SOURCES

Finding Espresso Coffee and Equipment

In an ideal coffee world we would buy our beans a day out of the roaster from the person who had just roasted them, and our equipment at a small specialty store staffed by passionate, knowledgeable clerks ready to provide an endless stream of coffee advice.

In fact, there are coffee stores like that, and they are, without doubt, the best place to buy your coffee and espresso gear. However, we also often are faced with well-meaning but barely informed teenagers staffing chain stores at the end of a half-hour drive on a crowded freeway. In which case, you may be better off buying over the Internet or by catalog. Here is some advice for pursuing both store and Web strategies.

Buying in Person

Coffee. I discuss general retail sources for espresso coffees in Chapter 6. Coffee specialty stores can usually be found in the yellow pages under the “Coffee Dealer, Retail” heading. The qualities to look for in a coffee store are volume and commitment to selling coffee rather than gourmet hams and deli sandwiches. Small, locally based coffee companies that roast right in the store or close by are wonderful. Larger quality-oriented chains like Starbucks, Peet’s, Allegro, Timothy’s World Coffee, and so on, continue to produce very high-quality coffee despite their size. What should be avoided are places where coffee is an afterthought, a row of dusty bags half-forgotten in a corner.

Equipment. Some categories of espresso equipment are easier to find than others. Caffettiere (Category 1, here), small electric steam-pressure countertop brewers (Category 2, here), the cheaper pump machines (Category 3, here), and general-purpose grinders are now stocked in most upscale department stores, and even carried by some chain discount stores. Most Starbucks stores stock a small but well-selected range of pump espresso machines, matching grinders, and espresso paraphernalia.

Specialized espresso grinders, larger pump and automatic machines, manual piston machines (category 4, here), and specialized espresso accessories usually only can be obtained in particularly well-stocked specialty coffee stores or through the mails or internet. Finally, some kinds of equipment—home roasting apparatus, knock-out boxes, and the more exotic piston machines—may be difficult to find in person no matter where you shop. With these unusual apparatus it is probably best to start with the internet.

Buying by Internet or Telephone

Amazingly, at this writing no single Internet site offers the customer a choice of coffees produced by a variety of roasting companies, though one well-established site, www.coffeereview.com, does provide authoritative reviews of a wide range of coffees plus links to sites where those coffees can be purchased.

Single-roaster sites are numerous and sell only the coffees of the roasting companies that support these sites. I can mention only a few of the many of interest to espresso aficionados. Torrefazione Italia (www.titalia.com, 800-827-2333) specializes in espresso and offers the aficionado a wide range of excellent blends (Perugia for straight espresso and Napoli for milk-heavy drinks have the most fans), although the coffee content on the Torrefazione site is rather fluffy. Other companies do not specialize in espresso but offer a particularly wide range of darker roasted coffees appropriate for espresso brewing. Peet’s Coffee & Tea (www.peets.com, 800-999-2132) is an especially useful site, since all of Peet’s coffees, regardless of name or origin, are dark-roasted and make interesting espresso. Other companies may not dark-roast all of their coffees, but offer a wider range of dark-roasted coffees than is typical. Just three of many are Allegro Coffee (www.allegro-coffee.com, 800-666-4869), Armeno Coffee (www.armeno.com, 800-276-3661), and Thanksgiving Coffee (www.thanksgivingcoffee.com, 800-648-6491). Beware of some roasters that, rather than dark-roasting all of their coffees, simply burn them. The signs of heavy-handed dark roasting are a sharp, thin taste dominated by charred tones and an absence of depth and sweetness.

Mr. Espresso is a family-run roasting company that produces particularly supple, smooth Italian-style espresso coffees on traditional oak-fired roasting machines. At this writing the company has no website; call 510-287-5200 or fax 510-287-5204. Try the Gold Medal Blend.

For green coffees and equipment for home roasting try www.fantes.com (800-878-5557) or www.sweetmarias.com. Home roasting has a particularly strong grassroots presence on the web. A search under “home coffee roasting” will net many additional useful sites.

Italian-style syrups for flavored espresso drinks can be difficult to turn up retail. Torani, the leading syrup manufacturer, supports an entertaining website at www.torani.com through which you can access retail sites that carry Torani products. DaVinci, which offers three lines of syrups, including a conventional line, an all-natural-ingredients line, and a sugar-free line, links visitors to retail sources for its syrups at www.davincigourmet.com. Both sites also supply recipes and other syrup-related information. The Monin site (www.monin.com) is impressive, but currently fails to provide links to retail sources for its syrups.

Three useful sites for purchasing chais: www.chaistall.com offers a very authentic chai; www.buychai.com carries a wide variety of nicely crafted if less authentic chais, and www.chai-land.com carries instant and commercial chais for those with no patience.

For purchasing equipment via the Internet, try www.fantes.com, or www.sweetmarias.com. Fante’s also invites telephone orders (800-878-5557), and will research, find a source for, and special order any available piece of coffee equipment not currently in stock. Good cookware catalogs and sites also are useful, particularly Chef’s Catalog (www.chefscatalog.com, 800-338-3232). Or try searching the Internet for the names of equipment manufacturers: searches for Saeco, Pavoni, Faema, Capresso, Rancilio, Gaggia, Braun, and Krups all will net useful sites. In most cases the companies maintain their own sites, but searching for the manufacturer name will provide a means of comparison shopping plus offer up occasional unexpected pleasures, like the delightful Pavoni enthusiasts’ site www.kazys.net.

Finally, a more traditional source for high-end espresso gear, including exotic piston machines, is Thomas Cara (415-781-0383), an old San Francisco family business run by people who know the equipment they sell thoroughly and support it unstintingly. No website, just knowledgeable, friendly owners and a basement full of replacement parts.

Advice on Espresso as Business

Those readers contemplating entering the coffee or espresso business and who are seeking advice should plan to attend the annual meeting and show of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (562-624-4100; www.scaa.org), usually held in late April or early May. NASCOR, the North American Specialty Coffee & Beverage Retailers’ Expo (800-548-0551; www.freshcup.com/nascore), hosts a somewhat smaller show in October. Coffee Fest (206-232-2982; www.coffeefest.com) holds shows at several locations across the country over the course of the year.

Although I can’t imagine entering the business without attending at least one of these events, publications and video tapes are also helpful. For book-length publications and video tapes on the espresso business contact the Specialty Coffee Association of America fulfillment center (800-647-8292; www.scaa.org) or Bellissimo Coffee Education Group (800-655-3955; www.espresso101.com). Trade magazines include the widely read and influential Tea & Coffee Trade Journal (212-391-2060; www.teaandcoffee.net); the somewhat more espresso-oriented Fresh Cup (503-236-2587; www.freshcup.com); the Specialty Coffee Retailer (847-427-9512; www.specialty-coffee.com), and Gourmet Retailer Magazine (305-446-3388; www.gourmetretailer.com). In addition to the websites associated with these publications, www.coffeeuniverse.com and the Specialty Coffee Association of America site (www.scaa.org) are very helpful.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America offers an excellent series of espresso workshops and associated training opportunities. Two reliable espresso-business consultants are Bellissimo Coffee Education Group (800-655-3955; ciao@teleport.com) and Sherri Miller & Associates (303-863-0897; millers40@aol.com).