The Taste of a few selected Drinks

Morning reflexion upon a cup of coffee

I know there is no accounting for taste. But here is what popped up to my mind this morning as I was sipping my daily cup of coffee.

I am one of these strange persons that happen to love the taste of good coffee, particularly at breakfast time. French coffee is usually good but the Italians are the best in the art of making coffee. This is one of my best enjoyable moment when I am in Italy – which I am not far to think is my favorite place to be. As I often transit via Fiumicino Airport, my first move is to find a place to have one of these tiny cups of espresso! Condensed as it is, it tastes like the perfume of all coffees! Well, during all my many travels, I have tried them all everywhere. Coffee is like red wine. It has its own blend. According to me, it is either, undrinkable, passable, good or excellent. Living in America, a long time ago, I remembered drinking on and on their light black hot liquid that could be endlessly refilled and that they pompously called 'American coffee'! The French have an expression to qualify this type of beverage: it is called 'jus de chaussette' (literally a sock juice). Obviously, this is in the category of the undrinkable, tasteless one. Fortunately, there came Starbucks later on that

revolutionized the taste of coffee everywhere. I lived in southeast Asia at that time, where coffee was basically non-existent. I had to bring coffee from elsewhere or simply buy some while transiting via Singapore. Soon, Starbucks started to be everywhere, drastically changing the local attraction for teas, (which also is another type of drinks worth talking about). Starbucks brought science and knowledge to people as a powerful educating tool for business. I took classes as I keep going to wine-tasting sessions. First, let me say that between Robusta and Arabica, I personally prefer the second. Again, this is a matter of taste like for chocolate, where my preference goes to bitter black to black, milk or white. I guess this classifies me in the extreme category. I won't argue with that. In coffees, some of the best origins come from Columbia, Brazil but also for Ethiopia, its original place of birth. I must admit that sipping a small glass of Turkish coffee in Istanbul can be a real pleasure,

provided you take the basic precaution of not stirring it! But coming back to Starbucks, their coffee beans come from all major world origins: South or Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia. They classify them as a blonde, medium or dark roast coffees. I like their 'Guatemala Antigua', 'Ethiopia', 'Kenya', or 'Colombia', which are all medium blends. These would be in the 'good' category. However, my taste, once more, goes to their Dark roasts: 'Sumatra', 'Caffè Verona','French' or 'Italian Roast'. These would be classified as very good and I notice this ends a circle to come back to the original French or Italian blends.

At this point of time, it could be useful to go back to the origin of coffee. As we know, it originates from Ethiopia and probably the southwestern tip of the Arabic peninsula, like the mocha bean from the town of Mocha in Yemen. It eventually made its way to Cairo, Egypt, then to Constantinople in Turkey (Istanbul) and finally to Venice and later on to Paris, in Europe. All these countries have remained strong lovers of coffee.

So far, we have talked of all the categories of coffees up to 'very good' but not yet of the top one, classified as 'excellent'. The scientific approach of Starbucks is an asset but it seems it cannot reach the overwhelming weight of tradition. For this, let's turn to wines; red wine, that is to say. Here my personal taste goes to Syrah, Pinot Noir, or Malbec. The Shiraz grape evokes the origin of the Iranian wine of Shiraz sung by the XIth century Persian poet Omar Khayyam. However, it refers to three

main grape origins: Syrah comes mostly from the Rhône Valley; Pinot Noir, from Burgundy; and Malbec, from the Bordeaux region of France. Today, Chile, South Africa or Australia also make great Syrah. Argentina has a great Malbec, which has become its trademark. The best Pinot Noir is also produced along the Rio Negro of Argentina, in California or Oregon, in Germany, Italy or New Zealand. The same difference exists between a simple table wine, or a Beaujolais, with let's say a 'Pomerol' from Bordeaux, a 'Clos Vougeot' or a 'Gevrey-Chambertin' from Burgundy, or a 'Châteauneuf-du-Pape' from the Rhône Valley. This may take us far away from coffee. But there is a

parallel between origin and tradition. I once received a tin box of real Ethiopian coffee from friends. And that was a real elixir. Yet, I don't know what it takes but I am a firm believer that Italian coffee remains the best among which two well-known brands emerge. One is starting to get as famous as Starbucks, it is called 'Segafredo'. There are already a few premises in Bangkok, one which I patronize regularly near my home. But as far as I am concerned, in the category of excellent coffee, the king of all, is 'Illy'. By the way, it also comes in a tin box; and yes, it is more expensive than the rest, for a reason!

Perhaps, it is not accidental if the coffee vocabulary uses Italian: 'caffè' (from Kaffa, in Ethiopia), 'barista', 'espresso', 'cappuccino', 'caffè latte'...

After having a plain cup of 'San Marco', for a few days – which I thought was a good Italian brand – I switched to 'Illy'. It could not be clearer. This is what it takes to make it a definite excellent among all the black elixirs. It may sound a bit as a publicity for a company. But my morning daily cup convinced me I had to write something about the taste of Italian coffee. Grazie!

Christian Sorand

→ Previous link: Café Kaldi, Bangkok

Coffee beans from Ethiopia

Publishing link: EHS (Educators Home Share)