For the true coffee lover who has a keen passion for preparing great espresso, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to train for a day with a world class expert barista? Yep, “Barista for a Day”.

Well, if you’re lucky enough to live in the Columbus, Ohio area, premier coffee roaster CrimsonCup is offering just an opportunity. See the press release – Local Specialty Coffee Shop Offers Chance to Learn from Espresso Expert Armando.

And who is Armando? Armando Escobar is the CEO of CrimsonCup, but not the type of CEO you might be thinking. He is CrimsonCup’s Chief Espresso Officer. Now that’s a very respectable title! According to his bio, Armando Escobar has spent the last 28 years training over 500 coffee house owners across the country how how to open a successful coffee business.

And some lucky contest winner will get to spend a day with Armando and learn some of the tricks and techniques from a true master. What great fun!

This is exactly the kind of interaction and engagement with customers that is too often missing in the specialty coffee business. And I think premium coffee houses are missing an opportunity to expand business, attract customers and create some loyal fans.

How often do you find a local coffee house or specialty roaster that is willing to put on classes, conduct coffee tastings with the customers, put on coffee roasting seminars, offer barista training, … Coffee house proprietors that have true coffee passion and experience have much to give and share. And I jump at the chance to expand my knowledge this way. Unfortunately, the opportunity doesn’t come up very often.

I think CrimsonCup has the right idea and should get some good mileage out of this contest promotion. And some lucky coffee lover will have a lot of fun spending a day with Armando Escobar, I’m sure!

Ernesto Illy, the legendary chairman of the Illy Caffe coffee company, died Sunday, Feb 3rd, at the age of 82 in his home town of Trieste, Italy.

If you have any interest in espresso coffee, you are most likely familiar with Illy. Perhaps you’re even a big fan of this world famous premium espresso coffee.

The familiar Illy coffee container and distinctive logo is a classic example of true Italian style.

For many first-time home baristas, Illy is the first coffee that you try out in your new espresso machine. When you struggle at the beginning trying to figure out how to get the grind right, a can of pre-ground Illy coffee beans saves the day and sets the reference point. Oh, so that’s what a fine grind is supposed to look like, as you discover your blade grinder isn’t going to get you there.

Ernesto Illy’s wonderful description of his favorite drink, “fine espresso paints the tongue …“, sums up his bigger than life passion for espresso coffee. He devoted his entire career to bringing the art and science of espresso to new levels.

Illy, formally a chemist by training, headed up the company between 1963 and 2004. The Illy company was originally founded in 1933 by his father, Francesco Illy. The senior Illy established the company in the port city of Trieste on the Adriatic sea which had become a strategic import hub to bring in coffee beans from Africa and South America. Trieste was a natural choice for Francesco Illy to setup shop.

By the early 1960’s, it was under Ernesto Illy’s leadership that the company grew in prominence as a premium espresso coffee brand. During his reign, leveraging his chemistry background, he merged the world of science and sophisticated technology with the traditional artisan craft of coffee selection and roasting to produce the highest quality premium coffee worthy of the Illy brand.

Today, every step of the manufacturing process is monitored by computers. There are 114 quality control check points from the time the raw beans arrive on the Illy docks to the time the finished roasted beans are packaged and ready to ship in the distinctive Illy sealed cans.

If you love espresso, you have to appreciate Illy’s commitment to the coffee’s purest expression. He was critical of standard sized coffee cups in favor of the espresso demitazza and was particularly disdainful of popular coffee additives such as milk and sugar which he viewed as mere cover-ups for inferior, poorly roasted coffee beans.

Ernesto Illy was truly a giant ambassador for premium espresso coffee. In a large way, Illy was influential in expanding the flourishing espresso coffee culture that is widespread and immensely popular throughout the world today.