Maybe you got too caught up in colorful cans of LaCroix to notice, but over the summer, at cafes al over the country, Instagram snaps of what might have otherwise have been latte art were replaced, now and again, by some … bubbly, layered beverage in a plastic cup.

Yeah, what were those? Tan and foamy on top, mysteriously dark in the middle, clear and effervescent on bottom.

We saw it at Cartel. We saw it at Futuro. We saw it at Kream and at Peixoto.

These were clearly no boring cups of cold brew.

As the name suggests, it’s simple: a “coffee tonic;” iced, sparkling tonic water with a shot of espresso layered — not splashed — over top. You have to do it slowly; the copper-colored layer of bubbles sitting on the espresso, called “crema,” is volatile CO2 and since too much friction with fizzy water can result in quite a mess, baristas take it slow.

If you can consider a soda a soft drink that’s been carbonated, flavored, sweetened, and served cold, then you can view the coffee tonic for what it is: a coffee soda, albeit a freshly made one. Given the prominent role that the concentrated coffee plays in the beverage, this drink has really only gotten popular within the specialty coffee sector, where shops tend to pay a greater attention to the flavor of espresso.

Tonic water is pretty sweet, thanks to a good amount of added sugar, but it’s there to balance the beverage’s bittering agent, called quinine; the same stuff that lends pleasant bitter quality to your Italian liqueurs.

Some shops like Futuro put their tonic trust in a proven brand. In that shop’s case, Fever Tree, the standard bearer as of now for the tonic industry — if you asked for a gin and tonic at a craft cocktail bar, they’re probably using Fever Tree. A few widely distributed craft brands like Q are now available as well. Either way, most brands will deliver a neutral flavor that lets the complex flavors in a quality, nicely pulled shot of espresso shine, just as it would let an interesting and nuanced gin. There’s a locally made tonic mixer, too, made by Iconic Cocktail Co, which is flavored with kaffir lime.

Cartel flavored theirs, when they had it (it’s not currently on the menu; it may come back). It was simply tonic water, espresso, with a smidge of vanilla bean paste dotted in.

“We felt the vanilla bean paste helped to make it a bit rounder and accentuate the complex character of the espresso,” says Amanda Cohen, Cartel Coffee Lab’s director of education and quality control. Kream coffee, by contrast, squeezes citrus in theirs to amplify the acidity already present in espresso and the tangy flavor of the quinine.

The most from-scratch end of the coffee tonic spectrum is represented by the folks over at Peixoto, in Chandler. They make their own tonic syrup from start to finish, and add in flavors they feel will compliment the type of espresso. A formula of quinine, citric acid, and sweeter can turn into, for instance, a tonic syrup flavored with ginger and lime, and sweetened with agave. The shop currently offers this variety. They add soda water to the syrup and float the espresso atop. This approach appeals to Kimhak Em, who develops recipes and oversees quality control at the shop and has a background in culinary school. He wanted to put a culinary spin on a drink that’s been trending in coffee shops around the nation.

“I think the first time I had an espresso tonic was at one of the shops that I frequented in the Bay Area,” Em says. That was close to two years ago.

The drink hasn’t existed all that long — it began at a very prominent coffee shop and roaster in Sweden called Koppi. When a coffee shop called Saint Frank opened in San Francisco in late 2013, they paid homage to Koppi’s drink, making their own version — still just Fever Tree tonic, ice, and espresso — called the Kaffe Tonic (kaffe being the Swedish word for coffee). As Saint Frank rose to prominence in eyes of coffee professionals across the country, shops began adopting their own version, some sticking to the drink’s paired down roots, and others opting to personalize.

Three years later, it looks like the drink has stuck.

Editor’s Note: Shelby Moore works with Futuro in various capacities.

source: http://www.phoenixnewstimes.com / Phoenix News Times / Home / by Shelby Moore / Tuesday – October 11th, 2016

Demand for coffee is booming in an increasingly caffeinated world, and although Myanmar is capable of producing international-quality product it has neglected the crop for years. But agricultural ministry officials are hoping to develop a coordinated strategy to ramp up production and connect cultivators with world markets.

Myanmar has been growing coffee for years but in relatively small amounts. An itinerant Scotsman brought a strain of arabica to the Mandalay hill town Pyin Oo Lwin in the 1930s, and it is still grown today, U Myint Swe, director of the coffee crop branch under the ministry’s agriculture department, told The Myanmar Times.

But the agricultural sector’s overwhelming focus has been on an industrial approach to growing crops like rice and beans for domestic consumption and export, said U Tin Htut from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation.

“Coffee was previously a neglected crop,” he said during a ministry research workshop on coffee growing in Myanmar on September 28. But U Tin Htut is hoping that ministry workshops can help produce a strategy to boost coffee production and tap into a strong global market.

The annual growth rate in global coffee consumption has averaged 2 percent since 2011, and the world consumed the equivalent of 152.2 million 60kg bags in 2015, according to the intergovernmental International Coffee Organisation.

US demand is higher than ever, and two shipments of coffee beans to the US in August represented Myanmar’s first commercial-scale exports to that country in over 15 years, according to Reuters. The US recently announced it was lifting almost all remaining sanctions against Myanmar, and would reinstate generalised system of preferences (GSP) benefits on November 13.

Myanmar is well placed to take advantage of the global thirst and improving economic relations with the US. At a US coffee expo in June 2015, Myanmar-produced strains of arabica and catimor coffees were deemed world-standard in a quality test – receiving higher marks than most other coffees shown at the event, U Myint Swe said.

“The strains have also been tested in Germany, and they also sent a report saying the quality was world- standard,” he added.

Local firms have taken advantage of Myanmar’s climate and regional demand. Yangon-based firm Coffee Genius, owned by Ko Ngwe Tun, has exported its Shan highlands coffee to Singapore and also enjoyed high marks from the Specialty Coffee Association of America.

But although Myanmar’s local industry can produce exceptional quality, it also faces production and marketing problems that have made it hard to reach international markets, U Myint Swe said.

Strains like the arabica have been grown for over 80 years, but a lack of finance has seen little in the way of progress.

“Crop yields have decreased steadily, although the quality has not,” U Myint Swe said. The useful life of a coffee plant, depending on growing conditions, is 20 to 30 years. “In other countries, once a coffee plant reaches 30 years old it is cut down and new ones planted,” he said. “But in our country we don’t cut them down, we make existing plants produce new shoots and branches.”

Although the international market is booming – driven mainly by rising consumption in developed economies – Myanmar’s local market for coffee is poor and cultivators are producing less in response, U Zaw Tun Myint, director general of the Agriculture Department, told The Myanmar Times.

The ministry wants to see coffee planted and grown according to international-standard practice, but in order to get cultivators onside the ministry has to improve the market, he added.

“We need to cooperate with the department and expand the market for growers,” he said. “Right now profits [in the local market] are low, so growers lower inputs, which lowers quality, which lowers prices and pushes profits down further. We need to reverse this vicious cycle.”

The acreage given to coffee plantations in Myanmar is shrinking and is now less than 50,000 acres – down from over 60,000 acres at the peak of production many years ago, he said.

U Tin Htut from the agriculture department’s coffee branch said collaboration between agricultural experts, exporters and planters is crucial to remedy the slump in production. He is helping work on a strategy paper for coffee development in Myanmar.

“Now is the time to really perform,” he said. Myanmar has the human resources and skills, but needs to improve the agricultural system in order to catch up with regional competitors, he added.

The coffee strategy should include targets for the next 10 years, and cover market research, finance, technical assistance, farmer training and which strains should be planted more widely, he said. The plan will be sent to a parliamentary economic committee, which includes the vice president and officials from the finance and commerce ministries, he said.

U Myint Swe said the plan will take around six months to draw up, and should involve assistance from experts from the agriculture department, USAID, the Myanmar Coffee Planting Association and other coffee experts.

But industry interest bodes well. At the ministry workshop on coffee growing last month over 40 members of the Coffee Planting Association and the private sector attended the meeting, joined by over 100 experts and officials from government departments, U Zaw Myint Tun said.

“It was the first big meeting on coffee in the last five years,” he said. “It’s a very encouraging situation. We held meetings in the past, but there wasn’t as much freedom as there is now.”

Translation by Win Thaw Tar and Khine Thazin Han

source: http://www.mmtimes.com / Myanmar Times / Home> Business / by Htoo Thant / Wednesday – October 05th, 2016