illy

A good espresso is a memory. When you drink a cola, or a juice, or an iced tea, you keep no memory of it. You drink it and it's gone. But with a good espresso, the flavor rests on your tongue, and for thirty minutes you have a wonderful of that espresso. A bad espresso is like thirty minutes of dentistry.

At illy, there is one blend of coffee, comprised of arabica coffees from nine different countries of origin. The coffee is blended according to taste characteristics prior to roasting to achieve a harmonious flavor. The coffee is roasted at 428 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 12 minutes—either to medium (normale in Italian, or tostatura scura—dark roasted).

You can't add quality to a bean—it must be perfect to begin with, but you can certainly ruin it in the roasting. As the roast becomes darker, there is a risk of over roasting and having bitterness be the primary flavor component. Illy's state of the art computerized roasting equipment monitors the temperature throughout the roasting cycle, so their dark roast is rich, never bitter. If you over roast coffee, all the flavor and aroma goes up the chimney and you are only left with bitterness.

以上都是Dr. Ernesto Illy講的，與我無關。

illy一直是被我歸類成很temperature-picky的豆子，原廠給了很明確的沖煮變數：200±1℉，25-30sec，ICN一個single shot 7ｇ（最少）對應25-30㏄（ICS一個shot 20㏄），最少要9bar。乖乖的在這個圈圈裡煮illy，你會喝到Coffee Review裡寫的八成。自以為是玩沖煮變化弄出來的，幾乎都很好笑。（想到什麼你？沒錯，Vivace的Dolce也是這樣機車的東西。）

看似簡單，但是要煮好illy真的不容易，我個人以為這也是用Lavazza的店家遠比illy多的原因之一，Lavazza比較好煮，光是原廠建議沖煮秒數25-35sec，90-95℃就輕鬆太多了。

前一陣子跟clarence聊過沖煮容錯率，很多知名的Espresso Blend被玩家罵到臭頭，其實很多是被冤枉的，沒煮好、沒煮對的成份居多。