Over the last two weeks my wife, Hannah, and I were celebrating our anniversary in Italy. We got the opportunity to try coffee from the Cinque Terre, Florence, Venice, Rome, and Milan, and we learned a lot about Italian coffee culture as we went. At the end of our trip Hannah and I sat down and recorded this episode, discussing Italian coffee, the culture that its integral to, and how it’s different from U.S. brews.
For a humorous take on the “10 Commandments” of ordering coffee in Italy, check out this post from The Telegraph.
The two specialty coffee shops that are briefly referred to in the episode are Taglio in Milan, and Ditta Artigianale in Florence. Taglio won 3rd place in the 2014 Italian Aeropress Championship, and Ditta Artigianale took 6th place in the 2015 World Barista Championship (Seattle) and 5th place in the 2016 World Barista Championship (Dublin).
This episode of The Boise Coffee Podcast is brought to you by WMF Coffee Machines. If you are looking for a fully automatic commercial coffee machine for your office or workplace, look no further than WMF. Their offerings range from state-of-the-art filter coffee machines all the way to professional, barista-grade equipment. To find out more, visit wmf-coffeemachines.uk.com.
Colin
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This is one of my favorite episodes. I was born and lived there for 25 years, actually not too far from Milan. Growing up I didn’t give coffee too much thought; it’s just part of the food culture. I agree that specialty coffee is not a thing there yet, but hopefully things will change. The first Starbucks store is expected to open in 2017 (https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-announces-it-will-open-stores-in-Italy-in-2017). In the meantime, I’ll keep bringing my coffee and pour over brewing cone when visiting.
GGP – thanks for note! Interesting to hear about Starbucks. I wonder if Italians will accept it for what it is, or outright reject it. I guess we’ll see!