Learning to Sip

FEBRUARY 2010 will go down in my personal journal as the month when I learned how to sip and truly enjoy the company of those sharing through a coffee culture. It's also the month that Emilio Lavazza died aged 78, claiming much of the credit for the universal acceptance of coffee as a cultural drink. Signor Emilio (Mr Espresso) is one reason Italy has no Starbucks. With Lavazza around, how could you be missing out on anything? I've seen photos of Signor Emilio sitting in the Caffe Platti in Turin, stirring his ristretto while talking, planning and dreaming. I first encountered vacuum-packed Lavazza coffee in a New York bistro in the 80s. I didn't think much of the vacuum packaging but I was really impressed with the steampunk contraption that produced a thick espresso serving for myself and a few aircrew members. It was the thickest drink I had ever tried. We were part of an aircrew that flew into Naples where we tried the same brand of espresso a few days later. The New York service was better. Today, Lavazza spews from O'Gorman's in Clonmel where I go for an occasional coffee and scone in the mornings. But the influence of coffee as a creative juice extends far beyond Signor Emilio's enterprise. Today, Open Coffee is synonymous with some of the most innovative people I've met. I can sense Emilio Lavazza smiling from beyond the grave, especially since he probably knows Fred Caballero is in Dublin and is part of the coffee culture I enjoy so much. In the 70s, Caballero and Carmencita were charming and oddball animated characters involved in a complicated, coffee-infused courtship that formed part of a quirky Lavazza marketing campaign.

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Emilio Lavazza, coffee entrepreneur, born 1932, died 16 February 2010.

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