happy birthday my friend

just added a new picture on my page. enjoy. forca napoli!

gracie...sicilia was great experience, but not good coffee as in napoli, after all, espresso is from napoli...
havnt meet any of camorra or cosa nostra...hahaha
miss you...

my friend, im opening a roastery and a bar in a place of 250m2 just some 500m from my shop. ill make a bar concept, kind of a show room of how we roast and what coffee is. opening after feragosto. btw, i was on sicilia two weeks ago...hope you are fine and your family. salve

hi carlo...how are you doin?

really, you're gonna love phils. but i have to prepare for your coming and see you at my work place..

have you ever been in Indonesia ?
if you come to Indonesia, please Visit in my office in Bali.

Ciao, Signore Carlo
i try to edit my pic but can't, myb ilater i put the other Picture.
which one do you like, Arabica or Robusta ??
which one the Best according to you Signore.

Ciao Carlo,
I would like to know three or four of your favorite Italian red wines, per favore.
Also, do you own a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, or a Duccati? #8-)
Ciao, bella la vida! Ciao=-chow (pronounce)
Arriverdercci

I will most likely be at the SCAA. But almost for sure I will be at Milan. I hear it is a great show, lots of fun as well! I will keep in touvh and let you know when plans are firmed up

Hello Carlo, sadly I was in Italy when you were busy... hopefully next time you will be around. My love affair wih Italy is gathering steam and I am real sure I will be back this year. I am sure Milan has a coffee show later this year right? i LOVED the south. It is so very different from the north of country in every way. Lever machines are the norm down there, and as in your post once you go lever you never will go back! Let me get back to you about coffee... we were sucessful in Trieste with some of what we brought over. Ciao my friend!

You know Carlo, my trip to Italy really convinced me that the use of Robusta in some blends was not at all a bad thing. I enjoyed somne fantastic espresso in the North as well as the South that had anywhere from 5% to 50% robusta content. One of the very best I tried was an Indian washed robusta, blended with Indian, Ethiopian and Yemenese Arabica. Ciao

Hallo Signore

Hi Carlo,

I operate a 3-group Lever La Pavoni in my shop. My team of baristi and myself love it, but not the entire industry. We pump 200 coffees in an hour during lunch easily with it. I noticed that the settings for the lever machine is set to pull 20 ml of espresso as a default standard when it arrived from italy. Any reason for it? I love ristrettos and based on international standards (SCAA and SCEA), its only 15ml which will should occur ideally in the first 15 seconds of extraction. Why the different standards all over?

Last but not least, what's the best way to clean the group heads for the lever machine since it does not allow a backflush.

Cheers!

Ciao Carlo, thought I would say hello. Will be in Italy November, would love to wranggle an invite to come and see how things are being done in Napoli.

Ciao Carlo
Just a fyi your kind email to Kris today made her smile...
Hope to see you in Europe this year... Bruce

Thanks Matt

Natale is now gone so.... happy 2008.
I will try again

ciao

Hi Carlo,

Sorry for the trouble joining the roaster group. I looked into and all I can suggest is trying again.

Grazie, Boun Natale!

Welcome aboard, viva Italia!

Blending, as roaster, is my main concern of course, but then what should I be doing all that work for, if there were no experienced baristas to transform my blend into a great cup? My work terminates in the cup at the bar, when the final customer takes his last sip of my coffee, not just when I have sold my coffee to that bar!
Blending is the art for the mainstream industry: not everybody can afford COE selections and in my opinion even among the COEs you will not so often find what you need to obtain a well balanced cup of espresso.
Like in cooking the ingredients have to be good ones, but what turns them into a great dish is their combination and the art of the cook... So I am not looking for COE brasilian Arabicas, just looking for the best "interpreters" of what I think a brazilian arabica should perform, and I often use more than just one of them in a blend; so is for all the african, central american, indian or indonesian Arabicas and Robustas You can get .
And of course I am not an Arabica "purist"; I don't believe that the only fascinating women are the white ones; I have seen breathbreaking black or creole women in my life! In the same way you can find some (rare) fascinating Robustas to make blends with...
A wise blending can create what some rare, selected coffees can perhaps offer all alone but... where are these star coffees? How much of them is really available? How much would they cost?
"Formula 1" , like COE , is the right territory of confrontation for these coffees and it is very good and desirable that such competitons exist to boost the research for a better quality in production, but when it is about making a product that can give very good and consistent results for everyday's espresso and cappuccino job.... then you need top be a good blender, with first line players and ....reserves in case one of the new lots is not quite as it should have been (by the pre-shipment sample..)...
I will like to talk more in depth and in person with you; ..but I have already been too long in this message

ciao