London Espresso is the sole importer of AGUST coffee in UK.  We introduced the AGUST brand to the British market for the first time in 2002, but we remember it as if it was yesterday.  As a new business and starting from scratch, our market share was “Zero”. Now with a target of 100 tonnes of coffee sales for the current year we are one of the ” top 10 ” companies selling Italian espresso coffee beans in the UK.  Achieving this impressive result wasn’t easy, but being a distributor of such a well known Italian coffee brand, contributed to this positive outcome.  AGUST have made their reputation supplying some of the finest restaurants and caffè in Northern Italy. This is reflected in the quality of their products and services.  Espresso Coffee is their passion and perhaps their greatest field of expertise. They roasted their first espresso coffee bean in 1956, and although they now use the most modern computerized roasting equipment, their aim remains exactly the same as they did 50 years ago; supplying our customers with the best espresso coffee available. Passion for quality convinced AGUST to be one of the CSC promoters, which, thanks to ISO 9002 certify procedures, ensures the high quality and consistency of the coffee.  AGUST is the only CSC coffee available in UK. 

Agust website link   http://www.caffeagust.it

OUR BEANS…..

We buy beans from around the world such as Arabica beans from Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico and Ethiopia and Robusta washed beans from India and Kenya. When the coffee beans reaches Brescia (northern Part of Italy) the whole staff meets up for the selection rite. The beans are examined carefully, with no hurry… just like in the 19th century, when the “ancestors”, expert merchants and connoisseurs, used to raise the fresh plants to the Brazilian sun to check their quality against the light.

The requirements which must be met are well known, this is the first teaching of the “elders”:

  • uniform grains and harmonious shape

  • right degree of maturation

  • superfine taste: experience teaches you to recognize a good bean by tasting it !

The lot that passes the exam is ready to be roasted. The rhythm of coffee: a connoisseur’s ear for music!
Coffee talks: when the beans reach the right roasting temperature they crackle in the rotating drum which cuddles them. A good roaster can recognize the “voice” of coffee and interrupt the roasting at the right time. The processing phases follow a specific rhythm and require special expertise… every action comes from years of experience. Today, conscious of this history, we have engaged ourselves to get on these values and this tradition that founds its roots on antiquity. Even if we can’t escape from technological development, we are sure that without human care and diligence some qualitative standards cannot be reached. In fact, even if technology has given the complete automation of our whole production, our products are constantly supervised and controlled by roasters, tasters, men which contribute to the success of our job.

A PERFECT ESPRESSO….

A sharp aroma intoxicates you, a warm burnt colour attracts your gaze, a smooth froth wets your lips… oh well, the espresso is a really irreplaceable Italian habit diffused in all the world. But not everyone knows that there are some secrets for a good espresso.

 

  BLEND
The blend must have a fair balance of various coffee species  a single kind of coffee, in fact, doesn’t let you to obtain a balanced and complete espresso coffee. For this reason every roaster makes his own blend mixing different kinds of coffee to obtain a drink with an harmonic taste, a rich aroma and a full body using Arabica for taste and Robusta for vigour

  GRINDING LEVEL
The grinding of the roasted beans is a delicate phase: the ideal consistency of the grains will enable the espresso to flow into the cup very smoothly and constantly. It will give rise to an almond colour persistent cream which will transfer the taste of the beans directly to the palate! If the grinding is too coarse then the espresso will not be very dense and there won’t be a  crema, but if the grinding is too fine then the espresso will be bitter, burnt and the cream will be “spotted”

COFFEE MACHINE
It must always be in perfect conditions.
The parts to constantly control are:

  • Indicator of the water level in the boiler

  • Indicator of the water temperature in the boiler (value between 90-100°C).

  • Manometer for measuring the pressure in the boiler (value between 0.9-1.4).

  • Manometer for measuring the pressure of the volumetric pump (value between 8-10).

  • Water quality (must always be decalcified and checked constantly, both for the quality of the coffee and for the machine’s functionality. An excess of calcium and magnesium make the coffee bitter and avoid the production of the cream.)