Ditta Artigianale – Rethinking Italian Coffee
Italy invented espresso. Built the machines. Exported the culture worldwide. But somewhere along the way, the birthplace of espresso got stuck. Dark roasts masking defects, sugar packets on every counter, and a defensiveness about tradition that prevented evolution. The three-time Italian Barista Champion Francesco Sanapo founded Ditta Artigianale in 2013 with a specific mission: to drag Italian coffee culture into the specialty era.
He’d grown up in the industry as his father ran a coffee bar in Puglia, and he knew Italian coffee could be better. The question was whether Italians would accept that. Turns out, they would. Eventually. After some convincing that is.
The Making of Ditta Artigianale
Francesco started working in his father’s bar at fourteen years old. But his dad, a traditional artisan, wouldn’t let him touch the espresso machine. So he used to sneak into the bar and make espresso with the machine when his dad wasn’t around.
He moved to Florence at twenty years old for a fresh start, and spent years working in coffee. Eventually he became a consultant for medium and large coffee companies, handling quality control and staff training. But consulting wasn’t cutting it for him. Francesco wanted to build something that would actually change how Italians thought about coffee.
He started competing at Barista Championships, came in last place the first time, but didn’t give up. Quite to the contrary. He won the Italian Barista Championship in 2010, then again in 2011, and 2013. That same year he placed sixth at the World Barista Championship in Melbourne and founded Ditta Artigianale as a micro-roastery together with Patrick Hoffer.
They opened their first café in Florence’s historic center in 2014, on Via dei Neri. The concept was clear, the coffee was exceptional, but not everyone agreed. Whenever he was meeting resistance, Francesco took time to explain his approach, converting skeptics and traditionalists one conversation at a time. That’s what Ditta Artigianale represents: not a rejection of Italian coffee tradition, but an evolution of it. Taking the artisan values, the attention to detail, the ritual and care, and applying it all to specialty-grade beans, transparent sourcing, and modern processing methods.
Sourcing and Roasting
Ditta Artigianale now operates several locations in Florence and one in Milan. Walk into any Ditta Artigianale coffee bars and you’ll find a selection spanning origins and processing methods. The roast style generally leans lighter than traditional Italian roasting, but not far into Nordic territory. Ditta Artigianale are aiming for balance, preserving origin character and processing notes while maintaining body and sweetness that Italian palates appreciate. It’s a middle path, deliberately positioned to bridge tradition and innovation.
Their philosophy is to enhance the natural characteristics of each coffee through roasting, never to mask them. That might sound obvious in specialty coffee circles, but in Italy, where dark roasts have historically been used to hide defects and create uniformity, it’s still not a common stance.
Michele Anedotti, who won the 2019 Italian Roasting Championship, heads the roasting team. The entire crew is Q-grader certified by the Coffee Quality Institute, meaning they’ve passed rigorous testing on their sensory skills. Francesco, who won the 2019 Italian Cup Tasters Championship with a perfect score, oversees quality control.
You’ll find quite a few omni-roasts in their portfolio, which are coffes with a roast profile that works for both espresso and filter brewing.
Discover Beans from Ditta Artigianale
Chimaltenango, Guatemala
Honduras / Finca El Puente, Honduras / La Paz, Honduras
The Coffee Range of Ditta Artigianale
Italian coffee culture was built on blending, the art of combining beans from different origins to create complexity and consistency. Ditta Artigianale respects that tradition but reimagines how it’s done. Their signature blends include Mamma Mia, a medium-low acidity coffee blending Peru, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Honduras. to achieve intense notes of chocolate, dried fruit, and spices.
The blend Jump takes a different direction with notes of marzipan, caramel, and honey. It’s designed for people who want approachable sweetness without the fruit-forward acidity that can dominate lighter roasts. Think of it as a bridge coffee, something that can win over traditional Italian espresso drinkers while still delivering specialty-grade quality.
But Ditta Artigianale also push a single origin espresso from a single producer, the Caballero family at Finca El Puente in Honduras, and used only one variety, Catuai, from one plot of land. Then they created the blend’s complexity not by mixing origins, but by processing the same coffee four different ways: washed, natural, semi-anaerobic, and anaerobic.
While the blends anchor their offering, the single-origin selection is rotating and often includes coffees from Ethiopia, Kenya, Costa Rica, and Honduras. These change seasonally based on harvest cycles and what Francesco discovers during his months at origin, when he travels to meet producers face to face. We’ve personally tried and tested Ditta Artigianale Single Origins from Costa Rica, Kenya, and Honduras. While all of these coffees were interesting, the Kenya with its citrusy acidity and juicy notes was our favorite. When opening the bag the aroma was incredibly fruity and it was honestly such a joy to brew that I declared it my favorite coffee of summer 2025.
The Special Edition line features exclusive micro-lots like the Nestor Lasso coffees from Colombia. These treats represent the upper end of their range, coffees selected for rarity, unique processing, or exceptional cup quality. Expect to pay premium prices, but you’re getting competition-grade beans with limited availability.
Check out their full portfolio here.
