My 1st Café 20th Anniversary Special: Favuzzi

To mark our 20th anniversary in a special way, we are reaching out to those who have been with us for many years. We highlight our wonderful collaborations by revisiting our memories and exchanging stories about our beginnings! We began our tour with our longtime friend and partner, Michel Favuzzi, the founding president of Famiglia Favuzzi. In this article, we delve into the detailed story of the collaboration and friendship between Barista and Favuzzi.

Favuzzi; a story of family and olive oil

“As far back as we can go back in our family history, olive oil has always been present” Michel Favuzzi tells us.

Favuzzi is the story of Michel, a passionate of olive oil and fine Italian products. It all began nearly 20 years ago when Michel started selling on a small scale Goccia Di Sole, an olive oil sourced from a small cooperative of about a dozen Italian producers founded in the late 1960s. Among these producers, we can find Damiano Favuzzi, Michel's uncle.

Several years later, Famiglia Favuzzi now offers a multitude of diverse products, including delicious pistachio cream and coffee! The Favuzzi product range consists entirely of Italian products, except of course for the coffee, which comes from us. This is where the collaboration between our two wonderful companies was born!

Favuzzi x Barista; the genesis and collaboration

“I wondered if we could find Italians who mastered the art of roasting here, the beans are the same, we could have coffee of the same level of quality [as in Italie]. At the time, it was you guys. It was you who started this, and again today” explains Michel on the birth of the collaboration.

The genesis of the collaboration began from a need for freshness and “savoir-faire”. As Michel and Alex explain, importing coffee is not ideal because of the loss of freshness during travel. This is why Michel decided to do business with Barista – a local company with Italian know-how. From there was born a collaboration, a friendship, of now several years.

Tip: how to taste olive oil?

Michel is the expert in olive oil, he even holds his sommelier certification in the matter! During the interview with Alex, he gives us all these tips on how to taste olive oil, as well as how to evaluate its quality. We give you all these tips below.

Before we begin, it is important to know that there is a type of glass made specifically for tasting olive oil. It is blue (or red) in color and tulip-shaped, in order to hide the color of the oil to better detect the aromas and avoid being influenced by its color. This is the type of glass that Michel uses in the video!

Detecting flavors in olive oil in 4 steps:

1. Place a small amount of oil in a tasting glass or wine glass

2. Take the glass and warm it in the palm of your hand to begin releasing the aromas

3. Take deep breaths and try to detect the aromas – the oil should smell “green” – fresh.

4. Take a small amount of oil in your mouth and take a breath of air before swallowing – this step is called “strapaccio” in Italian and brings out the aromas in the mouth