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Segafredo Zanetti Espresso Café Crystal Park

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SeenThat
SeenThat
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5 out of 5
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A Cup of Perfection

  • March 4, 2009
  • Rated 5 of 5 by SeenThat from Tel Aviv, Israel
A Cup of Perfection


Segafredo’s entry to Thailand was relatively recent. I have met them in my hometown, their home country, a few European cities, the US and finally in Bangkok. That means I have visited them in many of the cities printed on their smart outer glass-walls in most of their branches and can say that by far, Segafredo is my favorite Italian coffee. Besides the superb coffee served there and their adherence to traditional Italian methods and products, their branches are always super-stylish; a real treat.

On the Chain

Segafredo Zanetti was founded in 1973 and has its headquarters in Bologna. Nowadays, it is the world’s largest privately owned coffee company. In 1988 it made its debut in the international market by opening a branch on Boulevard des Italiens, Paris and a bit later another one in Vienna. The last step was bold since Austrian coffee is different from the Italian, and Segafredo serves exclusively Italian coffee; they succeeded also there. In fact, Segafredo states that the spreading of Italian-style coffee around the world is its mission.

They take it seriously. They own a coffee plantation in Brazil, a coffee mill in Costa Rica and nine roasting plants in America and Europe, facts that ensure they can control the product quality to perfection during all the stages of its preparation.

In Thailand they operate a franchise with Central Food Retail, from the Central Pattana, the owner of Central World, Central Chidlom and other big names in Thailand’s shopping world.

Nowadays Segafredo has over six hundred branches all over the world and serves 50 million cups of coffee every day. What’s the secret of such a success? Serving excellent coffee and doing that in smart locations, which often become an attraction by themselves.

A recurring theme in its branches are the outer glass walls (sometimes even the inner ones) featuring an attractive array of names – in different sizes and directions – of the towns where they do have branches. For a traveler that has visited many of those, staring at the printed glass is like looking into the list of the mental journals of his trips. There is no better way of enjoying an excellent coffee.

"Coffee is the beverage of the creative and active intelligence, it revives and awakes the senses," is a statement that seems to summarize Segafredo’s view of the world.

On Mocha and Mokka

"It is an Austrian type of coffee," I said.

"No, it is coffee with chocolate," said the owner of a well known tea house in Santa Fe.

Actually, we both were right. Despite bring written differently, Mocha and Mokka sound the same and both taste good.

Segafredo uses the Italian nomenclature and preparation style, thus mocha and chocolate rule here, mokka would probably be considered a misspelled item. Yet, both are worth a short description.

Mokka

Austrian coffee is of remarkable quality, and is qualified using terms a bit different from the Italian ones we have learned to love. The basic Austrian cup of coffee is called Kleiner Schwarzer or Kleiner Mokka and is almost identical to an Italian Espresso. It is prepared with at least 8 grams of freshly ground coffee with 40-60 ml of water steam, extracting coffee into a cup for up to 60 seconds (the longer steaming time of the Austrian is the main difference between the two coffees). A großer Schwarzer is a double Mokka and if it is topped with whipped cream, then it is called Einspänner. A Fiaker is an "Einspaenner" with a shot of rum.

Mocha

In the Italian system, a café mocha is a café latte – meaning one third espresso and two thirds steamed milk – with added chocolate as sweet cocoa powder or chocolate syrup. It takes its name from the town of Mocha, Yemen, which was an important coffee exporter in the far past and produced a coffee bean of the Arabica type with a "chocolatey" taste, smaller and rounder than other types. Both - coffee prepared with these beans and coffee to which chocolate is added – can be referred to as "mocha coffee."

Crystal Clear

The branch reviewed here is located in Crystal Park, a bit out of the metropolis center, but yet worth a visit. This new shopping mall was built in an open style, creating thus a very different sight from the massive mammoths in downtown Bangkok. Segafredo is on the front line of shops, thus its stylish red design can be spotted immediately. No delays are accepted in the way to this cup of coffee.

The branch features the Segafredo signature red, white and black interiors and serves the coffee in shiny black cups that are attractive enough to be given as quality gifts. Relatively small, the branch enjoys lots of light that only enhances the tasteful interior decoration. The bright red tables fit well in the space despite their less than usual color and the light brown chairs – featuring the "S" logo of Segafredo – balanced the colors. The coffee I got was a cup of perfection.

Finding the name of my hometown in the large list of names printed on the glass wall on the front and the solid wall at the back of the store aroused memories of other days and coffees. The oversized, bold and red name of Bangkok by the wall’s center brought me back to reality.

From journal One Coffee in Bangkok

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