Coind president and c.e.o., Luca Cioffi
By Thomas Schmid
Coffee is enjoyed around the world, with different countries having developed various ways of celebrating the dark brew. But without a doubt, Italy is in a league of its own. Perhaps nowhere else is a simple cup of coffee so deeply embedded in national culture, so ingrained in daily life, as there. Generally speaking, a “typical” Italian coffee would be “short and intense,” as opposed to milk-based coffees which are more appreciated abroad,” explained Luca Cioffi, president and c.e.o. of Bologna-based Coind S.C., one of the country’s biggest coffee roasters.
But there is also the fact that virtually every “true” Italian coffee is, indeed, an “espresso,” which of course refers to the brewing method rather than the blend. This particular method of extraction is so inherent to Italian culture that, for locals, the words “coffee” and “espresso” are synonymous. “In Italy, when a consumer asks for a ‘coffee,’ they mean an ‘espresso,’” affirmed Cioffi. A “typical” Italian coffee is also characterized by its aroma, which, depending on the particular blend, lingers on notes of cocoa, fruit, toasted bread, even a hint of spring flowers.
And it must be “attractive when served in a cup, specifically in terms of aroma, taste, and consistency,” according to Coind’s r&d manager, Susanna Tarozzi. “The crema must be fine, compact, and persistent with an intense homogeneous color,” she elaborated. “On a gustatory level, an ‘espresso’ must have sweet notes, with complex and harmonic acidity, followed by an intense and soft body.” Tarozzi adds that “dirty” scents of earth, mold, or straw ought to be absent.
“Typical Italian roast” – an elusive term
While aromatically and flavor-wise it appears rather clear-cut what should be expected of a “typical Italian coffee,” defining what constitutes a “typical Italian roast” would be much too generic and bear little meaning as an absolute reference. After all, the country today boasts around 800 roasting companies, ranging from “micro-roasteries” to large internationally represented firms such as Coind, Illy, Lavazza, and quite a handful of others.
“The topic [of typical Italian coffee roasting] is obviously more complex than a simple parameterization of [roasting] times and temperatures,” confirmed Moreno Faina, director of the Università del Caffè (UdC - University of Coffee), a teaching institution established by Illycaffè S.p.A. Faina pointed out that a roasting machine has to deal with a combination of processes including the selected raw material, the creation of the blend, and the roasting curve and termination.
And then there is the human factor that influences everything. “It is decidedly evident that the human factor exerts a relevant weight in all these processes, and this leads to considering the final [roasting] result as a function of know-how and consolidated experience of individual roasting teams or the single master roaster,” Faina said.
These technical aspects aside, what we can say is that, as a general rule of thumb, the “typical” Italian espresso blend is made up of at least four to six different raw coffees to obtain the blend’s olfactory and gustatory complexities. But then again, a single, uniform espresso blend that is appreciated all across the country simply does not exist. Rather, each region has its own traditional blends that are preferred by the locals, according to Tarozzi. “For instance, in northern Italy, consumers appreciate more arabica-rich coffees, while those in the South prefer a higher percentage of robusta,” she said.
Moreover, any given blend composition alone is not enough to define the espresso either, as “the degree of roasting must also be considered,” which usually ranges from medium dark to dark. Nor does the choice of specific arabica or robusta origins play a distinctly defining role. “Both washed and natural green coffees can be used [in the blend]; or still better, a combination of the two,” Tarozzi told STiR.
Two strategies, two success stories
Coind purchases coffees from around the world. Its arabica supplies mostly hail from South America, but the company primarily taps Vietnam and India for its robusta requirements [see table]. The beans subsequently find their way into Coind’s four proprietary brands Meseta, Attibassi, Caffê Caracci, and Soleado. These brands are marketed in 52 countries and accounted for 21% of Coind’s total revenue in 2019. But the company’s main earner (79% in 2019) is private label manufacturing. “As a private label producer, we seize new opportunities, like, for example, in the case of ‘Consuelo,’ a brand that we exclusively developed for Amazon, and which we now successfully sell all over Europe,” explained Cioffi. The strategy helped Coind gain a solid foothold in 20 countries with its private label manufacturing business.
Meanwhile, Illycaffè is following a very different path to success. The company not only markets just one single blend worldwide but it also exclusively uses arabica beans for its creation, with no robusta proportion whatsoever. And, as we have already explored at the beginning of this article, this approach actually only reinforces the notion that a “typical Italian coffee blend” as such doesn’t exist in the generic sense. Historically speaking, Italy’s coffee culture originated in the main ports of Genoa, Naples, and Trieste, where coffee bean shipments arrived. “The composition of coffee blends was dependent on the… availability of coffee lots in port warehouses, as well as the relative freshness of the product itself,” said Faina.
Illy, which not coincidentally is headquartered in Trieste, today purchases arabica from 60 coffee-growing regions in 20 countries, which then are transformed into the iconic 100% arabica Illy blend. Faina divulged that this blend incorporates nine carefully selected arabica components. The blend recipe is dynamic and variable, being constantly adjusted according to the organoleptic characteristics of the various coffee batches used “to always obtain the same familiar Illy taste.” With the aim of enhancing particular aromatic components, this perpetually fine-tuned blend is marketed worldwide under three roasting profiles: Classico, Intenso, and Forte (see table).
Illy’s single-blend, three-profile strategy has panned out beautifully for the company, of course. Together with its competitor Lavazza, it is perhaps the internationally best known Italian coffee brand. From Alaska to Zanzibar, Argentina to Zimbabwe, Illy has become a fixture in the HORECA sector as well as in countless offices and private households. While Faria declined to disclose concrete figures, he stated that, “Every day more than 8 million cups [of Illy coffee] are consumed in over 140 countries in the finest cafés, restaurants, hotels, and in offices and homes.”
Looking outward
As far as future business development and expansion are concerned, looking outward by focusing on global markets certainly is the only sensible avenue for large companies like Illy and Coind. With an estimated 800 roasteries in a country roughly the size of the U.S. state of Arizona, domestic competition within Italy is tense. “For us, the key point in the next few years certainly is going to be pushing international sales,” said Coind’s Cioffi. “Last year, our exports have grown by more than 50%. And within the next three years we are aiming at doubling our export volume once again,” he elaborated, also pointing out that Coind has invested €20 million in the past three years, primarily on single-serve capsule technology.” It is clear that each company must find its own strategy to remain competitive; and for us that is private label manufacturing.”
Illy’s Faina likewise confirmed that “competition among roasting companies in Italy is obviously very high.” But he also insisted that this was foremost driven by the sheer density of “single roasteries in a provincial, regional, interregional, and national context.” De-facto competition was, thus, not only created among companies that followed a similar geographical strategy, but also their marketing choices targeting the HORECA, commercial office, as well as home use sectors. Yet very few roasters commanded complete presence in all geographical areas and market sectors. Price was another strong factor in the strategic choices that competing coffee roasters make, as well as the level of services and benefits they extend especially in the HORECA theater. “But the subject is extremely complex and would warrant an adequate in-depth study,” Faina concluded.
Not that Illy has too much to worry about, though. With Faina describing Illy as “the world’s most global coffee brand,” it is quite apparent that the company has long ago spread far beyond its home country. Although Faina readily revealed that Italy still remains the company’s most important national market, Illy products enjoy an extraordinarily widespread representation in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and, further down the road, the United States and Canada. And although Italians continue consuming gigantic amounts of coffee every single day of the year, a quick glance at the country’s green bean trade figures make it very evident what a crucial role extra-Italian markets have come to play: In 2018, Italy imported 9.9 million bags (594,000 tons) of green coffee, equivalent to 475,200 tons of roasted product. In the same year, 206,400 tons of roasted coffee were exported, or a little over 43%. That of course means that Italy’s coffee lovers had to be content with just under 57% of their country’s entire roasted coffee output. But we guess it was still enough for just about everybody.
Contributors:
Co.ind S.C. www.coind.it
Valentina Pareschi, communications mgr VPareschi@coind.it
Illy www.illy.com
Christine Pascolo, press office
Christine.Pascolo@illy.com