Antonio Bilotta serves a lot of brewed coffee, cappuccinos and lattes at his newly opened Bar Oro Caffé and Roastery. But he laments that there aren’t more people who enjoy the purest caffeinated beverage of them all — the straight espresso.
“There aren’t a lot of people in North America who drink straight espresso,” he says. “But, it’s the foundation of so many other drinks, so you have to have it dialed in.”
It’s National Espresso Day on Nov. 23, which is a better reason to celebrate — in our book, at least — than watching a couple of mediocre NFL games to mark American Thanksgiving. So, why not head to your favourite coffee bar and drink as the Italians do?
If you need a prompt, head to the original Italian Centre location in Little Italy. This is where you’ll find the City’s largest number of espresso fans.
“In our Little Italy locations, it’s still a number-one seller,” says Anthony De Santis, director of operations and business development for the Italian Centre shops. “Many of the Italians still come there for their morning espressos.”
Both De Santis and Bilotta say that coffee culture is very different in Italy, and maybe that’s why North Americans as a whole haven’t embraced that small shot of dark espresso.
“If you go to Italy, you don’t see people walking around with cups of coffee,” says De Santis “It’s not the culture. You get your espresso, you drink it at the cafe, you’re with friends, and then you move on with your day.”
“It really saddens me that we don’t drink more espresso, here,” says Bilotta. “In Italy, you will see people have their cappuccinos and lattes before 10 or 11 in the morning, and then it’s espresso all day long.”
But, to enjoy a great shot of espresso, what to look for?
Bilotta says that, after a lot of research, he finds that a blend of medium roasts work the best. He thinks single-origin beans work well for brewed coffee, but not so great in the espresso machine. He says the blend that he’s concocted for Bar D’Oro will have notes of dark chocolate, with some caramel. He plans to add more blends in the near future,
De Santis says that there are simple rules to making great espresso; have great beans, a great machine, the grind has to be perfect and the barista has to be on point.
At the Italian Centre, Kimbo beans, roasted in Naples, are used. They’re fed into Elektra espresso machines. If you want to get a mini Elektra for the home, they’re listed at just over 3,000 Euros. Commercial machines will go for more.
And the grind. Too coarse, and the water flows through too easily, and the drink is too weak. Too fine, “and it’s like pouring water through sand,” says De Santis. It will taste like it has been burned.
