100 million yuan to insure Gennaro Pelicia's tongue

Gennaro Pericia (Gennaro Pelliccia) has a tongue worth 10 million pounds. In 2009, COSTA paid heavily to insure Gennaro Pelicia's tongue at Lloyds in London, with an average of £1000 per taste bud, adding: "the taste buds of coffee tasters are very important, like a singer's vocal cords or a model's long legs." (photo: now that China is experiencing the third coffee wave, people are slowly beginning to demand the quality of coffee, and more and more people really like coffee and want to spread the authentic coffee culture. High-quality coffee is the future trend of cafes, and no one will pay for shoddy coffee. )

As the world's first tasting expert at COSTA, the UK's largest coffee shop by market share, Gennaro's job is to ensure and guarantee the quality of all the brand's "mocha Italian mixed coffee beans (Mocha Italia blend)"-a mixture of six Arabica beans and one Robasta beans with a unique flavor of caramel, nuts and toast. To this end, Gennaro tastes and grades as many as 5,000 kinds of coffee every year.

It is not easy to ensure that baked beans shipped from a London bakery to any store around the world meet this standard. in 2009, COSTA insured Genaro Pelicia's tongue for £10 million, an average of £1000 per taste bud, at Lloyd's Insurance Society of London, adding: "the taste buds of coffee tasters are very important, like the vocal cords of singers or the long legs of models."

For years, all COSTA stores have insisted on rejecting substandard coffee beans, and this strict standard is Gennaro's tongue.

"in our industry, taste buds and feelings are very important. With 18 years of experience, I can distinguish thousands of flavors, and my taste buds allow me to pick out my shortcomings, thus ensuring the quality of the coffee. " There is no doubt that Gennaro is very proud of his keen sense of taste.

Gennaro has a deep relationship with COSTA. His mother works in the offices of COSTA's founders, Sergio and Bruno Costa, while his father oversees Sergio's stores at Gatwick airport. At the age of 16, Gennaro, a mechanical engineering major, came home from school for the summer vacation. Sergio asked him to work as a part-time barista at the airport, a "temporary" job that Gennaro loved so much that he stayed at COSTA and began his coffee trip after graduation.

In the process of becoming a barista, trainer, and coffee tasting specialist, Gennaro met Gino Amasanti--, the first certified Italian Espresso tasting in England. The coffee master, who had worked at COSTA for nearly 30 years, taught Gennaro everything he knew about espresso and coffee roasting.

"this job is incredible, maybe the best job ever." Genaro travels every year to the countries of origin of different coffee beans: Brazil, Colombia, India and Yunnan, which accounts for 99% of China's coffee production. Genaro continues to absorb a variety of coffee culture and knowledge during his travels. He also saw people in industries ranging from farmers, dealers and even roasters who grow coffee beans to coffee maker and baristas.

Although he has a team to cooperate with Gennaro's work, he has been dedicated to tasting every batch of coffee beans left the factory for many years. At COSTA's roasting lab in London, Gennaro and his team examine four key things every day: the size of the beans, the proportion of defective beans in the sample, moisture, and finally the taste of the coffee.

The store on Nanjing East Road has been renovated recently, and the whole space has been unified in British style.

Poor-quality coffee has an uncomfortable aftertaste due to its low acidity, such as straw, rotting flowers, grass, tobacco and corks like red wine, stagnant water, peanuts and damp jute. Every good cup of coffee comes from many details, from the quality of the beans to the weight of each serving of coffee powder, as well as the temperature of the water when making, the quality of the milk and the gestures when making milk foam. not a single one can be omitted

"in order to cover up the poor quality of coffee beans, some brands will deeply roast the coffee beans they collect in order to evaporate those unpleasant flavors, but the consequence is that only the smell of smoke and coke will be left and the natural flavor of the coffee beans will be lost." Gennaro frowned: "for me and my team at the London bakery, there is a huge responsibility and mission every day, we are looking for zero-defect coffee beans." If any of the above is missing, we will reject the deal. "

To keep her tongue sharp, Gennaro Pelicia takes good care of her taste buds. He does not smoke and avoids strong and spicy food so that his sense of taste is not affected. Gennaro can't even use any cologne or aftershave at work: "because smell and taste are very closely related."

With such sensitive taste buds, Gennaro prefers coffee with a heavier flavor, such as espresso ristretto, which allows Genaro to taste more of the sweetness than bitterness of the coffee itself. Espresso ristretto is made in the same way as espresso, but the extraction time is only 15 seconds and the extraction volume is only 20 milliliters (20 seconds for a single espresso and 30 milliliters), so the coffee flavor is very strong. For those who like to add milk, Genaro recommends Cortado, which was introduced to China only in September this year. "add a nice piece of croissant, and you'll have a good coffee time."

(excerpt from: network)