The king of coffee tasters: “We Italians invented espresso but in Finland they are more attentive to taste. I’ll reveal the four secrets to the perfect cup”

In life he is a coffee expert. The 37-year-old has been working since the end of January Simone Zaccheddu, Sardinian from Macomer, in the Nuoro area, is Italian champion of the Cup Tasters category, literally ‘cup tasters’. Now America awaits him and the most prestigious competition – the Specialty Coffee Expo – from April 12th in Chicago, where the best tasters in the world will compete. From the family bar to the cafés for the rich in Paris, soon to Chicago, passing through the victory of the Italian title in Rimini, all in the name of coffee.

From the family bar to the cafés for the rich in Paris, soon to Chicago, passing through the victory of the Italian title in Rimini, all in the name of coffee. But what is his job?

“After years of experience of all kinds in the bar/restaurant sector, I can say that I now work in the ideal place, in Florence, in an Italian company of true excellence in the sector, where I landed when I was about to give up the world of coffee due to the forced stop due to the lockdown in 2020. My company ensures a high salary, Northern European work pace, even a well-kept and bright environment. It is a rare reality, where they have understood that a happy employee works better.”

What is the transition from barista to coffee taster/expert?

“Every bartender should be a taster, a connoisseur of what he prepares and serves. In Italy we still don’t have the true culture of coffee, of quality products, even if we are convinced that we are expert connoisseurs. The taster cup is a figure that has existed in many parts of Europe for some time and which is recently and very slowly gaining ground here also due to the particular relationship that Italians have with coffee”.

Meaning what?

“It is no coincidence that espresso was born in Italy. Here the coffee is used to wake you up before quickly heading to work. Italians have reinvented the very idea of ​​a bar: from the French literary café, where evenings of tasting and cultural exchanges are spent, to our espresso to drink standing up, quickly, and then running to work”.

Drink and run, but at least is Italian coffee of quality?

“There is no such thing as Italian coffee, Italy buys almost exclusively from Vietnam, the second largest producer in the world after Brazil: we import Robusta coffee, not the best type of beans, very toasted, therefore very dark and with a strong flavour, but of poor quality . The countries of Northern Europe, which are currently the largest consumers of coffee (with Finland in first place and Italy in ninth) have understood that the best blends on the market are the clear ones, with light roasting which safeguards the aromas and those which acquire , even if they are more expensive. Even in Italy, however, something is changing, there is a segment of customers who have become more demanding, who inform themselves and choose something else, also thanks to trained and above all passionate bartenders”.

How do you become a coffee taster?

“By studying, attending courses and passing a theory and practical exam, with sensorial tasting. Today in Italy there are around seventy of us with the certification.”

Besides studying, is there a particular predisposition that helps the cup taster?

“Yes, one parameter is that of the taste buds and their number compared to the surface of the tongue: in general, those who have few of them are considered no tasters, but having too many – the super taster – cannot automatically be a taster, because they have excessive sensitivity, which may not allow the flavors to be grasped correctly. Taste buds aside, what is needed above all is curiosity exercised through experience. It’s like having a database, built and implemented over the years, approaching food with the desire to know, to try: smells, flavours, nuances, aftertastes, everything becomes data in the archive, given that it is then recalled to mind at the moment of ‘taste”.

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Due to your work in a company specializing in coffee machines, how many do you drink a day?

“I even get to about ten, maybe not every day, but often. I can assure you that coffee, if it is quality, does not cause gastritis. To obtain a truly quality drink there must be four important components: obviously we start from the type of coffee, the water used, the machine and the barista’s technique. These four elements are, for me, all on the same level, equally fundamental.”

Long, narrow, in glass, corrected, decaffeinated, spotted, American (“born in Italy, while American coffee is something completely different”): in the face of a thousand daily requests, for a good barista what is the best coffee, the best one?

“What you like best, what you choose based on your tastes, what makes you feel good, as with everything in life”.