Although Italy can proudly lay claim to being the birthplace of espresso and the cappuccino, for many years it was lagging behind other Western countries in the specialty coffee arena. International coffee competitions were notable for the lack of high placing Italian competitors, and specialty coffee shops were almost non-existent in the country itself.
Italy’s conservatism in terms of roast profile, bean choice, a government-mandated fixed price for epsresso and even equipment usage (note the ubiquity of the doser grinder in traditional Italian coffee bars) meant that it was difficult for anyone producing light roast, third wave coffee to gain acceptance.
Then along came Rubens Gardelli and this all changed. Here was a roaster producing omni-roasted coffee that actually delivered. And, what’s more, he was doing it in Italy!
Today Gardelli specialises in coffee at the higher end of the quality pyramid, from African coffees scoring in the high 80s, all the way to super rare 90+ coffees that you won’t find from any other roasters.
All Gardelli coffees are roasted for espresso and filter (omni roasted). Many roasters around the world adopt this approach, but normally there is some sort of compromise; the roast profile usually favours one method over the other. Gardelli, however, has the ability to strike a perfect balance with his roast, enabling full extraction as espresso but without any generic roastiness evident when using filter methods.
Awards
*****WCE World Coffee Roasting Champion 2018***** (Rubens Gardelli)
2nd place 2017 WCE Italy Brewers Cup (Rubens Gardelli)
1st place 2017 WCE Italy Coffee Roasting Championship (Rubens Gardelli)
1st place 2016 WCE Italy Coffee Roasting Championship (Rubens Gardelli)
World Brewers Cup 2015 PROJECT (single-tree lot, embryo-focused process, manual hullin)
1st place 2015 WCE Italy Brewers Cup (Rubens Gardelli)
1st place 2015 WCE Italy Coffee Roasting Championship (Rubens Gardelli)
2nd place 2014 WCE World Brewers Cup (Rubens Gardelli)
1st place 2014 WCE Italy Brewers Cup (Rubens Gardelli)
1st place 2014 WCE Italy Coffee Roasting Championship (Rubens Gardelli)
