The story began 115 years ago, in 1895, with the establishment of the family grocery store run by Meschini brothers. Over the years, Arcaffè developed into a complex structure expanding abroad. Selecting and marketing a unique high-quality coffee that makes an Espresso great is probably not enough. That’s why, together with a few roasters, Arcaffè founded in 1996 the Certified Special Coffee Association of Italy (CSC). CSC defined a system of strict control procedures which follow the path taken by a coffee bean starting from the tree, through the roasting and blend, straight up to the cup. The CSC-label is a guarantee to the barista and the final consumer. In effect, qualified tasters carry out full physical and organoleptic testing on samples coming from each estate, after the crop. Then CSC’s Technical Commission examines the results to verify if they comply with the standards of excellence. As soon as the green coffee purchased by a CSC Member arrives at the final port, an independent inspector picks a sample. In order to be considered as ‘special’, the coffee must meet stringent requirements and more tasting sessions are performed to confirm the same parameters, previously tasted after the crop. Further inspections at the roaster’s site ensure the correct use of the selected coffees and, finally, the CSC label is stuck on the packages. See www.arcaffe.co.il.