Would you like to gift your love for coffee with a plantation experience? Are these trips too demanding in time and investment? Espresso Academy offers you your big coffee adventure in Sicily!

Learning about coffee, from roasting to tasting and beyond, isn’t difficult, for example, you could enjoy a lovely holiday in Florence and join Espresso Academy’s courses.
At our school, we know many coffee enthusiasts, starting with ourselves. We understand how every coffee lover’s big dream is to embarking on a journey to explore the origins of our passion, discovering the coffee plant

Explore, experience, and truly feel coffee as it grows on the plantation, from the nursery to harvesting, from fermentation and cupping tastings, will be an unforgettable experience for every coffee enthusiast.But some aspects stop us. Coffee grows in tropical areas. Trips are long, with both flights and internal travel required to reach the plantation. Additionally you need to stay there for at least ten days.

So, taking 10 to 15 days off for a coffee vacation can be quite tricky. It might even lead us to give up on the idea. Plus, the investment needed, considering the complexity of the trip and the long stay, could easily exceed 4,000 to 5,000 euros.

The Coffee plantation in Ragusa – Sicily

Always, behind a problem, there’s always a great opportunity!
When Espresso Academy met Giovanni Balistrieri, an amazing farmer and coffee enthusiast from Ragusa, they found the solution to all these challenges.

A trip to the plantation in Sicily, where you can see how coffee is grown, harvested, and tasted through cupping, all in just a few days and at an affordable price, perfect for any coffee lover!

Espresso Academy’s first plantation trip in Sicily, exploring the almost only European coffee , will take place in beautiful October in Ragusa, from October 18th to 20th, 2024

During these extraordinary days you can:

• Participate in plantation work, such as pruning and planting coffee seed (bring comfortable clothes!)
• Work directly on various fermentation processes
• Follow the classification and drying of the beans
• Learn to recognize coffee defects
• Taste the finca’s coffees processed with various methods through cupping
• … and even take part in the extraordinary Ethiopian ceremony of Bunna (the original name for coffee)!

Four days of work/experience, study, tasting, and testing, with, before or after the finca experience, plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful beaches and baroque architecture of Ragusa, for a journey that remain in your heart.

For further information, please contact us at info@espressoacademy.it

Meeting Point and Schedule

The meeting points for the participants will be:

• Catania Airport on October 17th, where a trainer from Espresso Academy will be ready to welcome you to Sicily, assist with car rental (quite useful for this journey in rural areas), and travel together to Santa Croce Camerina, in the province of Ragusa.
  
• Directly at Finca Balistrieri on October 18th
  Address: Via Iurato, 3, 97017 Santa Croce Camerina RG Coordinates: 36°49’16.4″N 14°31’14.4″E (behind the Fire station)

Program

October 18th, 2024

10:30: Welcome to participants
Welcome coffee with Ethiopian ceremony
Visit to Finca Balistrieri and its diversity
Botanical coffee varieties present at Finca Balistrieri
Practical plantation work trials: sowing, harvesting, pruning
Agronomy elements in the plantation
Processing methods: washed, natural, fermentations.
Moisture, density, and degree tests and measurements in various processes
Reading the evaluation sheet
Cascara and its uses.
18:00 End of the day, in time for a lovely evening together in Sicily

October 19th, 2024
9:30 Meeting at Finca Balistrieri.
The entire day is dedicated to two topics:
The work and analysis, with related tests, of the various manufacturing and fermentation processes
A calibration path for cupping tasting.
6:00 PM End of the day, 5ime for a lovely evening together in Sicily.

October 20th, 2024

9.30am: Meeting at Finca Balistrieri
Work and control of fermentation processes
Work and agronomy on the plantation: from the nursery to planting.
Fertilization and soil care.
Cupping and grading of the various coffees prepared with different manufacturing processes
Talk on the coffee market, on specialty coffee and its future during the Ethiopian Bunna ceremony 2.30pm After lunch, the course ends and, for those who want, the experience of discovering the wonders of Sicily (and its beaches!) begins!

The package cost is 750€ (700€ for those booking before June 1st) and includes the entire course/experience + all lunches.

The fee does not include

• Flight to Sicily
• Transfer (rental car recommended) to Santa Croce Camerina.
• Accommodation (information will be sent regarding affiliated facilities)
• Dinners and breakfasts

For further information, please contact us at info@espressoacademy.it