Coffee: Make That a Double, Please

In alphabetical order: Illy and Lavazza. Italy’s two most important coffee companies remain in the hands of the families whose surnames they bear. They’ve proved the most decisive in building the modern Italian — and therefore global — idea of coffee, as well as for their current relationship with advertising communication, design, and art. They’ve also anticipated and pursued the idea of all-around sustainability — environmental, social, and economic — through research, technological innovation, training, and local activity through their respective foundations. Around the world, others, both in their industry and beyond, have followed their lead. Practically the same age, both hold the Cavaliere del Lavoro, or Knight of Labor, title, an Italian order of chivalry decreed by the president. 

Andrea Illy: “humanist chemist,” president, third generation, nephew of Francesco Illy, who arrived in Trieste during World War I, a Hungarian soldier in the Habsburg army. He fell in love with an Italian, Italy, and coffee, and in 1933 he founded the company. The following year he patented the pressurization packaging with inert gas to preserve the beans’ aroma. Two years later, he invented Illetta — the ancestor of all espresso machines — and in 1974, the first single-portion paper pods. 

Giuseppe Lavazza: an economist with a passion for communication, vice-president, fourth generation, great-grandson of Luigi who, even before he left his native province of Alessandria for Turin in 1895, had bet on the fact that coffee, still relatively uncommon in Italy, could become a national rite. He founded a company that was the first to understand the value of blending different coffee types, the first to market a branded packaged product, and the first to experiment with advertising. Today, it’s the market leader. For Andrea, the surname Illy represents “the dream;” for Giuseppe, Lavazza means “loyalty.” Technically, they’re competitors, but disposition and vision render them friends and co-authors of initiatives capable of making an impact. Able to work as a team, they’re excited to chat together on Zoom one afternoon this eerie summer to support the idea of nominating the Italian culinary tradition for UNESCO. A tradition in which coffee, their work, and their passion occupies a central role that does not exist in any other kitchen in the world.

Let’s start from here: the unmistakable italianità [Italianness] of coffee.
Andrea Illy: “The two coffee cultures are Italian and Austrian: Venice and Vienna were the first western cities that imported coffee from the Turks in the 17th century. But if coffee is a hot drink for the Austrians, it’s an elixir for the Italians. It has always been linked to the world of art and literature for its ability to stimulate creativity and sociability, a culture that has been around for four centuries and has led the way. Also, because of our creativity, we invented Neapolitan coffee, mocha, espresso, and coffee sipped at the bar, an extraordinary ritual that is now one of the characteristic expressions of the Italian lifestyle.”
Giuseppe Lavazza: “And an object, the Neapolitan coffee pot and then the mocha, dominates the private ritual of coffee, a symbol of the moment of pleasure that marks the beginning of the day for families. And then there is a place, the bar — not the cafés that can be found in other countries where they play a different role — is the center of the public ritual. It’s like a small secular church through which our cheerful humanity and desire to spend time together flows. The invention of espresso and the cup size created the idea of consumption at the counter that’s fast, inexpensive, excellent, and sociable.”

A purpose quite different from the idea of the to-go cup consumed on the street.
Giuseppe Lavazza: “Italy interprets coffee as an identity product that 100% uniquely represents our nationality. We hold the small cup in our hands like a smartphone, an object that speaks to us — encouraging a moment of pleasure — as well as to others. It’s an unfailing piece of our social network. Offering a coffee is a spontaneous gesture in many cultures, but the speedy Italian ritual is all ours and part of our joy of living.”
Andrea Illy: “The one with which Americans are familiar is a hot drink, a substitute for tea; ours is an elixir. And then how it’s served: in a porcelain cup by a barista who keeps the counter clean, recognizes the customers, and knows which coffee they want. He hands it to them with extraordinary speed, the handle facing the direction of their hands. The barista socializes — something that elsewhere does not exist because our baristas — and there many, one for every 400 inhabitants — work with an incomparable passion.

We are here to promote the uniqueness of the Italian culinary tradition, and unique is the role that coffee has in it.
Andrea Illy: “Sirio Maccioni, who was the most famous restaurateur in America, said you couldn’t go wrong with coffee. It comes after all the dishes, so it doesn’t spoil the customers’ palate, but before the bill, when you don’t want to make them angry. Unfortunately, what should be the icing on the cake is a moment all too often overlooked. Restaurant reviews cover the dishes, the wines, and the setting, but hardly ever the coffee. In the Italian culinary experience, coffee is an essential moment, and not just because it completes the aesthetic experience. Science also recognizes its digestive and stimulating functions against the dormant feeling one tends to have after a meal. Its importance within the restaurant industry should be valued, even better if it can become part of the description of Italian cuisine that you want to protect as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site.”
Giuseppe Lavazza: “What makes Italian gastronomy unique is our ease in playing with ingredients and techniques, but how we just naturally follow certain rules. It’s hard to find an Italian who, after lunch, drinks something that doesn’t fit inside an espresso cup. When a foreigner orders a large latte, we smile at that way of consuming it. Not out of arrogance, but out of a sense of belonging to a cultural fence within which everyone knows how to consume coffee, just as everyone considers themselves competent in terms of food. For us, sitting down to lunch is a complete sensory and emotional experience, and coffee is the perfect fulfillment. The amuse-bouche opens the meal, and the espresso concludes it. A small, intense period to punctuate the end of a beautiful sentence, the moment that marks the passage from morning to afternoon, a ritual that we learn how to speak."

Creativity and innovation: what are the real strengths of Made in Italy?
Giuseppe Lavazza: “We are lucky enough to live in a country where we are surrounded by two things: beauty and goodness. Goodness related to cooking but also the ability to be open and generous. Italians are undoubtedly creative but should invest more in research, development, and innovation to create goodness and beauty. Beauty too often seems like a closed chapter for us, one to which we don’t think we can add pages. Just what Andrea and I have been able to do with coffee — which, all around the world, has never stopped speaking the Italian language — is the demonstration of the fact that our garden of beauty can and must continue to be cultivated. The myth of Italian taste, which is expressed in food, but also in the ability to create objects that become global icons, is a reality envied and imitated all over the world. Italy can and must make that leap in quality that we all expect and hope for.”
Andrea Illy: “If both our companies know how to compete with giants bigger than us, it’s because we have been able to work on innovation without losing sight of our DNA, what other countries could never have: Italian authenticity, which is far from all the Italian sounding words— barista, latte, Venezia —that are so fashionable in international gourmet coffee, but have nothing authentically Italian. The Italian lifestyle in the world is synonymous with well-being, quality of life, beauty, culture, traditions, sociality, friendship — the [community-like] concept of Facebook friendship has been borrowed from Italian-style friendship. In a word, joy. It sounds like a slogan, but what’s better than joy? And then the ability to make a competitive advantage allows us to be recognized around the world as beautiful and good, to be the place where everyone dreams of coming and, once they have come, to return. The potential of the country is a huge chorus."

The difficulty of making a system we always talk about: is it a commonplace or a reality?
Andrea Illy: “We are individualists. Our history teaches us so. But we have an extraordinary opportunity to move from individualism to altruism, which is a sort of intelligent selfishness. The awareness that creating a team is useful when you cannot achieve results if you’re not working together. It happened in the post-war period, and it can happen in the post-pandemic period. It’s up to all of us to set an example. The collaborations that Giuseppe and I have had have always
started from our relationship. Maybe this interview can be the cue to do something that brings value to everyone, to our companies, to the country.”
Giuseppe Lavazza: “The regulatory inflation and the uncertainty of the future are systemic conditions that make it extremely difficult to form a team. Politics announces public reforms that never arrive, but also in the private sector, entrepreneurship is too often content to live in the comfort zone. There is a lack of willingness to put a system in place and stay grounded, which counts for even more today if we aspire to play on a chessboard that is now global. We need a cultural leap, and the country doesn’t help. The anti-business culture is still very strong, and there is extreme mistrust in leaving freedom to run and grow for the benefit of all.”

You talked a lot about “good and beautiful.” Why is the relationship with beauty, design, and art so important for the coffee world?
Giuseppe Lavazza: “Coffee is part of a very lively social custom, a contemporary product that needs to be in step with the times without ever forgetting its history. The flexibility of Italian culture helps with this, the ability to use new languages to tell the story in a new way — art and design, of course, but also avant-garde cuisine, new techniques, new ways of presentation. Still, it’s never an end in itself. The all-sensory experience sets Italian coffee culture apart from the others.”
Andrea Illy: “Italian espresso is known for its high aesthetic and experiential content. Otherwise, we would have no reason to consume it — it is not a hot drink, it has no calories, caffeine is fine elsewhere. Consumers prefer the enjoyment it gives. We are accustomed to measuring quality through aesthetics, and beauty serves to exalt its goodness. All high-end brands use it. The French are masters, but they express an ostentatious beauty. Ours is more inclusive; this is one of Made in Italy’s finest values.”

Your idea of “good” has to do with taste but also with ethics, with sustainability.
Andrea Illy: “For me, sustainability means satisfying our needs without compromising those of future generations, in terms of raw materials, environmental impact, social impact, and also the survival of the company. For the coffee industry, it’s even more important because coffee adds to the well-being of those who drink it. In the past, 80% of coffee drinkers lived in the wealthy countries of the Northern Hemisphere. Today, that number is 50%, representing an economy of subsistence for coffee producers in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s no longer acceptable for consumers to take advantage of it without giving more than mere subsistence back to the producers. Also, we must invest in training, skills, and working conditions if we want quality products. We are talking about 25 million families who produce in 50 countries.”
Giuseppe Lavazza: “Today a company cannot look only at turnover and profits. There is something called reputation, and that is worth just as much as — and maybe even more than — the numbers because without reputation, the other two won’t continue to grow. So opportunistic attitudes towards sustainability now have short legs: the only options are transparency and honesty, not announcements but facts and substance, and a certain modesty, a certain discretion in telling the facts and substance. Does it have a cost? Of course, it has a cost, but it also pays, because the best use of resources — the true circular economy— generates savings and efficiency.”

I was struck by the fact that you both produced documentaries on the role of women in rural coffee-producing communities.

Giuseppe Lavazza: “Among the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development objectives, one is gender equality. Sustainability means much more than fighting climate change. We need to act on the social level, young people, schools, and entrepreneurship training. And in rural communities, promoting women’s access to economical and productive processes bring an extraordinary benefit.”
Andrea Illy: “In developing countries, the role of women is more important than that of men, and the most effective weapon in the fight against poverty is to promote education for young girls. Women are more thrifty in managing family income, more attentive to the details of production. For nearly 30 years, we have issued an award for the best quality, and they almost always win.”

The environmental issue, however, is fundamental.
Andrea Illy: “Climate change impacts quality and quantity. The demand is growing because coffee has conquered Asia, where people traditionally drink tea. Working on productivity and selecting the most resilient plants, we can avoid the risk of losing coffee security and guarantee sufficient supply. But investments are needed on plantations, and producers have few resources. I’m happy to say that, together with Lavazza, we do a lot to help them access credit and new techniques.”
Giuseppe Lavazza: “The lockdown was good for the environment but bad for everything else: we learned firsthand that turning a key and switching everything off doesn’t work. Climate change is a complex issue that must be approached constructively, without extremism. We have given ourselves a deadline, 2030. It’s very ambitious, but a more sustainable system for exploiting resources is possible and compatible with development, growth, and jobs. We need a great global alliance, all united towards the same goal. You win only by playing as a team.”

Photo Cover by Massimo Gardone_Azimut (courtesy of Illy press office)