As a Venezuelan we love to drink coffee, it's in our culture, everybody has had at least a latte (cafe con leche) or a filter one (guayoyo), having said that, the complacent patron back home, never asks for the perfect espresso, and even less complain for a bad coffee they receive. But now thanks to Pietro Carbone curiosity and Italian roots things are changing. Pietro is educating the consumer, showing them what a good espresso should be, the basic differences between coffee and its correct preparation, even a little bit of history and trading economics on the topic.
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| Coffee time |
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| Espresso |
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| Calibration time |
I won't go too much on the production, but it’s shocking how a country with the resources and capabilities to be one of the top coffee producers is lagging behind massively. Taking USDA figures for 2011, if we compared ourselves to our neighbours, Brazil produced 3,270 million kg, while Colombia 511 million kg, Venezuela production have been declining and now it’s 41 million kg shocking isn't?
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| Filtre preparation for a Guayoyo |
But what is a perfect espresso?
Looks easy but it's quite complex topic, first let's check a bit of history, the espresso was born in Italy, in 1884 Moriondo's patent was discovered by Ian Bersten, a machine described more like a coffee brewer rather than a espresso, then in 1901, when Luigi Bezzera owner of a manufacturing company wanted to reduce the break time of his employees, after playing a bit more with pressure and boiling water he constructed and improved the machine, then Pavoni bought Bezzera patents and started to produce the machine industrially.
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| Preparing a Ristretto or a Corto |
But how to make the hazel brown to dark brown cream, the mathematical approach to get the 25 millilitres of coffee recognised as espresso is to brew 7 grms of grounded coffee during 25 seconds in the machine. According to Talleyrand the recipe is black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love. The type of coffee, it will depend on the barista, what type of blend they use (Arabica and/or Robusta), probably a secret just like the coke formula or the McDonalds sauce, the grains are roasted at the darkest possible, around 14 minutes when the beans starts to smoke, giving the beans a caramelised, dark, and oily aspect. The beans have to be grinded to the right specification, it’s basically a trial and error until you are getting 25 millilitres in 25 seconds, and obviously the right equipment to produce it.
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| Bean roasting demonstration |
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| Final roasting for an espresso |
I spent one amazing morning getting all these concepts and practising on the machines, Pietro is a great facilitator, with extensive knowledge on the subject, if you don’t like coffee I assure you will love it after the session. Two courses so far, a basic for principles and how to make the perfect espresso and an intermediate one focusing more on Latte Art, a must if you’re in Caracas and want to learn more on the topic or if you need any equipment as Pietro distributes espresso and coffee equipment as well.
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| Pietro Carbone |
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| In action |
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| Practising latte art |
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| Marisol with some of the creations |
Coffee reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Phone Massage”
Jerry: You're still thinking about this?
George: She invites me up at twelve o clock at night, for coffee. And I don't go up. “No thank you, I don't want coffee, it keeps me up. Too late for me to drink coffee." I said this to her. People this stupid shouldn't be allowed to live. I can't imagine what she must think of me
Jerry: She thinks you're a guy that doesn't like coffee
George: She invited me up. Coffee's not coffee, coffee is sex
Elaine: Maybe coffee was coffee
George: Coffee's coffee in the morning, it's not coffee at twelve o’ clock at night
Elaine: Well some people drink coffee that late
George: Yeah, people who work at Norad, who're on twenty-four hour missile watch. Everything was going along so great: she was laughing, I was funny. I kept saying to myself keep it up, don't blow it, you're doing great
Carbone Espresso
T: +58 212 261 7044
Coffee Training and Equipment
Approx Damage: BsF 700pp (Basic Training Course)
Area: Altamira
Borough: Chacao
Caracas
Twitter: carbonespresso
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