Compadre. Our Italian Espresso

After almost ten years of roasting, we ventured into the holy grail of coffee. We've created our interpretation of an Italian espresso – the Compadre.

The Compadre is a 50/50 blend of Arabica and Conilon, Brazilian Robusta. Both coffees come from family-run coffee farms in Espírito Santo, Brazil. We roast the coffee very dark, emphasizing the robust notes of the Conilon and revealing spicy, tobacco-like aromas. The Arabica gives the coffee texture as well as dark chocolate and nuttier notes.

The Arabica portion comes from the Montanhas Capixabas, the mountainous region of Espírito Santo

We developed the coffee together with our partners at Farmers Coffee. I visited in autumn 2023 and was impressed by the drive of these young entrepreneurs and sons of coffee farmers. They focus on high-quality Conilons and Arabicas from the mountains of Espírito Santo. We visited Arabica farms at 1200 meters and Conilon farms at 80 meters above sea level. The topography is impressive.

Visiting Farmers Coffee in Venda Nova do Imigrante, autumn 2023

The Conilon portion comes from the northern part of Espírito Santo and is grown at 80 meters above sea level

Espírito Santo has a history heavily shaped by immigration. Many Italian families immigrated at the end of the 19th century, worked in coffee production, and gradually took over coffee farms.

The two families contributing their coffee to the Compadre also have Italian roots: The Romãos produce their pulped natural Arabica in the mountainous region around Castelo, while the Magieros produce their pulped natural Conilon in the plains of São Mateus in northern Espírito Santo.

The Romão family contributes the Arabica portion to the blend

In a way, a very large, historic circle closes: the coffee from these two families with Italian roots now ends up in an espresso modeled after the Italian style.

Farmers Coffee sorts both coffees in their warehouse and mixes them in a 50/50 ratio in the coffee sack. This allows the moisture content of both green coffees to balance in the sack. The 30-kg sacks arrive at our roastery this way and are roasted as a complete, already-mixed coffee.

The Roast

We decided on a medium-long and hot roast. We roast the Henrique or Apas espresso somewhat longer, but with the Compadre we achieve the highest final temperature on our roaster. With this high final temperature, we emphasize the roastier, robust notes. We end the roast shortly before the second crack.

What is Italian espresso?

In autumn 2024, we published a video and a blog about the 20 best Italian espressos. Our community selected the coffees to taste, with over 2000 votes cast.

In this complex and lengthy tasting, one thing became clear to us: Italian espresso as such doesn't really exist. There's a tendency for more Arabica to be used in the north and more Robusta in the south. We also noticed that roasteries in the north roast somewhat lighter, while roasteries in the south prefer dark roasting.

The image of the "classic Italian espresso" is often invoked, but agreement probably exists more from an outside perspective. We often hear that coffee simply tastes so much better after passing through the Gotthard Tunnel or crossing the Brenner Pass.

It's possible that the anticipation, the vacation feeling, the sight of the machine and familiar coffee brands in that moment have their influence – so the espresso is perceived differently than when prepared at home.

But we believe it's above all the ratio of the amount of ground coffee used to the extraction amount in the cup: the drink ratio. This differs significantly from what's customary north of the Alps. While we prefer drink ratios of 1:2.2 to 1:2.4 in our cafés, 1:2 in many Italian caffè bars is already almost too long an espresso. 1:1.5 often serves as the reference, meaning 1 part coffee to 1.5 parts water – for example, 17 g of ground coffee and 25.5 g of espresso in the cup.

That's short and strong. And often also considerably cheaper – not because of the amounts poured, but because of different wage and price structures.

Anyone north of the Alps who pours an espresso in a 1:1.5 ratio and then charges twice or three times as much as in Italy often gets a grim look. Yet the coffee might now be sensorically optimized. If a customer then wants "more for their money," the extraction is lengthened (more water flows through the ground coffee) with the same amount of grounds. This results in watery espressos that are far from the ideal imagined.

We met Dério Brioschi, one of the founders of Farmers Coffee, in Geneva at World of Coffee 2025.

How would we prepare it?

We're currently developing various recipes. Many fans of Italian espressos work with lever machines, so we want to develop a recipe for that as well.

For a classic 9-bar profile, we work at a brew ratio of 1:1.8 to 1:2 for at least 27 seconds. Those aiming for high flavor intensity and a heavy body extract the coffee shorter, toward 1:1.8. Those who want to bring the coffee more into balance and highlight a few more caramel notes can aim for 1:2.

We're excited to see your recipes – please feel free to comment them here.