Wake up and smell the coffee

I received an email from an American friend of mine recounting her recent experience with coffee.  She was invited to lunch at a friend’s house, whose husband is an Italian-born diplomat. After lunch, the hostess asked who wanted coffee. My friend was so excited to think that it would surely be an excellent Italian brew, maybe even a lovely cappuccino. It sadly wasn't. She popped the pot of filter coffee on the counter and served everyone.  ‘It's just not right,’ my friend thought, ‘I'm a coffee snob. Was I wrong to think an Italian home would have more refined taste?’

I, myself, have become the ultimate coffee snob.  My first memory of coffee was on a family trip to Portugal when I was four years old.  The coffee was served in the tiniest of cups; they looked like the cups from my doll’s tea set.  I still remember the smell; the aroma was so delicious, but the flavour left a bitter taste in my mouth.


When I moved to London more than 20 years ago, I was very disappointed to go into the kitchen at my office to discover Nescafe was being used for coffee.  To me, this instant, powdered drink was not coffee.  I had just arrived from Brussels where the most modest of coffees is served with a small biscuit or piece of rich, delicious chocolate.  At the time there was no Starbucks or Caffé Nero.  Tea was (and still is) the traditional hot drink. 

When I first met my Italian husband, he would bring coffee back from Rome in his suitcase.  He would go to

Caffé Sant’Eustachio and watch them grind the beans in front of him.  We had a traditional Moka pot and made espresso on the cooker.  Eventually we purchased an espresso machine in Italy which used capsules to make the coffee, producing a lovely, rich, frothy coffee similar to that found in a coffee bar in Italy.  But the capsules weren't available here in the UK so we had them delivered to his parents and brought them back in our luggage.  As a result, we had to ration them out.  We have now purchased a new Lavazza espresso machine and we can get the capsules here too, a real bonus as we can drink as much coffee as we want! 

After all these years of living in London, I still can’t call myself a tea drinker.  Coffee, on the other hand, is another story.  

Written by Eva Stock. Eva is Director of Sponsors Relations at FOCUS.

For more information about FOCUS visit:  www.focus-info.org