Interview with Gennaro Pelliccia, Costa’s Master of Coffee

Gennaro Pelliccia

What is your favourite coffee?
I’m a purist when it comes to coffee. It’s very much like with the Italian food. When you cook delicious pasta you can’t add too much, can’t create mess, you need to keep the dish simple to taste and enjoy each ingredient. And it’s the same with the espresso for me. Espresso shot should reveal three distinct layers – crema, body and heart. Separately, they bring in sweetness, aroma and bitterness, but together they create a perfect short nectar that I deeply enjoy.

What is your favourite drink?
Being a southern Italian, it has to be ristretto! It’s not as popular a name as espresso, but ristretto is actually the little sibling of espresso. Ristretto is shorter than an espresso (less water, but same amount of coffee used) and it has an even bolder, fuller flavour with less bitterness.

What is your favourite city and why?
Naples, the center of Naples, where the Royal Palace is and opposite the famous Basilicata, where I got married.

What’s your favourite football club?
I am from Naples. If you are from Naples, there is only one team!

What is your favourite sports team?
It has to be la Scuderia Ferrari. The Formula One Ferrari Team.

Are you a morning person or a night owl?
I am a morning person, my alarm at the moment is set at 5.45 every day. I really annoy my wife because she is a night person, and I am jumping around in the morning being very happy while she is slowly slowly getting used to the world!

When you were a child what did you dream that you would become?
One of my very first dreams was to become a football player. I was a gifted football player when I was young, but I did not pursuit. And then, I became very passionate about engineering, hence I studied mechanical engineering at the university. My dream at the time was to work for Pirelli, the Italian tire manufacturer, and I thought my engineering would take me eventually to Formula One. As you can see, my life took a very different turn for the better.

Where did you start your career?
Here I might surprise you – I started my career at Costa Coffee as a temporary and part time job, but, a little bit by accident and a little bit by luck, I stayed in the business up till now. Funny enough, all members of my family worked in Costa Coffee – my mother, father and then my sister and I. It all happened at different times and in different places, but we are deeply connected with the brand.
It all started with my mother, who in 1983 worked for Sergio and Bruno Costa. Then, my sister and I started as baristas, working in the Costa Coffee stores, at that time still owned by Sergio Costa. When I finished my studies at university, I decided to give a try to Costa Coffee for one full year, before I could decide where my life would take me further. And I had quite a bit of luck to be joining when the company got pulled to new stores’ openings and the business was growing in the form that we know today.
It’s also worth saying that my family has been very close friends with the Costa family. Bruno Costa’s son was my best man at the wedding, so we had those true ties between the families. This made me feel responsible to contribute as much as possible to the growth of the company.

It seems like a mission growing in with Costa and ensuring that we will taste the same coffee quality no matter the place or the country.
Absolutely, and sometimes, you are right, I do take that personally, maybe I shouldn’t, because it is not my business. But I think I have a duty to ensure that this coffee legacy remains throughout the company.

Who or what motivates you the most in your job?
I think in my job what motivates me is, especially now that we are part of such a large global company, to make sure that Costa Coffee remains true to what the brothers first started. I think that is very important. In all communications I have with all Coca-Cola partners around the world, and in particular now with Coca-Cola Hellenic being the first to scale up the brand in Europe, I am always talking about our standards, making sure that my learning can be shared. And I have to say that we’re actually achieving this. No matter the place, the Costa quality and standards remain the same. In life it is much simpler. What motivates me, is my family, watching my children to grow. You know, my children are my number one priority at the moment and how I can help them to become the best people they can.

Could you name the most interesting things in your job, currently?
That’s an easy one! It’s the people I meet and collaborate with from all parts of the globe. We are really in high momentum in introducing Costa and Mocha Italia, to all parts of the Coca-Cola System around the world. The people I am meeting from all different Business Units and partners are truly amazing. You see, in Costa, no matter how much we had tried to become global, we remained very much a UK centric business. But I genuinely feel that now, more than ever, with Coca-Cola’s true global reach, I am overwhelmed with the international people I am meeting. It is beautiful I have to say.

What is your secret talent?
I believe it’s not a secret talent, but a lot of hard work. I did my first espresso course when I started at the roastery in Lambert in 1998-99. It was only then when I started to understand the vast spectrum of flavors there are in coffee. Before that day, it was just coffee for me, like for everyone else. So, I wasn’t born with any particular or different or fine-tuned taste. But I did train very hard, a lot at the beginning and I continue to do so now. It has allowed me to unlock the skills that I have now. Women have a more tuned perception for ancestors’ reasons. In prehistoric times, in order for a mother to protect her child from unsafe food, women needed to develop more tuned taste sense. Also, research from Yale University has found that women actually have more taste buds on their tongues. About 35% of women (and only 15% of men) can call themselves “supertasters,” which means they identify flavors such as bitter, sweet, and sour more strongly than others. So, tasting is like many other skills. You must be up to date all the time.

I have heard that you taste over 5,000 cups of coffee a year is it true?
Yes, it is true, and I think it is very important to understand this into perspective. There should not be one person who has control over this, especially when it comes to taste. Simply because I am a human and I will have good days and I will have bad days. But having moved to Basildon – where the Costa Roastery is – late 2016 early 2017, we were able to create a wonderful laboratory and build a fantastic team, a world class team. We have Q graders, people who follow courses and are totally up to date and I am only as good as the team that I have. You know, we all taste together, it is never only one person. And sometimes you have to take their view because they are in slightly different positioned mind than myself.

What are the criteria on which you decide which bean is ok to be included in the 20 beans?
In one statement, the criteria are the same. It has to be the best coffee that money can buy. What we mean by that is that it is great coffee that has the right taste for our consumers and comes at the right price as well. We have been successful by using that strategy. Business is built in great quality and sustainability as well. You must be able to produce that in good times, but also in bad times.

What is your daily work routine?
First of all, we have to check all of the green coffee that is inbound. We have to check that the raw ingredient that is going into our Mocha Italia blend is the right one, if not, we reject the coffee. And on the second part of the day, we tend to taste the previous day’s production, what was roasted the previous day. To make sure that all the key control points of the process have been followed. This is very much the crafts of our duties. There, as well, lots of projects especially in the last 12 months, working with Coca-Cola HBC and its markets. We have been creating, developing and fine tuning our blends that better suit some of our markets and some of our brewing methods. You need to make sure that the blend works very well in your hand-made products, in your craft serve products, in your Costa express products. And we will also be handling both with the creating, the ready to drink, the RTDs and formulating the right recipe to get as close as possible to our famous Mocha Italia flavors.

Any particular preparation before a tasting session?
If you have a very important cupping session, you must be very careful of what you eat 2-3 nights before. Although you’re clear of what you put in your mouth within 21 minutes, there are certain things like Chilies and temperature that can cause temporary ‘damage’, which can stall your taste after 24 to 48 hours. You need to be sensible absolutely. Although I am a massive lover of Asian and Indian food, I must be very careful.

What is the biggest ‘mistake’ of the consumer in coffee culture?
I wouldn’t call it a mistake, because it’s normal for the majority not to be coffee experts. Creating a culture around coffee is what we, the professionals, are here to do to help people enjoy the best coffee they can. To your question, what some people do when wanting a long coffee is to over extract in the cup. For example, with the same portion you use to make an espresso, you allow the coffee to pass through the granules and extract for more seconds. Please don’t try that! Simply because it will draw out the most undesirable flavors from coffee. The best way to have a longer coffee or a less aggressive coffee is actually to add water.

Is instant coffee or powder coffee still coffee?
Yes. of course, it is. If you see actually how coffee is made, you will understand that is actually made form coffee, true coffee. There are of course good instant coffees and there are less good instant coffees.

What was your first thought of Coca-Cola and Costa Coffee acquisition?
I really believe that it was the right thing for us, I think we had reach a bit of a plateau where we were and we really needed a large company like Coca-Cola to really allow us to reach places that we couldn’t reach in the state we were in. Very excited and still waiting for even more opportunities!

How important are the RFA certification and the work that the Costa Foundation is doing for you?
Very very important. We are doing everything we can, by procuring our coffee, as responsibly as possible. The 100% RFA Certification for our beans means that we do contribute over and above the market price to safeguard the economy, the environment of the regions where we are procuring from. About the Costa Foundation, of course it is the number of schools that we have opened, the number of children that are able to go to schools and the number of teachers it has given work for, but moreover, what we don’t see as directly about the Foundation is the education that it gives to some of these countries in the way they actually behave with women, children…The Foundation has given the education to these communities to ensure that there is a more fair approach to children and women, it is massively important. So, we are constantly evolving those programs to make sure that we are contributing. There is always more, and we are always looking for more.