Di Lorenzo Caffé - Coffee Merchants

The story of Di Lorenzo Caffé began with a passion for drinking and sharing damn good espresso coffee! Growing up in Abruzzo, a region in Italy lying less than 80km due east of Rome, Aldo Cozzi and Mina Di Lorenzo, the founders of Di Lorenzo Caffé embraced coffee culture from an early age. Coffee culture is omnipresent in Italy and its story dates back to the 1600’s when coffee houses began to appear in major cities. The revolution in the history of espresso (fast) coffee came in 1947 when Achile Gaggia registered a new patent, for a lever operated piston which was simple to operate by hand and would force hot water drawn directly from the boiler, through the coffee cake. The use of the piston meant extraction resulted in essential oils and colloids from the coffee creating a rich hazel-coloured crema on top of the resultant beverage. Today this is seen as the defining characteristic of espresso, however at this time, this new beverage was renamed ‘Caffé Crema’ (cream coffee) in order to distinguish it from the pre-existing espresso beverages. The arrival of the caffé crema marked not only the creation of a distinctive Italian-Style coffee but also the birth of a mass Italian coffee culture…The coffee culture that Aldo and Mina grew up with. The pair met at a bus stop in the late 1970s, fell in love, got married and had a beautiful son Andrea. In 2000 Aldo felt the pull to return to Australia (his country of birth) Mina and Andrea were excited about the prospect of a major change, so with free spirits the family packed their bags and moved. After spending the first couple of years travelling, the Cozzi family settled in Sydney. They soon grew tired of not being able to find a good espresso, reminiscent of the Italian-Style espresso they were accustomed to. Aldo wanted people to try espresso the way it was done when he was growing up in Italy. With what little money they could scrape together the Cozzi family found a shop on Boundary Street in Darlinghurst. They tiled it, put in the benches and painted it. Over a few months Aldo developed a blend of espresso which truly delivers the rich flavours, aromas and crema of Italian espresso! The cafe was a success! It was everything the family had hoped for, a place which would bring people together; somewhere patrons could feel at home and share good espresso! The coffee became so popular that the family started wholesaling it as Di Lorenzo Caffé!