![]() He is also a competition barista and was a finalist in the Italian Cup Tasting Championship. However, by doing so, many espresso bars will continue to use cheaper, lower-quality coffee and roast it dark, and ostensibly stifle the growth of the specialty sector.ĭario Fociani is the co-founder of Faro Caffé Specialty in Rome. ![]() It’s clear that many Italians want to preserve the affordability of espresso. The watchdog also complained about the price of Starbucks’ espresso in Italy, after the company opened two stores in Rome and Milan in 2018. This was in part thanks to the Italian government imposing a “Covid-19 tax” on widely-consumed products like coffee.Ĭodacons noted that in Rome, espressos had increased in price from €1.10 to €1.50, while they had reached as high as €2 in Milan. Italian consumer watchdog, Codacons, filed a complaint in May 2020, stating that espresso prices had become too high. Is There A Push To Raise The Price Of Espresso? All of this helps keep customer turnover high and beverage costs low, maximising bars’ profit margins. Furthermore, traditionally, Italians drink espresso in no more than three mouthfuls. Service times in Italy for an espresso are just over 30 seconds on average. Further along the supply chain, roasters earn €0.18 a cup, while producers make just €0.02 on average. In fact, coffee bars in Italy have incredibly high margins on espresso, making an average of €0.96 per serving. While this is a generalisation, it has meant that historically, some Italian roasters have been able to buy cheaper green coffee, allowing espresso bars to keep their prices low. The Italian affinity for darker roasts in espresso also means that it’s easier to hide defects and use lower-quality beans. The most expensive espresso can be found in the northern city of Bologna, where the average price is as €1.10. Bari has the lowest-priced espresso across all polled Italian cities, at €0.75. For instance, a ristretto is effectively the standard size of coffee shot in, say, Naples.”Įspressos are also generally cheaper in the south. “However, there is substantial regional variation, particularly from north to south. This usually means a basket of 14g being used to brew two 25ml shots. “The classic single Italian espresso shot is 7g in the basket, served as 25ml in the cup. Furthermore, Jonathan adds, espresso shots tend to be shorter in the south than they are in the north. Generally, as you go further south in Italy, coffee drinkers prefer darker and darker roasts for their espresso. In Italy, the resounding preference is for bold, intense, bitter coffee espresso bars often use dark roasts and sometimes even a blend of arabica and robusta for higher caffeine content. In Italian coffee culture, it’s not uncommon to drink several espressos throughout the course of the day. How Do Consumption Trends Affect The Price Of Espresso?Īpproximately 97% of Italian adults drink coffee every day. It effectively ensured that operators of more ‘modern’ business models, such as chains, were dissuaded from entering the market.” “This met with many proprietors’ approval in the post-war period. “Councils controlled the overall number of bars in operation, and imposed a schedule regulating the days on which each bar could open. Jonathan tells me that these price regulations were, and still are, beneficial for independent espresso bars. “Imposing a fixed price for coffee avoided one bar undercutting another,” he explains. He is also a member of the Consortium for the Safeguarding of Traditional Italian Espresso Coffee. He has published books including Coffee: A Global History. Professor Jonathan Morris is a Research Professor in History at the University of Hertfordshire. Many of them charged extra if the customer sat down to drink their espresso, rather than standing. Given these low prices, espresso bar operators sought to cut corners and save money in other places, including service. However, in 1911, Italian authorities enforced a maximum price for certain “necessities”, which included coffee. However, out-of-home coffee consumption was largely reserved for the upper classes in the early 1900s. This soon led to the emergence of “espresso bars” in Italy. Espresso has been a prevalent part of Italian culture since 1884, when Angelo Moriondo manufactured a machine that used steam to reduce the amount of time required to brew a cup of coffee.Įspresso machines started to become common in coffee shops throughout the early 20th century.
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