The link between Lake Oswego, Texas and Italy? Espresso, of course | Arts & Culture

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. -- There might not be another day that goes by where cities in Oregon, Texas and Italy have more in common than they did Tuesday.

That's the day when world-renowned Giorgio Milos, the Michael Jordan of the  espresso world, sauntered into Chuck's Place, the namesake of locally-owned coffee shop of Amarillo, Texas native Chuck Ryan, with the support of Lake Oswego-based Sapori Fine Flavors, in Lake Oswego.

Milos, a Specialty Coffee Association of Europe-certified Master Barista and on faculty at illy’s caffe's Università del Caffe (UDC), was on hand as part of illy's Artisti del Gusto (Artists of Taste) series. Essentially, when Milos is not at the UDC teaching employees from the world’s top restaurants and cafes who come there for master coffee training, he's traveling the globe teaching and instructing baristas and consumers the finer points of coffee and espresso.

"My mission is to train baristas and teach the baristas how to make the perfect espresso because it's a complex transformation," said Milos, dressed in a slick black suit with a red collared shirt. "It's not difficult, but it's complex. You have to follow some small, but very important rules to make a good one."

Milos, a 2008 Italian barista champion, is nearly three months in to his eight-month stint of traveling and teaching in the United States. So far, he's been to Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Chuck's Place in Lake Oswego was the lone spot in Oregon in which Milos stopped.

"I'm here in the States to help our American friends here to educate the consumers because we think the consumers are our goals," he said. "If the consumer can recognize a good cup of espresso, then we win. If they cannot, we don't (win). We think that our coffee is the best."

Coffee is a passion for Milos and the entire illy company, a Trieste, Italy-based business that started in 1933 and eventually started the UDC in 1999. Although many coffee connoisseurs take coffee seriously in the Pacific Northwest, which is renowned across the country for its coffee, the importance of coffee is simply at another level with illy. 

"It's really a company based on passion and quality, which you don't see as much as from the other coffee companies in the U.S. or some of the other coffee companies around the world," said Lori Eastes, a regional sales manager for illy.

The art of ordering, drinking and tasting coffee should be an experience in itself, Milos said. It shouldn't be something one should hastily order with no thought as to how it's made.

"It's to be the full experience," Milos, 36, said. "What I mean is that it's not just a cup of coffee. It's an environment, like this place. And it's about people, who talk with you with passion and serve the coffee and espresso in the right cup. It's not just a black liquid. It has to be a full experience."

Milos began to fully experience the world of espresso and coffee at age 16 when he was working in a cafe in Italy. As he got older, his passion grew and eventually became a quality control technician. Milos continued to climb the career ladder before taking control of the training and management of illy's first espressamente (an Italian interpretation of a coffee bar).

"I did everything there," he said.

In 2003, after illy moved the UCD from Naples, Italy to its new home of Trieste, Italy -- about 540 miles -- Milos became an instructor at the UDC. He's been working there and teaching throughout the world ever since. A year after he won the 2008 Italian Barista championship, he trained the 2009 champ. It's been a whirlwind for Milos, going from working in a coffee shop in Italy to a champion to traveling the world with one goal in mind -- making the perfect espresso.

"First of all, I have to say I love my job," Milos said. "I love my job because I have the chance to to meet different people, talk with different baristas and to understand different markets."

Milos said the Italian market is vastly different than the American market, particularly with the preparation of the final product.

"Espresso that the Americans make here is so different than real, authentic Italian espresso," Milos said. "I've been a little surprised that in a big country -- a very important country like the United States -- they try to do something different, but not authentic, and in my opinion, a little wrong."

Milos, Eastes and Spaccarelli went on a trip to five local coffee roasters Monday. They tasted several varieties of coffees and shared their thougths with each other about the drinks. It was an eye-opening experience for Milos.

"I can just say one thing," he said. "The method of preparing espresso here is so different that any espresso that we tasted (Monday) was almost the same. Different origins of coffee have to have different flavors, but the preparation was so different ... How can I say it? Every coffee tasted the same because it's too concentrated and you can't distinguish the flavor from one another."

Spaccarelli couldn't disagree.

"When you tasted them ... I don't want to say it was dumbed down, but it was in a way you couldn't understand what was going in the coffee," he said.

Americans, Milos said, attempt to make espresso their own. Espresso and coffee purists, like Milos, think it should be left the way it was. Milos is here to spread a little light on what real espressos should be.

"That's my mission," he said.

Ryan is appreciative of the passion and expertise of not only Milos, but illy, as well. When he first got emerged into the coffee business a little more than 11 years ago, he wasn't sure which coffee company he should go with.

"I've always been appreciative because we got lucky where you just make a guess and that it works out," he said, laughing. "Whatever they do, they do it where it's all about quality."