Maxi – the leader in the Republic of Srpska - Delta Holding

Costa Coffee
has remained a small family business that, with equal passion meets
the demands of the customers and makes top quality coffee. The
journalists from Belgrade were given an opportunity to see this for
themselves some time ago when, in the organization of Delta Sport,
they stayed in London and visited several Costa Coffee cafeterias and
a coffee roasting facility.
Their comments were: “Well,
this is real coffee.” And then,
using big, 560 ml coffee cups,
they also tasted other types
of coffee, coffee with milk,
with fresh cream and chocolate,
short or long espresso,
cappuccino. In the cafeterias,
along with coffee, the clients
are offered a rich assortment
of foodstuffs, sandwiches (I
recommend the ones with
chicken and lemon), pastry
(do not miss the almond croissant),
cakes and, a must
really, sweets, the famous muffins with chocolate or blueberry... Excellent
coffee, top quality service and perfectly satisfied customer
– that is Costa Coffee in 19 countries of the world and soon in our
country as well.
Our hosts explain that the high standards can be achieved and maintained
by strictly following the prescribed rules – and there 65 of
those applied to a shop and 15 to the making of coffee. This means,
among other things, that for a good espresso seven grams of coffee
is needed, that the water pressure must be precisely maintained, that
30 ml of coffee extract should flow through the machine taps from
both sides in 20 seconds... All this is regularly checked by a barista
who had completed extensive training and who had first learned that
in order to make the best coffee the four letters M are necessary: Mixture,
Milling, Machine and the Mastery of the barista’s hands.
A visit to Costa roasting facility was a special experience. Gennaro
Pelliccia, the production manager, showed us the process – from
the arrival of coffee to the storeroom to the demonstration of coffee
making. This Italian from Naples who has been engaged in the making
of coffee for 16 years regularly controls and tests the mixtures,
but also cleverly experiments with the new ones. In Great Britain he
is thought of as the leading coffee expert with the highest possible
training in the field.
Coffee reaches the roasting facility from trusted suppliers from Central
and South American states, from Vietnam, African countries...
In a year 3,600 tones of coffee is bought; it is then cleansed with water
or with sunlight and then mixed and roasted. Gennaro explains
that coffee is roasted for a longer time so as not to explode the beans
but also in order to reduce the acidity of the coffee. The whole process
does not exceed 45 minutes. However, the packaged coffee is not distributed
immediately but is left stored for two weeks to enable additional
loss of fat and acids. Because of that, Costa coffee is unique and
is enjoyed by more than two million coffee drinkers at various outlets
– hotels and restaurants, bookstores, department stores, airports, offices
and catering services. The large number of outlets confirms the
fact that Costa Coffee is the most widely spread and accessible real
coffee brand in Great Britain.
HISTORY
BROTHERS STARTED IT ALL
Costa Coffee was established in 1971 by two brothers, Italians, Sergio
and Bruno Costa. When they realized there was the demand
for high quality roasted coffee, the brothers organized wholesale,
selling roasted coffee to suppliers and specialized coffee shops in
Great Britain and surrounding countries.
The experience in roasting and mixing coffee from Parma soon
defined the unique Costa Coffee style of roasting coffee. Using the
traditional Italian barrel roasters, Sergio and Bruno Costa, in the
beginning, produced only smaller quantities of coffee. This was a
special espresso mixture of seven different types of coffee beans.
They roasted coffee beans for a longer time period over lower temperature
to achieve a fuller, less bitter taste.
The special mixture of Mocca Italia espresso and the technique of
slow roasting are still used to produce special and delicate taste of
Costa coffee.
Brothers Costa opened their first coffee shop in London in 1978.
The network continued to spread at the speed of two new shops a
year so that, in 1995, Costa Coffee network consisted of 40 outlets.
In October 1995, Costa Coffee was joined to the Whitbread group
which already contained the famous service and catering brands,
like Beefeater restaurant chain, Brewers Fayre pubs and Premier
Travel Inn hotels.
Today, Costa Coffee is the fastest growing brand in Great Britain.
With its 573 shops in Great Britain and 189 facilities in 19 countries
of the world, Costa Coffee in the last couple of years is going
through a period of exceptionally fast development opening, on
the average, one new shop every four days.
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