Speaking in tongues

They say silence is golden, but sometimes using your tongue — and all its sensory apparatus — is worth more than gold. Take Gennaro Pelliccia, for example. Known as the “tastemaster” for British brand Costa Coffee, his particular tongue is valued at £10 million by Lloyd’s of London. (That’s more than Heidi Klum’s legs and Daniel Craig’s body are valued at, incidentally.) 

Now this may sound like a publicity stunt, but Pelliccia — British-born, but Neapolitan by ethnicity — takes the title seriously. Enough so to hold a masterclass in coffee appreciation at the Costa Coffee branch in Bonifacio Global City. Costa is the first F&B venture for Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., and at their third branch, media folk got a deeper understanding of coffee, its flavor profiles and cupping rituals. Peliccia didn’t hold his tongue on the seriousness of the Lloyd’s policy: “In 2009 Costa wanted to remove a myth going around that all coffee was the same. So they commissioned a survey in the UK, and the results were a big surprise: seven out of 10 coffee drinkers chose Costa as the best tasting. So Costa wanted to make a point of it: they wanted to insure the tongue of the person who’s responsible for safeguarding it. You can call it a PR stunt, but Costa took that seriously, they wanted to make sure people knew that all coffee was not the same.”

You don’t usually associate coffee with London, but Costa Coffee has a solid pedigree: started by Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971, it was one of the first attempts to transport Italy’s “coffee bar” culture abroad. The main ingredients were great coffee (and Costa prides itself on a closely-guarded secret blend of arabica and robusta beans it calls Mocha Italia); skilled, professional baristas; and a special place where you can relax. “It goes back to the roots of what Sergio and Bruno tried to instill. It’s exactly the same environment they brought from the Italian coffee shops,” Pelliccia says. “It’s like you’re renting a plot for those 20 minutes or whatever the amount of time you’re there, whether to meet somebody, catch up on something or do absolutely nothing.”

With its decidedly British flair — red phone booths and UK flags, etc. — Costa Coffee might get you thinking more of Piccadilly Circus than Roma, but the flavors are on target. Says Costa Coffee Philippines general manager Corinne Milagan, “One good thing about Costa is with 3,000 stores worldwide, we still remain a small business; our roots are still intact. Our London roastery is the same as the one used in the 1970s. We’re able to provide a more hands-on approach to our coffee beans. Gennaro does everything from blending to roasting, and he knows all aspects of it.”

Pelliccia walks the group through the arcane rituals of smelling dry coffee grounds, extracting flavors, skimming the grounds and foam with spoons.

“You’ll notice our signature coffee is a medium roast so you don’t burn the coffee and lose essential aromas or flavors,” he says. “We also don’t under-roast, where we really hit those high, acidic notes. We are right in the middle where the quality is really good.”

With an agreement to open 70 stores here in five years, Costa Coffee is thinking big, but not by sacrificing the qualities that have made it such a hit in London.

“Very simply, my job as tastemaster is to safeguard the blend: to make sure the Mocha Italia blend that leaves the roastery in London to the 30 countries we’re in, the 3,000 stores we have, is the same everywhere.” PHOTOS by WALTER BOLLOZOS

A matter of taste

Pelliccia is quick to point out good coffee comes from around the world, but “every region will generally deliver a specific profile.” Here’s a quick guide:

• Kenyan coffee “tends to be more acidic, fruit-like.”

• Indonesian coffee “tends to have slightly heavier body, smoky, dark chocolate notes.”

• Central American arabicas “tend to be slightly more medium, fruitier.”

So what’s in their trademark blend?

“We can’t disclose that,” he says with a chuckle, “but our Mocha Italia blend has an element of robusta beans. We believe to get that wonderful color of coffee, that crema, you need some robusto. There may also be — can’t disclose exactly — a blend of Central American, Salvadorean, some Central African, and some robusto from an undisclosed Asian country, maybe Indonesian or Vietnamese.”

In order to best enjoy an espresso at home or Costa Coffee, “make sure the grind size is consistent,” he says. A coarse grind will release different flavor subtleties, while a finer grind is better for espresso because it gives “maximum contact with hot water” — which typically should be 92-94°C when brewing, 50-55°C when drinking. Extraction through hot water is key to unlocking coffee flavors, and espresso “insures the most complete extraction, magnifying the flavors by 10 times.” No wonder people love it.