$5 a Kg for flour? Artisan Ingredients Discuss $5 a Kg for flour? in the Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart forums; ... would people still be prepared to pay that price? Well that's the situation we have here in Australia... $140 ...

[Mitchamus]

... would people still be prepared to pay that price?

Well that's the situation we have here in Australia...

$140 a bag + shipping is ridiculous, and is just cashing in on people who have more money than sense. (IMO)

I'm not sure who they expect to buy it at that price - Certainly a business owners would not take kindly to losing that large a margin on profits.
and couldn't pass on the cost to customers without losing some business.

It's don't think it's 5 times as good as regular commercial pizza flour, and it certainly doesn't taste 5 times as good!

Having said all of that, it was only twice as expensive as the flour I use, then I would certainly buy it. I currently pay $14.50 for a 12.5kg bag.

[james]

Hey all,

I wish I could say that either: a) Molina Caputo flour wasn't that much better than everything else, or b) it was cheap. Sadly, neither is true. :-) In the states, that means that it is both very good and a little expensive (not that FB can control the price).

Still, it is easy to find, and home delivery is simple. We have a family friend who tried to buy Caputo flour for home use when he was living in Italy, and it is very difficult to find outside of the restaurant supply chain. He gave up.

For our Aussie members, I am not sure of the alternatives.

Can you find a good quality imported Italian Tipo 00 flour -- either locally or through an Internet store? Is it out there?
FB

[heliman]

A "little expensive" is one thing but at around $160 delivered to Perth I would have to say that is off my "reasonable scale".

On a side note I have approached an Australian flour wholesaler to see if he can source Caputo flour for local sale. He is currently exploring the options.

Just thinking - maybe if FB starts selling ovens in Oz, they could extend the product line to include Caputo flour as well? There is definitely a market for the product here - providing the price is fair!

Here's hoping!

Rossco

[Nabber86]

OK to turn a corner, I found an Italian flour locally (really hard to do in kansas city area). It is called Granoro Farina "00". Really fine and really white. It made a nice thin crusty bubbly crust which was nice and I can pick it up for $4 A Kg (no shipping). The only thing that I noticed is that it said on the bag, "for pizze, torte, dolci....". Then I thought, dolci and torte are obviously sweet type breads which are kind of diametrically oppossed to pizza flour. Has anyone tried the Granoro Brand? What gives?

TIA

[Mitchamus]

anything that's 00 grade should be good,
after that it comes down to brand preference

torte (torta) can also mean Bread

[heliman]

It's definitely confusing....

I had a similar experience with an Italian "Pizuti" flour - designed especially for pizza making. On reading the label I noticed that it was "0" grade and not "00". The same company produces a "00" flour but it's for making pasta!!

Rossco

[dmun]

From what I've read, in the world of Italian pizza flours, one of the main things that Caputo has going for it is consistency. Other 00 flours may approach Caputo quality from time to time, but they can vary from bag to bag.

[RTflorida]

I guess it sucks to be down under on this topic. Really guys, the Caputo is great stuff. I guess if it ever hits $500 a bag I will be searching for a third mortgage, I won't use AP in my WFO.
If I am in a lazy mood and make pizza indoors in the electric oven (shame, but YES I still do) the AP flour actually works better than the Caputo. In the wood oven, AP just doesn't do well in 800+ temps (at least not for me).
$5 for a kilo is not outragious, I can get 8-9 pizzas from that. Think about it, the best non WFO pizza joint near me gets $15 for a pizza with the toppings I like and the pizza is merely "good", so paying 50 cents to a dollar for each terrific crust is not an issue for me. I will gladly pay it.
I feel sorry for you Aussies, $160 delivered, for a 1 kilo bag is crazy. With all of the ovens you have there, someone sould be importing Caputo or at least one of the other fine 00 flours. All of you need to band together and start your own buying consortium. If you are ordering enough, you will get someone to import it and give you better pricing and terms......at least that is how free enterprise retail is suposed to work.

RT

[heliman]

Yes it's a real bummer about Caputo and I'm sure that there are plenty of people (restaurants included) that will rush out and buy this product if it's available here. In talking to the person (potential millionnaire!!!) who is looking into importing it, he mentioned that there could be quarantine issues in getting it over here. Australia is free of many pests and diseases that are common around the world and so this sounds like a potential hurdle in getting it here. It may also need to go through some sort of treatment process before it reaches us and it will likely be taxed to death so there could be a few add-on costs to pass on which will push up the final selling price....

Rossco

[Nabber86]

Originally Posted by Mitchamus

anything that's 00 grade should be good,
after that it comes down to brand preference

torte (torta) can also mean Bread

OK now I am really confused. I thought the "00" designation was related to the mill setting (particle size of the finished flour), not whether it was a bread, pizza, torte, pasta, or whatever flour.