Anyone who stops to take a sip of his coffee in Ditta Artigianale, in Florence, takes with them a beautiful experience and an exciting story made of love, sacrifice, passion and great challenges overcome with the utmost enthusiasm.

 (Copy originally written in Italian.) 

For those who know him, he already knows what we mean, but for those who do not know him we present a man of a thousand energies and a thousand surprises: Francesco Sanapo.
 

Hi Francesco, let's tell you about you. How would you describe yourself?

It is difficult to describe myself - because those who describe themselves always omit qualities, risking to be not very modest - however Francesco Sanapo is a person who lives for coffee and coffee. He is a lucky guy because he has made passion his job and has as main mission to write a new page of Italian coffee, something that our predecessors have done, so much so that made in Italy coffee is always what it has an immense value. Only our task today is to fight, to work, to strive to write the continuation of this beautiful story.
 

What do you think of Italian Roasting?

I think it's time for an evolution, for a development ... like all things. It is not a criticism, it is simply an update with the times, look at the change of coffee that occurs at the origin. What we have today - and one who tells you that he spends most of his time traveling in the countries of origin - is not the coffee that was there ten years ago. There has been an evolution: different botanical varieties, different agronomic processes and different fermentation processes, have caused the coffee to undergo an evolution of taste. The new generations want coffee but also listen to another story. Evolution cannot be stopped, it is in progress. If to make the mixture that gave the taste of Italian espresso until yesterday they would have put together four coffees - always the same and went on like this - today even those four coffees have changed. We are inevitably going through a problem like climate change, where the biggest challenge for coffee is to adapt to the climate and then change.
 

You were very important for the design of the Roast Masters. How did the idea come about precisely?

When we meet Ludovic and I (Director of Events Allegra Events, organiser of the Festival) we are an explosion of ideas, we can't be together! In my opinion, Allegra Events should forbid our meeting (laughs ed.). It was born simply with a friend; we share this way of living things with passion. In London I met Ludovic and the Allegra team and I exposed this competition formula that I felt was missing, they married her in full and ... we had fun!
 

Why is it important as a competition?

Because that of the roaster has always been a hidden profession, almost like the secret of the mixture, and therefore my idea is to give visibility to the roaster, to whoever is in the laboratory roasting.
 

A short time ago you went to Uganda for a project called "Coffee Hunter". What is it precisely?

It's a TV series and every episode is filmed in a different country. We have just started shooting it in Uganda. It is a project that I feel deeply and that is strong in my heart. "Coffee Hunter" is simply the coffee story, according to my eyes, my vision and my way of being, to give visibility to all those producers who are often forgotten by the so-called understanding of coffee "as a medicine". When you drink coffee without giving importance, I always say: "they drink coffee as if it were a medicine just to wake up", leaving out all that is beautiful behind that cup. "Coffee Hunter" is the story of a journey in search of the best coffee, or the best coffee, but behind the voucher I want to include everything, not just the qualities in the cup. It must be a sustainable coffee with the producer careful to protect the earth. I can also go beyond the fact that from 90 to 86, a lower cup score but with higher potential, because together, all together, I and the producer can reach that much sought after. This is the Coffee Hunter project, showcasing coffee with its colours, its nature, its beauty.
 

Many have asked you, but why Uganda?
 

A natural decision because we wanted a country that needed visibility, a country that really needed me and my help.
 

Returning to Italy: what should be done to increase awareness in coffee?

Educating the consumer is the biggest mission and a great challenge, perhaps the most important way to achieve an increase in quality. It is unacceptable to think that even today coffee can cost eighty cents, but even one euro is too little. Today coffee experiences some really difficult moments of climate change, of diseases that are affecting the plant due to various situations and the producer is unable to live with one euro per cup, so there is no economic sustainability anywhere on the supply chain.
 

How will Italy's future be?

By force of things a development must be put in place, I see a future more oriented towards quality coffee and greater attention. Secondly it will be divided between excellence and low quality. Maybe the average quality will decrease more and more, I don't know, but surely there will be a rise in the specialty coffee. I do not see it in the immediate sense, perhaps it will be necessary to wait five years to start seeing an orientation aimed at excellence, because coffee in Italy is such a popular product that some time will actually pass before it is changed. But surely a strong change has already begun.

 (Copy originally written in Italian.)