A ritual that aims to become a UNESCO world heritage object and that unites Italy by Telethon foundation

29 September 2023 – The Consortium for the Protection of Traditional Italian Espresso Coffee organises an online event to celebrate the ritual, culture and social aspects of Italian espresso coffee, representative elements of the cultural identity of our country, on Sunday 1 October at 11 a.m., on the occasion of International Coffee Day (click here to participate). 

The programme of the event (which you can view here) includes an overview of the various aspects that characterise this 100% Italian ritual: the tradition that surrounds it, its ability to connect people through sharing, and its sustainability. The event aims to raise awareness of and develop the project of candidacy for intangible heritage of humanity of the Ritual of Espresso, the UNESCO principles and the Charter of Values that the communities representing the Ritual of Espresso throughout Italy have committed themselves to spreading and promoting. The Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Francesco Lollobrigida, who has ownership of this application dossier, will speak.

Events will also be held throughout Italy – again on 1 October and by the Communities representing the Ritual of Espresso – to support the UNESCO candidacy and promote the collection of signatures in support of it. And that’s not all: on the same day, the Consortium for the Protection of Traditional Italian Espresso Coffee promotes the initiative called “Un caffè per…” (‘A coffee for…’), dedicated to the Telethon Foundation (here for the donation and to support the candidacy), an organisation for biomedical research and the treatment of rare generic diseases: a supportive habit of the Neapolitan tradition transferred by the Consortium to a broader plan through a charity campaign carried out in collaboration with all the representative communities of the Ritual of Espresso.

Here are the events that will take place in the main Italian cities

The representative communities of the Ritual of Espresso of Turin, Milan, Venice, Trieste, Bologna, Rome, Naples, Lecce, Pescara, Palermo, and Modica, which support the UNESCO intangible heritage candidacy dossier, will be the scene of the following initiatives:

Trieste

10.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m., CC Montedoro Conference room and Antico Caffè San Marco. Conferences and time dedicated to the discussion with the public and to the further discussion of the value and culture of Italian espresso coffee, organised by the members and partners of the Trieste Coffee Association. The events will start on Saturday 30th and end on the first of October.

Bologna

Through Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, the importance of conviviality and sociability surrounding the Italian espresso will be explained with the request to sign the Charter of Values to support the application.

Rome

11.00 a.m. – 3.00 p.m., BIBO bar (Piazza dei Santi Apostoli). Coffee heritage of the future: an event on the occasion of International Coffee Day to celebrate the rich tradition and culture linked to this drink, nominating it as a UNESCO Intangible Heritage Object. In this unique meeting, the charity initiative “A coffee for ..” will be promoted in collaboration with the research of the Telethon Foundation and a dessert based on coffee prepared exclusively for the day and a special review of the espresso will be served.

Naples

10.30 a.m. – 6.30 p.m., Gran Caffè Gambrinus (Piazza Trieste and Trento no. 42). “Bartender for a day”: anyone who loves coffee can go to the Gambrinus and experience the thrill of making an espresso with the lever machine.

Lecce 

Permanent programme for the dissemination of the culture of the Ritual of Espresso through collaboration with Hotel Institutes. This initiative involves a constant programming of engaging activities for the students of these institutions, aiming to share best practices and fundamental knowledge related to the art of espresso.

Palermo

10.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m., Moltivolti (Via Giuseppe Mario Puglia no. 21). The “Moltivolti” (‘Many faces’) of coffee and its values, educational event: a day dedicated to the “many faces” of coffee, its ritual aspects and the values it represents in Italy and in the world. The emblematic community of Palermo joins the multi-ethnic community of Moltivolti, a social enterprise that promotes food as a tool for dialogue between different people and cultures in the Ballarò district.

In other cities, also thanks to FIPE, the Association of Historical Bars of Italy, some Museums dedicated to the history of coffee, as well as individual initiatives, events will be held that are aimed at charitable collection in favour of the Telethon Foundation and signatures in support of the candidacy.

Placement activities provide for an integrated approach of information, orientation and support to the students and graduates, professors and enterprises to overcome the frequent disconnect between expectations of those entering the world of work and the different needs of the production system.

For those reasons, it is given to the students the possibility of doing an internship/training in the enterprises in order to provide the candidates with appropriate skills and professionalism to encourage and to facilitate the new graduates entrance in the world of work. All the above inserted in a wider context of participation in social and economic development of our Country and territory.

During 2016 Danesi Caffè S.p.A. joined the National Cluster Agrifood CL.A.N. – a partnership of significant enterprises, centers of research, local representatives and stakeholder in the agro industrial business – with the purpose of promoting a sustainable economic growth based on research, development and innovation technology and to be the single interlocutor of national and European Institutions.

The National Technological Cluster (8 in total) have been promoted by MIUR (Ministry of Education, University and Research) with the aim of generating permanent dialogue platforms between public research system and enterprises, being consistent with “Horizon 2020” priorities.

Nowadays they represent an important intermediate infrastructure to which is delegated the task of promoting the cooperation of public/private research in terms of technological development and innovation and rebuilding national policies in areas of strategic interest as well as to encourage smart territorial specialization.

Therefore DANESI CAFFÈ after joining from its creation the Consortium For The Protection Of The Traditional Italian Espresso Coffee, decided this year to support also FAI – Italian Environmental Fund becoming part of the corporate membership as Corporate Golden Donor.

Along side of FAI we want in fact to contribute to the creation of a larger protection project , this is an ambitious cultural challenge aimed to make Italy a place more beautiful, where to live, work and raise our children. The cultural and landscaping heritage that FAI is safeguarding and promoting, represent in fact a unique heritage in this world, this is the fundamental resource on which to invest for the rebirth, development and to revalue of our beautiful Country.

Thanks to the support of its numerous members, both private citizens and companies, FAI for over 40 years manages and protects over 50 assets on the whole national territory. Important artistic and historical settlements saved from neglect have been restored and protected and now open to the public.

Every Day FAI is committed to safeguard and make accessible to everyone splendid artistic, cultural and natural treasures spread in the countryside, in the cities and on the shores of our Country: to educate and sensitize people to understand and to respect and protect art and nature and to become the spokesman of the values of a civil society, by being vigilant and becoming a positive forces for the environment.

The result is the guarantee of the most extensive and reliable supply of sustainably coffee product, high- quality features. The influence of climatic change on coffee production is no longer a questionable matter. As the ICO (International Coffee Organization) says, between 2008 and 2009, a production decrease linked to climatic changes has been registered in Middle America and Mexico. Emblematic, in this sense, is the case of Colombia, which lost 50% of its production.

The situation in El Salvador is even worse: those phenomena which occurred in a five year time frame, are now not that sporadic. Drought and flood happen almost every year, with huge consequences on coffee fields, such us the decrease of plant performance and, in general, the decrease of product quality.

Even Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, the last three seasons of harvest has faced important challenges related to the occurrence of severe drought phenomena. Suffice it to say that at the beginning of 2014, the drought that hit on Brazil has been among the most severe historically recorded, while the almost lack of rain that is coming down for over a year in the eastern areas of the country has resulted in a reduction harvest of those areas by more than 30 % compared to previous levels.

No exception, in this sense, for the production situation in Asia. In fact, for countries like Vietnam or India, affected by drought and arid lands, in 2017 we do not expect a particularly fruitful year in terms of production.

Not different is the African situation: last Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) report, about export activities in January 2010, shows that the total exportations of Robusta quality coffee, between October and January 2009/10, had a 17% volume decrease. This condition has grown worse due to the drought, which damaged the plant in its embryonic delicate phase.

So, the progressive decline of produced and exported coffee is attributable to critical climatic conditions (high temperature and sporadic rainfalls) and to the growing diffusion of Coffee Wilt Disease, topic on which they do not invest. In addition, according to the 2009 FAO report, the harvest performances are mostly influenced by climatic changes and by the competition among people, livestock and means of transport into the access to alimentary resources, in a place in which land and water run low. Perhaps the horizon there is only a possibility and a way forward.

That of an ethical economy and the construction of an increasingly close and correct relations between the different industry players, since it is only through cooperation and mutual respect that will be able to face the complexity of the issues involved and the future challenges of this as all other agricultural sectors.

The major element of innovation, today, is the centrality of the concept of “diversity” together to create value in the direct relationship between the producer and the roaster, fully aware that the success of any organization and of each product is also measured through the kind of relationship and dialogue that are established with its suppliers, in a continuous process of improvement, support and mutual growth.

One of the positive consequences of this report will be to gradually improve and/or increased efficiency in coffee production and processing conditions for the producer, whereas globally the caffeicola production is largely carried out by small producers. In this way, they will be adopted in the most advanced process technologies and cultivation techniques, which are to be regarded as instruments and means for an economically sustainable caffeicola production. At the economic level, the increase in productivity and quality of coffee means higher revenues for producers, without this resulting in increased productivity that lead to lower global prices.

The project partnership also included Genechron Biotech Company and effective contribute has been provided by ENEA and Campus Biomedico University of Rome as research institutions.

The COMETA project, presented on 8th April 2019 at the Hub of our Headquarters in Via del Tempio degli Arvali 45, aims to achieve a multisensorial electronic system able to detect specific gas-phase chemical compounds released during the roasting process, the analysis of which allows optimal process parameters to be accurately identified.

Those parameters originate those specific organoleptic properties characterizing the coffee brew. The project has been carried out a genetic fingerprinting of different coffee species and varieties whose Danesi blends are made up. Such compounds have been associated to their genetic origin through the determination of metabolites released within the roasting process.

With COMETA project we intended to transfer our 100-year-old knowledge and expertise in producing Italian coffee into an electronic system to be used in the roasting process. Danesi has received overall an amount of € 144.652,93 as eligible costs to implement the project against which € 88.788,88 have been granted under POR FESR LAZIO 2014 – 2020 Public Notice “KETs Enabling Technologies” regional funding. The results of the project was presented on 28th October 2019, in the beautiful setting of the Istituto Nazionale Studi Romani. Below you can consult the flyer of the event:

https://www.danesicaffe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Progetto-Cometa-Agenda-28-Ottobre.pdf

Danesi Caffè, one of the first member companies of the Consortium, actively supports the UNESCO candidacy: we too believe that traditional Italian espresso is a precious heritage of our culture to be protected, promoted and enhanced like many other Italian agri-food products. The term “Espresso” indicates the coffee consumed quickly in bars and cafes, prepared expressly for the customer with a particular extraction method, using a special machine that allows you to obtain a drink served in a very concentrated, creamy cup, with a taste and with an intense aroma.

This preparation method, called espresso, is known today all over the world as a symbol of Italian coffee, as well as an expression of an entire population and its culture. The Consortium for the protection of traditional Italian espresso coffee, the Italian Coffee Committee and the INEI have also defined the “Disciplinary of traditional Italian espresso” which generically dictates the good rules for obtaining the highest quality of a traditional Italian espresso, prepared in bars or cafes, and which will integrate the Dossier to the Unesco Italian Commission for the candidacy for intangible heritage of humanity.

Giorgio Caballini of Sassoferrato, President of the Consortium for the protection of traditional Italian espresso coffee, is keen to specify that: “It was a constructive work that saw important realities of the coffee world engaged together for the first time to achieve a shared goal in order to to offer quality and tradition to the vast majority of Italian citizens who consider traditional Italian espresso coffee an integral part of their national heritage and identity. An example for the whole country system in defense of our cultural identity and economic fabric. I thank all those who have contributed to its realization ”.

Danesi Caffè, a member of the Consortium since its establishment in 2014, has passionately participated in the achievement of this further important objective aimed above all at safeguarding the art and tradition of a historic product such as espresso coffee, an excellence of Made in The document is available on the website of the Consortium for the protection of traditional Italian espresso coffee at this link.