is a mined field, with an extremely complex map, where establishing the first offense is like asking who came first: the chicken or the egg? Finger pointing and the manipulation of truth are a common practice in those disputed lands, so much that the killing of children is seen now as “collateral damage” before the instances of progress and civilization. But, as George Orwell framed it, “some animals are more equal than others.” In particular, those who have been farm-raised with media blinders are arrogantly unaware of the radical difference between defense and aggression, between guard and murder. The sad truth is that all forms of superiority are a form of inferiority in disguise. It is also true that hatred for the Jews is pervasive and unjustified, and not just in the Arab world. But I am not stepping into psychology of the masses here. Confusing Hamas with Palestinians or Zionism for Judaism is like stating that Timothy McVeigh represents a face of anti-establishment America. It is a convenient way to justify unjustifiable action. I, like many in Europe, cannot silence my outrage for the killing of children in the name of any God or any religion, I don’t care if God just emailed a message to Tel Aviv, or Allah a cable to Gaza. Anyway, if this issue is moving the Pope, those who may have a different perspective than mine may want to pause and take a breath. This conflict is making news, raising eyebrows and consciences everywhere. It has to end.
Since we turned to zoology, the acquittal of Berlusconi in Italy was not second to any other scandal – sending the message that the Law is not equal …to all pimps. In fact, when money is no object, such “professional hazards” may be easily circumvented by being generous to the jury and the judge. It’s all smoke for a sneaky cover-up attack to the Italian Constitution by his courtesans, which is designed to turn his mild form of dictatorship into a straightforward kingdom. Some figure: anything is better than anarchy. There is just a little problem: anarchy is the result of his handling.
But the world’s evil wasn’t done showing off its amazing creativity. Mr. Putin thought that shooting civilian airplanes passing by his new estate could top the international open-season of Appropriation of Someone else’s Sweet Home, Original Land, Efficiently & Surreptitiously – one wonders what is the perfect acronym for such greedy groups… Meanwhile, Giovannino Perdigiorno (currently a leading member of the GOP) had nothing better to do than instituting a frivolous lawsuit against the President – a brilliant employment of taxpayer’s money! The scope? A desperate attempt to make news. Talking about lack of ideas and people needing a permanent vacation …from Congress. I know, I know, Italians should not cast the first stone. “Italian government” is now one of the best oxymoron ever devised. But what about Mother Nature? Is She simply watching all this? Well, on the wave of the example set by its humans, viruses, which unfortunately we cannot accuse of being criminal, because they are simply natural colonialists, have been spiraling out of control. It is just of last week the recall of contaminated peaches and nectarines from our supermarkets (immigrants must have infected them), not to talk about the alarming outbreak of Ebola in Africa, against which there is no known cure, except perhaps listening to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck’s rant, which is guaranteed to finish you faster.
Speaking of plagues, have you heard about the ultimate “humanitarian” stunt of the CDC? Bringing Ebola-infected patients to the heart of a heavily populated area – a dumb decision by an organization, which is supposed to protect the world’s population against such dangers. Another attention deficit? Hopefully the CDC does not employ specimen of infinite entertainment talent like Sarah Palin, who may be better off assigned to far less IQ-demanding jobs, say, as president of the National Hunters Association – still a sexy role for someone so popular among horny conservatives. Reading the news makes you ask: is there an end to what greedy, mean and dumb people can do? What are the media doing? Instead of being inspired by greatness, they dwell in how low the humanity can be. Please, shut me up before I bury myself! What happened to the good news – one may ask? Here is one: the US economy is on growth track with a second strong quarter – I can see the sharks lining up, ready to lend you money at high interest rates for a car or a house you cannot afford. After all, they control the good news. Here is a genuine news: the talented Vincenzo Nibali won the Tour de France. Judging from the dust scraped from his competitor’s teeth, this may be our new Fausto Coppi. But it needs to be seen whether bicycles or a soccer ball can unite the world.
Is there an epiphany in the midst of all this chaos? You bet. The beauty of it is that, here, we can talk about anything! This is not North Korea, China or Russia. It is possible that software algorithms may be scanning our blogs, that our phone calls may be monitored, just in case pizza or calzone become a threat to national security, but the base of it remains our freedom of expression, for which we must be grateful. Undecided upon who started a certain conflict? You don’t have to take parts either. Read instead, get documented. Walking a fine line and stating inconvenient truths is the privilege of those (like me) who end up in trouble for their desire to turn tragedy into satire. Personally, I have got nothing to lose, but your much-coveted attention. You know that I respect this land and the American flag as much as I respect the diversity of our ideas. Paradoxically, diversity is what may ultimately unite us. A.G.P. THE EDITORIAL CORNER: ITALY’S SMALL RENAISSANCE And so, I confess, I was (again) at a Starbucks. It’s not what you think folks, hell no: I am still a purist; I cannot drink their over-roasted poison. I was there for a meeting. In order to look “normal”, I cheated, by coming-in with a Starbucks mug, which, in all honesty, is one of the few good products this Franchise sells. It was filled with my Colombian Supreme, a medium-roast, pure Arabica – an unsuspected elixir none of those bitter-loving customers would understand. As pleased as I am seeing Italy represented, I do not dare trying their “to go” VIA. At my age, it’s better not to have certain experiences. Indeed, I don’t recommend anything liquid at the Seattle venue, in other words, drink it at your own risk! Back to my visit, wearing the “corporate logo” made me somehow “acceptable” by a group of loyal customers who seemed to secretly check out everyone coming in. If they only knew. Well, my business partner was late, so I sat down and, suddenly, the music turns Italian, first with a Domenico Modugno original version of “Volare”, then with Luis Prima, a first-generation-Italian passionate Jazz-cabaret player, I so happen to love. But, here is the difference: unlike their coffee, this was “the real McCoy”. No remake, no hip-hop remix. Suddenly I realized: hey, 2013 is the Year of Italian Culture! Vespa and Fiat have been pumping ads in the US, and zip by at every intersection, Barilla just made its biggest faux-pas – as if it wasn’t already famous – whereas, just a few years ago we would cheer every time we saw a jar of Nutella on the shelves, feeling that no other Italian national brands would be ready to face the tough US market. Paradoxically, we may have to thank Mr. Berlusconi – a genius of political deception and reliable enemy of culture – for bringing Italy to its knees and causing such a positive reaction in the arts and commerce. Italian design, literature, lifestyle and culinary art are on the rise. Speaking of which, MoDA is having an Italian Festival this week (see the details below) – with an excellent exhibit of design artifacts. Even our sleepy Consuls have put a stamp on it: nice change of pace. Yes, we were not officially invited, but reading books is our passport and, let me reassure you, it will lead you far ahead of anyone! In a nutshell, it looks like Italy is all over the place again, enjoying a little renaissance abroad. The holidays are around the corner with major announcements for our members and community – hold your horses. Qui mi sembra d’obbligo un tradizionale: Viva l’Italia! AGP ANATOMY OF AN ESPRESSO
It is a well-known fact that a moderate caffeine consumption increases attention and memory performance, boosts physical performance and, actually, decreases risk of heart and liver disease. Caffeine is also a potent antioxidant. Some say, it stimulates other things… However, excessive amounts of coffee can cause unpleasant adverse effects, including sleep and anxiety disorders. But this is not a scientific treaty. It is the distillation of 40 years of exposure to the finest coffees, my personal report on the representativeness of this famous beverage as litmus of different lifestyles and cultures. If you are still laughing at the image of the Starbucks van, be aware that I laughed hard. But I am not here to disparage a smart company that strikes gold on beans before we even go to work. I am quite positive that I would lose the attention of any Starbucks trained mixologist within the first chapter. Unfortunately, this is not an article about unfathomable concoctions; it is a discourse about quality and traditions… something for the purist. It is a well-known fact that a moderate caffeine consumption increases attention and memory performance, boosts physical performance and, actually, decreases risk of heart and liver disease. Caffeine is also a potent antioxidant. Some say, it stimulates other things… However, excessive amounts of coffee can cause unpleasant adverse effects, including sleep and anxiety disorders. But this is not a scientific treaty. It is the distillation of 40 years of exposure to the finest coffees, my personal report on the representativeness of this famous beverage as litmus of different lifestyles and cultures. LOVE FOR COFFEE Nowadays, coffee is as ubiquitous as greedy politicians in Italy or parking-ticket vampires in Atlanta – too bad the latter don’t react to caffeine, or maybe they do, up bright and early, writing a ticked two minutes before your meter expires… Although coffee originates in Ethiopia and Yemen, Italy boasts one of the longest traditions with coffee, having 16th Century Venice been the primary seaport through which the spread of coffee spread to the rest of Europe. But whether you are Italian, American, or from another country, you might have figured out that things in Italy are done in a rather peculiar way. Coffee is one of these things, and more specifically, it is a tradition that symbolizes Italy’s secular endeavor toward perfection more exemplarily than other types of food or beverage. Allow me to start from the beginning. Coffee in Italy was what kept me going on certain days. Only, I was unaware of what kind of quality I was getting accustomed to. I took it all for granted, until, at age 24, I moved to the U.S. I confess that I survived my first winter in the US, in sub-freezing Bostonian temperatures thanks to American coffee, which at the time appeared to me as a highly diluted beverage, having a resemblance to coffee, much like chicken soup has it to a rotisserie chicken. But it was so perfect to counter the icicles that formed on my nostrils… I bought a portable mug and filled it numerous times a day – a life-saving invention. Soon I figured out the that extreme dilution had nothing to do with caffeine content. The resulting, powerful caffeine boost, kept me awake on those long lectures. Ever since the breaking into the percolation culture, I have grown accustomed to all kinds of coffee drinks obtained with the dripping method – a type of preparation, which is foreign to Italy, with the exception of Naples. This was for me a time of great simplicity: one roast, and two pots: regular and decaffeinated. But it did not last. Things in the nineties changed rather radically, in the beginning by simply taking American coffee to the next level of quality; then some companies had the idea of cashing-in from this popular American habit, by convincing half of the population to fashionably drive to a coffee shop in the morning and get a latte. Women have been particularly vulnerable to the allure of a sweet treat in the morning, and, as you well know, wherever women go, men suddenly appear. It was women, and perhaps the explosion of gay culture that drove men to become metro-sexual and get a latte, not certainly coffee. In two decades during which Starbucks has become an American icon as cherished and omnipresent as McDonald’s – 182 stores are in the island of Manhattan alone – I witnessed the heroic attempt of countless franchises to imitate what we do in Italy, beginning from the denominations, with results between poor and pathetic, both linguistically and quality-wise, not to mention poisonous. The extreme success of these companies is baffling vis-à-vis the poor quality of the product they deliver – by the way, this may be one of the reason why they need to mask coffee with spices. Bu the reason of their success is simple: they are not selling coffee, they are selling you a concept and an experience! Like in Italy, the American coffee shop is the place between home and the office and, a simple morning operation has been turned into something approaching a religion. Any Italian church dreams to have half the success of the corner bar. I find it absolutely brilliant that Americans have finally understood the importance of a true break from the work routine. Some of these goers are becoming social…. starting a conversation with a perfect stranger – so unAmerican! But, I have the authority to pronounce that, in the realm of quality, the so-called “king of coffees” is one of the worst products available in the U.S. market. You can trust someone with sophisticated olfactory capability, someone who drinks only pure Arabica and who has tried in his lifetime rare beans that, pound-per-pound, cost more than a bottle of Dom Perignon. OPPOSITE METHODS My exposure to different preparation methods and philosophies – all of which are aiming to the obtainment of an ideal cup– allows me to offer to this sophisticated audience the results of my long-winded experience. As I am about to demonstrate, things done alla maniera italiana are deceptively simple. Symmetrically, things done the American way are deceptively complex. These diverse cultural aspects are particularly clear to all immigrants and emigrants, who are bound to face significant changes in habits and lifestyle when they move to a different country. I shall circumvent the reasons of a surprising level of complexity behind an apparent simplicity – though, thinking of Italian wines may give you a hint. They may appear plain in relation to the punch of a Californian, wildly perfumed pretender. The secret is in its modesty and hidden complexity, not in the desire to impress you and show you everything a wine can be. I will also avert why populist strategies that offer numerous “coffee options” to the consumer are hardly increasing the actual complexity of the object to which they are applied. All food cultures are, after all, driven by the objective of pleasing the palate. The issue is: how they do so? Are options the embodiment of a true freedom of choice? Can freedom be achieved within a single choice? Paradoxically, Italy, which limits the choice of coffee to one, has so many political parties that the country is ungovernable. The conundrum may be encapsulated by the paradox of finding greater freedom in loving one person, which clearly implies giving up all sorts of “so called” options… It is clear that everything we affirm may be double-edged, signify a metaphor of another dimension or discourse. The fact is, all things of Nature are governed by the same laws. I believe indeed that any approach to a food item underscores a general philosophy of life. However, I hope that you don’t read too far beyond coffee in this affirmation. Cultural differences are my constant subscript. When I write I hope to provide food for thinking and this is where I should leave the similarity at. QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS… The first questions we must ask ourselves are: is simplicity a sought-after quality to begin with? And if it is so, then why do things that regard the Old World appear to an American so deeply complex? In other words, is complexity intrinsic to old history? What depth is encapsulated in the simplicity of an espresso? Are coffee options telling us less or more about coffee? Or are variations just for fun? Is perfecting the art of a single espresso meant to avoid cheap copies and imitations? Or is it to be in wonder for a stolen moment in front of the goodness of the Divine Providence? Italian espresso, a beverage with a few side applications, but without options, is the simplified result of a long editing process from which all the superfluous aspects of coffee-ness have been eliminated. It looks deceptively simple, but all Italians know that making the perfect cup of coffee is no easy task. An endless process of refinement, starting from the search for the perfect bean, the perfect point of roasting, the pressure, the temperature of the machine, and a skilled and experienced operator lead to the ideal cup of coffee. So, my question is: what do flavored American coffees represent vis-a-vis a scenario in which Italians claim to have reached a form of perfection with their Spartan espresso? Are additions such as cinnamon, chai, cocoa, caramel flavoring, matcha powder, mocha drizzle, vanilla beans and other sweet spices a progression or a regression into ambiguity? What are the benefits of endless multiplicity? Are they a cultural tendency? In other words, can they be labeled as American? With 170,000 possible combinations at Starbucks alone, they appear to me as national as anything. My questions it therefore everything but trivial. Once again, there may be no right or wrong, just cultural differences. What impresses me is the passive acceptance by the American consumer of a coffee, which is the byproduct of an astute corporate policy. Underneath all these alternatives there is still a common denominator: a coffee bean. And beans are like people: some are fabulous, others are lovable and sensuous, some have alluring aromas, some have a pedigree, others may have humble origins but they give out an exotic hint; then there is the run of the mill, some decent, some mediocre, some flat and boring; then the ethically incorrect, those which are plain bad and must chose deception to appear as something that they are not. Starbucks belongs to this last category: a masterful deception. Trying to sell it to as the best product around gives the creeps to someone who grew up appreciating coffee for what it is, simple, straight, unadulterated. THERE ARE BEANS AND BEANS… What is “good coffee” in a world where right and wrong have been shuffled long enough to confuse the best connoisseurs? Who is to be believed? Secular wisdom? The consumer? The corporate world? These multi-layered and culturally-biased questions require proceeding with order. I will start from the beans, the roasting process and the miscele, which are an art and a science at the same time, and which require a bit more than consumer expertise. I will try to summarize them for you. Everyone knows that, when it comes to coffee, preparation is a fundamental part of the art of it. But one can wrestle with bad beans all day long – no good coffee will ever come out of them. Therefore, when one talks about the miscele, in other words, when one analyzes the recipes underpinning the magic concoction of beans, things get complicated rather quickly, with lots of operators and producers swearing to be holding the Holy Grail, i.e. “the best coffee blend ever devised.” I am warning you, this is a tricky ground where everyone claims to be right, yet there is a lot of marketing deception at play. Like whisky, there are two fundamental types: single bean and blends. If I had to cut through the chase, I would state that we have grown accustomed of repressing our opinion for not offending the sensibility of other consumers. We are too preoccupied with democracy and with being “politically correct.” The “anything goes” philosophy is a great loss for our civilization. We are not giving a good example to anyone by withholding our opinion. For instance, it is an undisputable truth that a scary percentage of California wines are close to undrinkable: their pretense and desire to be all over the place is their fall. At best, it is the syndrome of the vamp that wants to impress every man upon entering a room. Australian beat California wines hands down, dollar to dollar. Yet California wines sell more. Is it plain marketing? Nationalism? Or mere lack of consumer education? As for other products, you may think that it is one’s personal taste what ultimately counts. Well, think again. How did we ever produce beauty if no one pointed out to ugliness? Quality works in the same manner, and we should all strive to gain a better palate. With patience and intent appreciation for better products will occur over time. WHERE DOES COFFEE COME FROM? Brazil is by far the largest producer of coffee in the world, followed by Vietnam and Colombia. The only thing you need to know about coffee beans is that there are two fundamental varieties: Arabica –an expensive brand, which constitutes 70% of the world production and makes a large portion of the high-quality coffees; and Robusta –a rarer bean, indigenous of West Africa and introduced in Java, which has been modified over time and can be manipulated into different varieties by climate and exposure. There are also hybrids and genetic mutations. As I previously announced, I will not step into the land of the subjective and the idiosyncratic, where coffee is flavored with hazelnuts, berries or vanilla beans. They have carved out a niche in the American market, but look like taste-perversions to me. I am glad for those who like them, and if you are one of them, these pages may not be for you. But this is the exact reason why you will not find Parmigiano cheese on the table of a serious Italian restaurant, for it goes only on certain dishes. Yet in spite of the no-option philosophy, in the old world a good cup of coffee and a bad one are as different as day and night, even in countries where there still seem to be some indecision about the ideal brewing method. For closure about the miscele, it is sufficient for you to know that Illy is made by pure Arabica, and all the Lavazza are a balanced blend. My intent today is to provide some orientation among the terms of the “language” developed to indicate different types of coffee by Italians and Americans, bearing in mind that these two nations rank among the five top consumers of coffee on the planet. Coffee is an 8 billion dollars global industry, with beans being traded on Wall Street as a commodity with wild speculation and price fluctuations.I don’t want to scare you with current stats, but the importation of coffee into the US in 1931 amounted to 870,768 tons, which corresponds to a per-capita consumption of 12 pounds a year. This number has ever since quadrupled, reaching 53 pounds per-capita. Impressive! THE ITALIAN METHOD There are a few Italian ways to prepare coffee, from the “caffe’ alla napoletana (the dripping method with a specialcaffettiera, which survives only in Napoli), to the worldwide-famous Moka Express machine, certainly the most popular device in the Italian peninsula, to the highly controversial preparation of the cappuccino, which possibly holds the longest running tradition, but which is prepared in varying methods, according to the region, and therefore, is hardly the same for everybody. Caffè alla francese, alla greca o alla turca are adoptive methods, all equally interesting, all equally deep-seated with ancient neighboring national traditions, which are achieved by percolation, infusion, or decoction. In Atlanta, you may try the Hellenic one at Kyma, or the Turkish at a venue next door to the Variety Playhouse at the Little Five Points. Preparation always revolves around the way the water acquires the essential oils and soluble fats, from the beans. Timing and temperature play a fundamental role on the final aroma. And drinking coffee immediately after preparation is a must, as most volatile components evaporate and other oils quickly oxidize. In this regard, Italian-style coffee is quite distinct from all other coffees. In Italy, coffee is denser and richer than anywhere else in the world, and it remains one of those beautiful traditions, which seem to resist change and perversion. In some countries, old habits make people what they are. Italians have developed a cult for coffee, especially for the so-called espresso, and everything that diverges from it is to a native Italian a distraction from the spirit of Italianness. Coffee in Italy is prepared with two basic methods: at home, with the famous caffettiera moka-express, and, at the bar, with the macchina da bar. Once again, surrogates are unacceptable by a true Italian, there are no ifs or buts. By the way, don’t let the industry fool you with kitchen countertop mini bar-machines. Illy and Lavazza have done a good job, but there is no substitute known for the real thing, or the Italians would have already discovered it. The reason is simple: the instantaneous, high-pressures one needs to generate in order to get the creamy and sweet content out of the beans without burning or oxidizing the oils are not safely manageable by small machines. Besides, running a “macchina da bar” requires a solid decade of practice. Don’t get ideas! Trust me, relax, save the money, and go to the bar! The Italian home version, simply known as caffè (and not as espresso) is the choice of millions of Italians. It is as simple and direct as anything comes. In fact you can’t do much else with it except, perhaps, a classic caffè-latte or a caffè-freddo.As at the bar, at home coffee can be excellent or terrible. It depends on numerous factors, including how old is themacchina, how the host splurges on beans of high quality, and how well the host knows how to court the process. Yes, I just said: court it. In fact, no good machine yields anything worth drinking to inexperienced hands. There are many things you can do to alter the result. First of all: the quantity of water. Second, the quantity and compaction of the ground beans. Mind not getting ground beans on the seal, or the macchina will leak the water out. And mind excessive compaction, or you risk an explosion. But the freshness and quality of the beans remains fundamental. You can spend from $5 a pound to $30 a pound and more. Custom productions like the famous “Il Morettino” o “Caffe’ Stagnitta”, can get quite pricy, but these are small luxuries I highly recommend. One recommendation: air and heat alter the coffee, especially if it is ground. This is why, once the coffee package is open, you need to store it in the fridge – not in the freezer! For the Italian Moka, if you grind the beans, double the grinding time as to obtain a fine, almost sticky powder. A coarse grind does not oppose any resistance to the water, therefore pressure does not build to the level needed for espresso. One word of advice: don’t baby sit the macchina. Instead, learn how to listen to it. Remember, it is the closest thing to a hand-grenade. Another recommendation: don’t use soap to wash the machine and do not put it in the dishwasher. Coffee oils coat the machine, and they protect you from harmful and foul-tasting metal oxides. In fact the older the macchina, the better is the coffee that it makes. Regardless, the goal of a true Italian is to obtain a ristretto, detto anche “corto”, and this is where the bar comes in the picture, where the extraction process is cut off at its peak. This is confirmed by the fact that most bars do not throw away the used pods, called “tufi”. Since they still contain good oils, after cooling down they are used in a decoction, which is the base for caffé freddo, granita and gelato di caffé. The higher density of the coffee that comes out of the macchina da bar, produces what is called a ristretto. This is a creamy density one can hardly obtain at home, and if so, only at the risk of a serious moka explosion. The ristretto and its opposite companion “il caffè lungo” are known as “espresso” simply because they are prepared in an instant, as opposed to at home, where you need fifteen minutes, plus plenty of time to reward the host with some compliments and the courtesy of a brief, informal conversation about the weather, known – per l’appunto – as “discorso da caffè.” When you drink a ristretto,remember the paradox: concentration affects flavor, not caffeine! In fact, it has been proven that the lungo, as it gets more out of the beans, begins to borderline a percolation method, therefore contains more caffeine than a ristretto. There is an old gossip, that the lungo is for lonely hearts who seek companionship, and the ristretto is for true men. It is a gossip based on the false premise that a two or three-sip experience may denounce indulgence, whereas gulping it down at once, is allegedly a proof of character. I promise, I won’t dig in the nature of this myth any further. On a cold morning, you can get a corretto (some fuel is added to get your engine started). But the ristretto is still held as a tough, macho experience (both by men and women who can stomach a shot of alcohol in the morning), which reminds me that the macchiato is a variation, not a kind per se, devised to temper the impact of concentrated coffee with a lump of milk. In fact, it is reserved to those “gentler human beings” who can’t take the punch of the real thing, also to those who drink coffee regardless of the undesired effect to the walls of their stomach. Now don’t get concerned, you need to go to Starbucks or Caribou, before you can do serious harm to your health. Coffee contains potent anti-oxidants and it is deemed to be a cancer-fighting substance. I will return to the franchises further down. At the bar, you can also get a cappuccino, named after the color of the homonymous monk’s robe, where milk is steamed quickly (not boiled to volcanic temperatures, like so many popular franchises falsely pass as truth here in the U.S.), then poured in a larger cup with a bit of froth, on top of which an espresso is artfully poured over (neither laid at the bottom, nor stirred! James Bond style). Watch out for the time of the day of your cappuccino order. Cappuccino means “breakfast!” In Italy, it is considered to be “legal” until 9:00 a.m. You may order it until noon, though it becomes a clear public admission that a) you just woke up; b) you don’t have a job; c) you are so rich, you don’t need a job; d) you are a tourist! By the way, a sprinkle of cocoa is a fancy Viennese vagary, not an Italian one! The lemon zest is a sad foreign invention to mask the taste of bad beans – in other words, it is bad news, guaranteed! Rest assured that the Italian coffee purist does not indulge in fancy distractions. Cinnamon powder or lemon skin near coffee are a true blasphemy. Forget about them, they are a sacrilege! I will spare you in this context with the history of the original cappuccino recipe, a version of which was once proffered to me by and actual monk. Much like the story of the tiramisu’, it would require a book. But for your knowledge, the original cappuccino requires fresh, non pasteurized milk, which you will hardly find at a supermarket, since it is a non-adulterated dairy product. The crème is achieved without frothing machines, early in the morning, at five a.m., when the bottle of milk left in the cool temperatures of the night has formed a layer of fresh cream on top. Trust me if I say that a purist would go to any extent for the perfect cup of it. For him, simplicity remains the referent model that anycappuccino attempts to emulate, a perfect marriage between two apparently disparate ingredients: milk and coffee; an ephemeral fusion similar to the sublime matrimony between ricotta and spinaches, mozzarella and tomatoes, oil and vinegar, butter and sage, wine and cheese, in other words, a true dialogue between opposites with nothing else to distract the palate. This is why to the purist a spice will always appear as an impostor. THE SOCIOLOGY OF COFFEE Coffee at home is a private ritual. Conversely, coffee at the bar is a social event. In fact, the concept of a coffee break is that one goes to the bar to get away from the routine. At the bar, you can tell the personality of an attendee by his coffee order and by the way he drinks it. The introverted ones find a corner, whereas perfectionists pay a lot of attention to stirring. Purists and tough-nuts drink it straight, in one shot, bottoms-up style. Sipping an Italian espresso is an oxymoron. At best, you may get two sips. Thus, sipping belongs to indulgence in pleasure, and that is to cappuccinos. Once again, to the eye of a sophisticated social observer, a coffee consumer is semi-naked at the bar. And so it goes that high-maintenance personalities and prima donnas get fancy orders, though they may sip it without attention, for the issue is making a theatrical demand, not experiencing the flavor of it. Self-conscious characters remain highly aware of others, while self-assured ones make it a solo experience. You can feel the private space they carve out of the crowd. In order to increase their concentration, the most intensely private characters, close their eyes while they take their coffee down. If you get close enough, you may hear someone humming or moaning out of pleasure. It’s called coffee orgasm. But these highly sensuous characters are not exactly espresso-people: these people are “having coffee”, if you know what I mean. Conversely, espresso-people can’t wait to get to their destination – especially if they are from Milano, a notoriously hyper-productive city. They may say something funny, just to appear human, but they are work-machines focused on their destination. In fact, I suspect that the espresso was born out of necessity, tailored to the workaholic. Its origin must be northern. Opposite to the espresso, the cappuccino, carries the connotation of some kind of a breakfast, first of all because you can’t get it down in a single shot; secondly, because it is more nutritious; thirdly, because it is often accompanied by a side order of cornetto, brioche, biscotti or danese. Ordering a cappuccino is therefore a declaration of further availability of time, an exposè of a true luxury bash in a busy day. If you ask for one, the bar tender may start a more meaningful conversation with you; customers will make room for your breakfast – in Italy, it is so important to get away from work, that people have a natural respect for those who sneak out of the office and take an extended moment for themselves. Work is a necessity in Italy and it is regarded as one of those duties one must part from as soon as one can. Coffee is the time the Italians are a united nation and share their profound passion for doing less, whenever they are given the excuse. Everywhere else they practice anarchy, both in politics and private life. But don’t be fooled by coffee connoisseurs either. Most connoisseurs do not know how to make a good espresso. They are excellent judges. They just know when they encounter a good one. At the same time, don’t be fooled by the time Italians spend at the bar. It is not a waste of productive time. It has been proven that bursts of productivity and great ideas are more likely to occur after a moment of relaxation. This particular aspect – forgive me for mentioning it – is almost beyond the comprehension of a native American. Americans have coffee machines at the office. It would be an absurdity in Italy! At the bar you can also get a latte macchiato, which is a lungo mixed with warm milk, not steamed as they do elsewhere, and it contains far more milk than a cappuccino, and of course, zero froth. It is served in a water glass. But watch out, the macchiato, which is known in the U.S. as latte, is not coffee! Is comfort food! Alternatively, you can get a caffèlatte, which is a graciously juvenile order, for it is supposed to remind you of the latte preparato dalla mamma before you reached the right age for coffee consumption. But some people never fully grow into adulthood. A caffèlatte is a time-machine, a step into one’s teenage years, though bars do not carry the right bowl with which it is supposed to be served. In the hot season, some people order a caffè freddo, which, by the way, is prepared the day before and sweetened while it is still hot because it must “cure” in the freezer for a while and shaken every once in while for not turning into an block of ice. Caffe freddo is a powerful drink. Cold and sweet as it is, you easily get down the corresponding volume of tre espressi.You will notice it, eventually! But the freddo remains a classic drink, for some romantic, old fellows like me, who still remember that refrigeration was not publicly available until the mid fifties. A newer version of the freddo, which can be prepared ad hoc is the shakerato, which is a milder and more diluted version of the classic freddo but which inevitably resembles a drink you would consume when you are sitting. It is prepared Martini style. Therefore, it appears a bit international to me, beginning from its “impure” name, up to the evident feel of “annacquato” that the melting ice leaves behind. What’s the difference, you may ask. It is a rather profound one. This is why Italian recipes are holistic, and that is, indivisible from their preparation. This is why shaking and blending are not part of the Italian vocabulary when it comes to food or beverages. By the same token, the well known frappè (a rich coffee milkshake – call it, a “frappuccino”, if you are a post-modernist reader) appears international even after more than fifty years from its adoption. But to an esterofilo, it might as well be considered Italian, even if it bears a name and a preparation method which are openly French. By the way, this is a key point of distinction between the Italian and the French culture. Italians do not blend anything! They combine, pair-up, stir, mix, layer, but they do not blend! Blending, intended as amalgamation, is French! Period. It is done for not guessing what the hell one is eating. But, I am unaverdedly shifting into cuisine philosophy here. Did I leave any kind of coffee out? Perhaps, the life-saving decaffeinato, which at the bar becomes a public admission of age, hypertension or heart problems – rest assured, no judgment is bestowed upon the customer after such an order. Instead, an understanding is silently proffered of the desire to uphold this sacred, national ritual, in spite of a heart condition. Once again, a ritual unity is achieved in the process among all the customers. CROSSING THE OCEAN And now, let’s cross the ocean! Italian readers, are you with me? Coffee in America is altogether a different animal, beginning from its social aspect, percolating down to its preparation – I just perverted an adjective, didn’t I? Let me declare that, in comparison to Italians, Americans are very reserved. The upside of the exponential growth of franchises like Starbucks, which sell a very poor quality of coffee beans, and, in fact , the reason they are in business is that people begin to gather and socialize. This is largely due to the brilliant marketing strategy to place the consumer up-front, by the window, and offer a comfortable place to read, work, browse the Internet or hang out. The downside is that their coffee is neither traditionally Italian nor American, though I guess their brand is now recognized as being fully American. It is a brilliant marketing operation that has created a faithful clientele that drinks coffee that SUCKS. This is what happens when you open the door of a corporate van without knowing the result! But what is commonly known as American coffee, the kind obtained with the dripping method – called percolation – is a clear derivation of northern-European traditions, most likely Swedish-German. In fact, no Mediterranean culture would have extracted coffee from the beans in percolation. It is a too passive way for the European sunbelt. But don’t be fooled by its mild aspect. American coffee is a caffeine grenade. It is so because its longer brewing time allows more caffeine to dissolve from the beans. So, watch out the second and third cup! Americans spend time with their coffee mug, carrying it around the house, in their car, taking it to the office, refilling it, some for an entire morning. There is no argument: it is a Linus’s blanket! You can’t do that with Italian coffee. The concept is that you leave the office and head out to the bar, smoke a cigarette afterwards, meet some friends, or take a breath of fresh air, get the newspaper, talk about politics… Americans drink coffee at the office, which in Italy would be a betrayal of the primary reason to drink coffee in first place, which is to escape the routine. But Americans love comfort and convenience. They have perfected the percolating method to a point in which American coffee has become a thing in and of itself, a unique product, which, like in Italy, can be excellent or very bad. I could steer you toward a couple of places where American coffee is a serious matter, like San Francisco Coffee or Octane. But insofar as Italian-style coffee is so in vogue, I will not enter the merit of the American-style, because I have not made it my drink of choice. All I can tell you is that, if you develop a palate for it, and you happen to be in the mood for it, everything else appears too bold and instantaneous. Having an American cup of coffee is like reading book. Instead of the fancy stuff, for which franchises charge up to four dollars for a tall cup, you can get a good cup of American coffee for a dollar, almost anywhere. If you can manage to avoid a solitary gas station where the pot has been sitting there for hours, you are fine. Drinking imitation, Italian-style coffee in the U.S. is an investment, up to $6 a cup. But for $2 at San Francisco Coffee, on North Highland Avenue. you can get one the best American coffees I have had in the city of Atlanta. Also, for freshly-brewed, try Einstein Brothers, any location, or the drop-dead gorgeous, 50’s original “Silver Skillet” Diner on 14th Street, if not alone for the heck of being called “hun” by an old, sweet, flirty server. Espresso is an after-dinner classic at most restaurants. Cappuccino has nearly stolen its ruling throne, appearing at dinner tables, to conclude the experience – a habit of an origin as mysterious to me as the ubiquitous “some parmigiano?” request by any freshmen waiters, to top a pizza or a fish dish. Gross! But the passion that the fancy Americans consumers have for quality import products cannot alone account for the insanely baffling proliferation of Italian coffees in the U.S. My instinct tells me that Americans are trying to “customize”, in their practical and organized way, the complexity hidden behind the apparent simplicity of an espresso or a cappuccino, which they do not quite grasp ….unless it is Americanized. I always took their curiosity as a compliment to the Italian culture, but the result is often the inevitable creation of hybrids which, much like the famous fettuccine Alfredo are an American invention, available in fact only in the U.S. But espresso in the U.S. is a relatively new phenomenon. Therefore new definitions are coined every day; and while finding a good espresso remains a difficult task, passing as Italian a method or a recipe, which is not Italian, can be a rather disconcerting experience for an Italian native. One reason the Americans may be inclined to develop so many terms of engagement and alternatives is because, they can’t resist the temptation of “embellishing” things, giving options to the consumer – a basic Ford model-T version for the poor, then a Cadillac with all the bells and whistles, plus a wide range of options in between. It seems to me that the creation of something that is bound to become “popular” is an excuse to hide a “populist” agenda, which aims to please the average taste of the public in any possible way, rather than educating the public to a better product. This implies descending to the level of the public, with the objective of making money. Nothing wrong with it – just one cannot pretend that quality would be anywhere in the lower-bottom picture of this philosophy. PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS The coffee conundrum is simply spoken. In Italy, simple traditions like coffee have been perfected for centuries, and there is no room for further improvement. There is only striving for perfection, by editing unnecessary aspects of it. This is true to the making of a good Ornellaja, a Ferrari or a Valentino dress Excellence achieved by practice and repetition lays at the origin of such Italian seriousness on the subject. The simpler, the better. This is why the bar that makes the best coffee carries something intrinsically historical in it. This picture leaves America in the role of the country who liberated itself from the burdens of history and its traditional methods – yet, one needs to raise the question: why is then a vacation in Italy so coveted by the workaholic and production-oriented American? The answer is yours to figure out. In spite of the secular secrets of simplicity, Americans seem to enjoy tampering with recipes and experimenting with things. Let’s call it curiosity, even if it borderlines with fiddling with perfection. For some reason, still obscure to me, some Americans believe that more is better; also that bigger is better. For coffee, this means more ingredients and larger sizes. Tall, super tall, extra large – you will never hear such terms in Italy. A Trenta, the super-sized coffee cup introduced by Starbucks last May is a whopping 31-ounce option, which is larger than the average human stomach. With 1,400 mg of caffeine and a seemingly incalculable amount of sugar, it’s literally a recipe for disaster. Americans have a joyful belief that by altering a formula or recipe, or by adding this and that new ingredient or flavor, things will be improved. A simple look at the so-called “international” cuisine will leave the well-traveled consume in a postmodern hip-hop, with fillets of sole wrapped around a core of Fontina cheese and bacon – I am not kidding. They are highly criticized by Europeans for this audacious practice, but inevitably, in doing this, Americans often stumble into something new, like they did when they realized that the New York-style pizza was a kind per se and that it could be sold back to the rest of the world as American pizza. Maccaroni & cheese – another national phenomenon of a product which has dubious Italian origins, i.e. the maccheroni, but which remains completely unknown in Italy – is so popular among college students that it accounts for 50% of their food intake, together with Coca Cola, French fries, candy-bars, doughnuts and chewing gums – take this statistics from an ex college-professor. These rather green and basic customers, fed with burgers, coke and pop corn, have grown up and are now buying Italian coffee at Starbucks. This rests my point. It is no surprise that imitation-Italian-coffee is enjoying such a sudden fame among the junk-food taste-indiscriminate generations. It’s all a brilliant marketing manipulation. Think about it: if Starbucks and Caribou marketed their product to a sophisticated clientele, they would bankrupt in one week. The moral: if you want to taste a good cup of coffee, stay away from franchise dealers! I will not enter the highly controversial ground of who makes the best Italian coffee in the US. I will limit myself to warn you that the ubiquitous Starbucks and Caribou Cafè grossly over-roast their beans, to the point that they burn them. This is typically done in order to mask the taste of beans of poor quality. It is also done out of arrogance, the arrogance of 1 billion dollars in annual sales. Unfortunately , there is a sexist bias at play, most likely put around by some steroid-fed body-builder with a pea brain, since lighter roasts have been recently dubbed by a national hub like Eater.com literally as “a beverage for pussies”. http://eater.com/archives/2011/10/18/starbucks-makes-a-weaker-coffee-for-nation-of-pussies.php Nothing can be more forged and far from the truth. Macho drink, my boots! When coffee beans pass their roasting peak, they are good for mulch. The resulting drink tastes charred – results in a highly acidic and tannic coffee, which will offend your palate and can perforate the walls of your stomach. Aside from being utterly poisonous, their coffees are also caffeine bombs. This tragic mistake is made in the attempt to provide the consumer with more. More flavor, more punch, more everything! But there is a problem with all military approaches. There is inefficiency, and a natural point of non return. If you push coffee past the ideal point, the quality curve pitches down dramatically. Any mathematician or European wine maker know this incontrovertible rule of Creation. But the state of denial of the American mind before long-standing traditions is so wicked, that it borderlines foolishness. Unfortunately this is true to its deep-seated desire to solve all the problems of the world – the results are in plain sight. And so it goes that darker roast coffee is incidentally obtained, in the attempt to achieve a higher density of flavor (which the experts know, is provided not by coffee concentration, but by the essential oils which, unfortunately, over roasting methods tend to evaporate and turn into harmful chemicals, such as tannin). Please, don’t get me started with chemistry! You would not eat overcooked fish? Would you? Franchise venues may make our cities more friendly, but they unfortunately represent a coffee sub-culture. They do not qualify as sophisticated coffee-makers regardless of their lavish profits on Wall Street. They certainly do not qualify as acolytes of coffee connoisseurs, no matter what your argument or delight might be on their defense. Once again, the real issue here is true culture, versus the flattening effects of blanket marketing and mega-bucks. GOING LOCAL What is the alternative to commercial and Franchise coffee? The answer is: go local. For an espresso or cappuccino, try to locate an Italian restaurant or café. Any one of them, even a non-authentic one, will serve you a better cup of coffee than the mighty Starbucks. For starters, try Cafè Intermezzo, a classic bistro, on Peachtree Road (not on a weekend night), or the cozy and ultra-modern E-Bar Cyber Cafè (they serve only Illy), downtown by Woodruff Park. You may also try Baraonda (they use Lavazza Blue) or Sotto Sotto, where they use pure Illy. Forget a ristretto, you will never get it in the U.S. But their espresso lungo and cappuccinos are excellent. Avoid Fritti, where the machine is at the mercy of untrained waiters. Or, if you are open to new experiences (otherwise, you may as well not be alive) you may want to try Aurora Coffee. You will be pleasantly surprised. Unlike other franchises, its employees are well trained to Italian machines, they use the right coffee, and they seem to know what they are doing. Just avoid the double espresso and you will be fine. I gained a wealth of knowledge at their location in Virginia-Highlands. Here is how you can “customize” your coffee drink at Aurora Coffee. Their first step, the Espresso, corresponds more or less to our caffè lungo, sometimes it borderlines the character of a French coffee, depending on the machine operator. But its bouquet is richly soft (non acidic) and both the selection and the freshness of the roast do not get much better on this side of the ocean. A Double – two shots of espresso – is an unclouded attempt to bring your personal blood-pump to fibrillation. My guess is that it is provided to please caffeine-addicts, coming from the atrocious Caribou Cafe, where customers have stainless-steel lining in their guts. It is entirely up to you. An Espresso Macchiato is a hybrid beetween an Italian macchiato which is probably half the size of it, and the beginning of a cappuccino. But it has its own merit. The Cappuccino, simply called a cap, is one of the closest things to an Italian cappuccino flavor you can find in Atlanta –ironically, since both the size and the proportions are altered. But feel the aroma of it: these guys know how to take it intact out of the beans. I’d give it an eight out of a scale of ten, which is the highest grade I have given to nay coffee in this city. The Latte, is the American version of our mom’s latte-caffè, but with a clear resemblance to a soft cappuccino. It is excellent. A Moka (elsewhere known as mokaccino) is essentially the same thing, only made with steamed chocolate milk instead of regular milk. A Shot in the Dark is quite an original invention, which resembles the attempt of the Italian “corretto” to boost up one’s drink. It is a shot of espresso dropped into a regular cup of American coffee. What an idea! Opposite to it, there is the Americano, which is the attempt to make the espresso palatable to the American taste, by diluting a shot of espresso into a cup of hot water. I find it overly self-conscious, humorous, as I have seen it done in Italy by tourists not ready for the punch of an espresso. But, please, do not confuse the latter with American coffee, obtained by dripping method, with complete different types of beans, a faster roasting process and coarser grind. It still tastes like espresso, only without the impact of it. Aurora has definitively a quirky sense of humor, for they have made room for the fancy and whimsical customer. You can tell it from the new-age pop music they play, where if you may get suddenly surprised by a Velvet Underground or Doors original tune. The following terms define other possible variations on the aforementioned, basic themes. These are all new definitions. Skinny, for calorie-aware consumers, which defines anything made with skim milk. I find it kind of lifeless, but I am not well-adept to the deprivation of food-substitute generations. For your information, all dietary products are suspicious to a true Italian. Our grandparents never followed a diet and lived way pass ninety. Then, there is a “bald”, which means a cap without froth. Of course, Decaf is available, but why bother? The Half-caf, nice accommodation for both the eternally guilty and the eternally undecided type, could be a viable alternative for coffee-addicts who have not decided what they want. And, lastly, Iced for very hot days and ice-maniacs. Two choices of size: short and tall –which I find rather civilized. As the funny cartoon says, it can get quite complicated as in a “tall, single, bald, skinny, decaf, iced, latte, to go.” Try to imagine the face of an Italian bartender after an order of this kind? It does not matter whether you find this list amusing or strange, because, guess what, we come to these pages for a reason: to get out of our habitual way of thinking and to enjoy life without so many prejudices, and with sense of humor. Of course, if we are capable of it. If you are open-minded, coffee in the U.S. can get as fancy as you like. How about a White Moka Cappuccino? Or a custom frappè-cap called Double Fudge Chocolate Brownie Frappuccino? Sounds fat but it actually isn’t. Of course, capricious people will go to capricious coffee houses. Aurora may remain reserved to those coffee-hounds with an evolved sense of smell. Well, it is how the world goes around. Regarding language itself, should we expect that a “lattè” may evolve into a genre of its own, as a worldwide renown drink? You’d bet. Do not ask me why some franchises put an accent on the “e” instead of on the “a” – one would have hope, to help with the original pronunciation. Never mind, this is America and the rule is no rule. Thank you for bearing with my coffee rambling this far. Yours truly, Arturo Giancarlo Pirrone
THE FADING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES Foreign languages have been at the forefront of the national debate. It was all over WPBA, just the other day. According to a recent survey, our national public educational system has been progressively loosing foreign language courses and many schools now offers only Spanish as an optional second language. There is nothing wrong with Spanish, since it is by far the most popular foreign language in the US, but it is now isolated. The problem with the disappearance of foreign language programs is with the decline of communication skills and understanding of foreign cultures, which goes hand in hand with misunderstandings, faulty interpretations, not to mention xenophobia. I don’t need to explain to this enlightened audience the dangers of cultural isolation. There is an intrinsic arrogance in this feeling as it breeds only trouble. The belief that the entire world should communicate in English suppresses diversity, which has far-reaching and dangerous consequences. Misconstrued wars are only the beginning of it. The worst of the consequences is that a mono-culture can be wiped out by a storm, a bug or a freak accident of nature. This problem is very well known in agriculture; where the diversification of corn and grain species has made its way into the practice of cultivation. I don’t need to remind you of the Potato Blight that wiped out Ireland and killed more than a million people. That was a mono culture. Language blocks are affected by the same problems. On paper, the idea that the entire world would speak one language has some practical advantages, but the camel back is broken the moment we deal with cultural identity, the disappearance of which is a recipe for disaster. If nature was meant to have only daisies as flowers, it would have already happened. By transfer, if humanity was meant to speak one language, we would have seen it. Now, there is another problem with Spanish becoming the only optional language offered in our schools. Unfortunately, unlike Italian or French, Spanish is perceived as a non-elite language, unjustly discounted as obvious, penalized by some as second-class and even discriminated upon. Although this attitude may be a consequence of the great influx of population immigrating from Central America, the same people who discriminate the immigrants are aware of literary masterworks by great poets from Garcia Lorca to Marti’, from Isabel Allende to Garcia Marquez, written in such richly onomatopoeic, sensuous tongues, not to mention amazing movie directors such as Almodovar or Guillermo del Toro. Perhaps we should remind ourselves that by narrowing our humanistic perspective to a point of irreversible loss, the damage on trade will be visible. The moral: next time you plan to come to Ciancia, remember that you are countering this tendency and that you are opening your vision and philosophy to different ideas, which may ultimately improve your own. I am yours sincerely, Giancarlo Pirrone (edited by Alexandra Salivia Soares) WORLD PEACE, BY ALEXANDRA SALIVIA If you are among those who think that Ciancia cannot contribute to world peace, think again. In a world where discordance is born to be free and everything becomes a reason to divide people, language reigns in its unifying power. Language is the shy student that sits in the back row of the classroom, hesitatingly raising his hand to speak and say, “I know how to solve the problem.” For many years, institutions and governments engaged in the thought that the ultimate way to achieve peace was to bring everyone under the same umbrella. English became the “universal language”, companies hired accent reduction specialists to make their employees sound less of who they are, Europe adopted the Euro, and governments signed endless treaties agreeing with policies that homogenized what made each country unique. Despite all these efforts, world peace seems to evade us. Where does language stand in the middle of all this? The beauty of language is that it remains different. I stand daily in front of my students, a group of immigrants and political refugees from around the world, and never cease to be amazed. They are committed to learning English to fare well in this country, but it is only when they teach me and others how to speak their own languages, or speak about their countries and cultures, that the passion is visible. In difference, we flourish. In learning other languages, cultures and customs, we grow and achieve peace. When loved for who they are, people become less belligerent and paranoid. Acceptance stops the need to assert ourselves in negative ways. So, these holidays, I vow not to start another conversation with “The unemployment rate is sooooo bad”, “Did you hear what’s happening in Europe”, or “In today’s economy” (this one will for sure drive me to heavy drinking). These holidays, I would rather ask “Parla Italiano”, or “How do you say difference is good in Italian?” So, still wandering how Ciancia can contribute to world peace? – Alexandra Salivia |
If you are still laughing at the image of the Starbucks van, be aware that I laughed hard at it myself. But I am not here to disparage an incredibly smart company that strikes gold on beans before we even go to work. I am quite positive that I would lose the attention of any Starbucks trained mixologist within the first chapter. Unfortunately, this is not an article about the unfathomable concoctions developed by American franchises to please and confound the consumer; it is a discourse about quality and traditions… something for the purist among you. If you are one, this artticle is for you.