Best Italian Coffee

The Italians drinking coffee, or caffè, is as synonymous with the British habitual tea drinking. Just as there are many ways to brew one's cuppa in Blighty with an assortment of types of teapots and kettles to choose from, so too are the options in creating the Italian caffeine styled beverage with caffettieres or table top machines.

You often hear that the Italian coffee is the best in the world, and of all the places I have traveled to so far I would have to agree.

I rarely drink tea now and only ever have coffee made from fresh grounds and never instant. Apart from the obvious huge gap in flavour, the caffeine content is actually a lot higher in the instant varieties. So if you have an aversion to strong coffee because it is high in caffeine, think again. The espresso may seem very strong in taste but actually, if made correctly, does not necessarily have a high caffeine content. Caffeine is released at about 18 seconds after the boiling water reaches the grounds, and it will continue to release caffeine until the water has gone or has cooled. Therefore using a pressurised machine to force the water through the coffee quickly, releases the flavour without too much caffeine. Using this theory I rarely make coffee in the plunger-type caffettiere, often refered to as the French style, because the coffee just sits there in the water for a long time.

I've tried many types and brands of caffettiere over the years since living in Italy and come to the conclusion that 'Made in Italy' does not necessarily mean that all Italian product designs are the best.
For example, there is a downside to the Italian caffettieres too, aluminium. It has been widely reported that cooking with aluminium saucepans may actually cause premature ageing. Most of the cheaper models of caffettiere (Stove Top Brewers) are made with aluminium so I no longer use them. There are now many models made with stainless steel which have the added bonus of not tainting the flavour of the coffee, are much easier to clean and last so much longer.

I bought a Giannini model in 2001 and it wss still working perfectly in 2011. Originallly I bought it because it has a handle which locks the two halves together rather than the traditional design of having to screw them togther. It came in three sizes of which I opted for the medium, about two cups. Italian cups not British ones. It seemed expensive at €55 but perhaps had I bought the cheaper aluminium one it may well have been replaced many times by now, and perhaps I'd be greyer too.

So what happened in 2011 you may ask. Well we moved house and the new kitchen design utilised an induction hob, which you may or may not know only works with pans made with the correct metal base. The Giannini caffettiere was not. Sadly we could no longer use it and was replaced by a Bialletti.

Giannini do also make them for induction starting at around €74 and no doubt I will be shopping for one soon when the Bialletti has passed its best. The original I bought in Rome will probably make a reappearance as a camping accessory this summer.