The coffee menu
Go for the cappuccino, worth every sip at CHF8, but expect it to come with a beautiful design on the top and hazelnuts and Domori almond covered in chocolate, and plan to linger over it all a very long time.
In a hurry? Just get an espresso, CHF6, but you’ll have trouble parting company with it as fast as planned, with honey caramelized pecan nuts and a glass of mineral water on the side.
Better yet, here’s the perfect coffee hour for two girlfriends who’ve found a slot to meet and catch up on each other’s lives. The top end of the coffee menu (it really is a menu) at Le Bar offers these: the Neve Fondente and Il Bicerin.
The first is made with cocoa powder, skimmed milk, sugar and double expresso. The skimmed milk is not there for the lower calories but because it works better for the kind of frothy top that makes this drink so appealing. On the side: a mini tiramisu (Ed. note: I’m not a fan of tiramisu but this is exceptionally good!).
Il Bicerin is an espresso, hot chocolate and cream, with a small serving of crunchy cocoa leaf, mini cream chocolate cake and coffee mousse. CHF18 for the first and CHF20 for the other.
A Swiss love affair with coffee
The beauty of coffee is that it is adaptable, letting itself be loved by people who simply want a quick fix of adrenaline as well as those who expect no-fuss excellence in a cup at the office, and then a leisurely, foamy Sunday morning treat.
The Swiss have always liked coffee: it makes up well over 80% of retail sales of hot drinks. The country has a reputation in the coffee industry for appreciating good quality coffee.
This easy-going beverage has had great demands put on it lately in Switzerland, however. First, the long Swiss tradition of a cup brewed just-so and served with a newspaper at the local cafe has been forced to give ground to Starbucks and other foreign invaders. Starbucks opened its first shop in Switzerland in 2001 in Zurich, and by mid-2008 it had 37 shops, with more planned.
Tastes began to change. A good café-crème, or renversé (white coffee) was for years the most popular hot drink away from home, but by 2005 it had slipped to only 33%, according to Research and Markets. Espresso and cappuccino shares rose to around 20% each, and macchioto has made good headway.
Then the sacred mugs of not particularly good stuff spewed out by office coffeemakers began to disappear, often replaced by Nespresso machines.
The capsule coffee business has done so well that Vevey-based manufacturer Nestlé told Reuters in May 2008 it expects to reach its goal of CHF2 billion in sales before the end of 2008, a full two years ahead of schedule.
Ecology-minded drinkers could comfort themselves with the knowledge that the second capsule plant the company recently built in Switzerland recycles rainwater and that 40% of the coffee Nespresso buys is sustainable coffee.
Machines began to invade the home, replacing all those interesting national variations for dripping or percolating, but given their pricetags, from CHF200-2,700 for Nespresso, not everyone was buying them.
In early November 2008, Coop announced that it would sell coffee capsule machines made by the Italian firm Martello at prices everyone, but particularly young people, can afford.
The result? Good coffee abounds, Christmas gifts will undoubtedly include all the accoutrements for making and drinking it, and it hardly seems worthwhile leaving home or the office to buy a cup of the brew.
Coffee as an excuse to go out
Enter the Richemond, which had the good idea of returning coffee-drinking to the status of an event, an excuse to go out, a reason to meet someone.
Patrick Mossu, managing director who has worked at several of the world’s five-star hotels, says he was tired of people complaining that the coffee wasn’t good. It’s true, he insists: top hotels too often have a reputation for charging outrageous prices for their coffee, then serving a mediocre beverage.
The Richemond is one of Geneva’s smaller five-star hotels. It closed for 21 months for renovations and when it reopened in September 2007 it made a point of welcoming local guests to its bar and restaurant.
The Sapori restaurant invited Italian Chef of the Year Fulvio Pierangelini to help refresh the menu with the goal of making it the best place in town for Italian food.
The Italian touch worked and the Richemond decided to extend the influence to the bar. It called in Amici Caffè, the Swiss arm of the Italian coffee company Illy.
Giorgio Milos is a barista who teaches at Illy’s University of Coffee in Trieste. “My mother worked in a coffee company and my father for a milk company, so I grew up surrounded by milk and coffee.
“But I must say, I learned this from another barista,” he grins. His eyes never leave the cup in front of him.
His arm wiggles effortlessly as he puts the finishing touch on what looks like a plain milky coffee. Pause.
A beautiful leaf shape suddenly surfaces in the foam. Another great cappuccino.
Coffee-art
Coffee-art became a trend in Italy about 15 years ago, and has become widespread, but it’s more difficult to create a perfect-looking coffee than Milos makes it appear.
And even the pro admits humbly that on a world scale, he’s good, but he’s not the greatest.
“Italy has the best baristas! In Italy it’s a profession, where you work in a bar maybe 30 years. In other places you do it maybe two to three years to earn money for your studies.”
But, he admits, despite having been named Italy’s best barista in February, he came in only 29th in the World Barista Championship 2008 in Denmark.
“Italians never win,” he says sadly. How can this be?
“They were good, just very good,” he admits.
In Copenhagen, where the championship was held, and each barista had to show his skill in four areas, an Irishman, Stephen Morrissey, walked off with the trophy.
“I love him! He’s the best barista in the world!” says Milos with a show of purely Italian-style enthusiasm. And then, cheered by memories of barista excellence, he concentrates on the next cuppa.
