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14 L’ASSAGGIO 33 - PRIMAVERA 2011

COFFEE SELECTION

Caffè Italia of Tokyo: the Japanese, unfaithful and insensitive to the encouragements of a certain type of marketing

Japan: the Blend Is the Brand

For a second year, Caffè Italia has returned to Tokyo for Japan’s biggest food exhibition, Foodex. It was an initiative created by many hands and more precisely, by those of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters, the Italian Espresso National Institute and the National Institute of Foreign Trade. With the diligent and formidable direction of the In-ternational Institute of Coffee Tasters – Japan (which now counts more than 300 members) and the scientific consultancy of the Centro Studi Assaggiatori – Italian Tasters.One stand, two professional espresso machines (Nuova Simonelli and Cimbali), six grinder-dispensers (Wega and Cimbali) for six blends (Jolly Caffè, Torrefazione Saturno, Zicaffè, Caffen, Caffè Cagliari, Milani) served in Fac-Acf cups. Finally, a staff of excellent barista who did not save themselves, accompanying each espresso with classic Japanese elegance, some-thing that never fails to leave you pleasantly surprised, even after years of working together.Overall, a good deployment of forces by Caffè Italia which was conceived as a tasting stand this year. In reality, offering an espresso is a polite gesture of hospitality, but it goes no fur-

ther if there is no way of gathering feedback. We had said: six blends from six different re-gions. Imagine that each of the 1,100 visitors who tasted one or more of these coffees had written down their opinions on a form. And imagine that these forms were processed using the Stratus Testing method of the Centro Studi Assaggiatori – Italian Tasters: Caffè Italia has carried out the most complete sensory profil-ing of Italian espresso ever conducted in Japan. The participating companies have already re-ceived the blend performance results (inciden-tally, all positive: the sign of a certain level of appreciation for a true ‘made in Italy’ espresso on the Japanese market). More generally, from this mass of data, what stands out most clearly is that the evolved Japanese citizen, he who searches for coffee, is a complete infidel. He is not married to a brand, but is more inclined towards the harem: 76% state that they drink more than one brand of espresso. To this, we add another piece of information: when choosing coffee, the Japanese man or woman tries different varieties (38%) and learning about them is of relative interest (22%). Above all, they claim to recognise a good quality cof-fee simply because they feel that it is (51%): others’ opinions are of very little interest.This evolved Japanese consumer, who can spend more on quality, is thus a problem for marketers of many gadgets, alluring packaging and wedding brochure style catalogues. This is because this Japanese individual is as interested in the brand as a eunuch is interested in a gar-den of young virgins: he is not. Those wishing to use the brand as the Viagra of marketing are in great difficulty here: here the brand is the blend; here the brand is perceived quality. The rest is novelty which does not interest those who believe that they are capable of discover-ing much more precious pearls.

Carlo Odellocarlo.odello@italiantasters.com