Among the foods that find a place on India’s GI tag registry list is a celebrated coffee that few Indian know about but which has a loyal following in the West — Monsooned Malabar.
Recently, West Bengal’s rasgulla officially became “Banglar Rosogolla” after the coveted Geographical Indication (GI) tag was bestowed on Calcutta gentleman Nabin Chandra Das’s luscious creation — a status hitherto enjoyed by only one other sweet from the state: the Joynagar Moa.
And its not just these iconic sweets. India’s GI registry has an assortment of culinary delights that can arrest any gastronome’s imagination and are often emblematic of a place or community.
Among the foods that find a place on this prestigious list is a celebrated coffee that few Indian know about but which has a loyal following in the US and Europe — Monsooned Malabar.
The pale-coloured Monsooned Malabar arabica, compared with green Yirgachefe beans from Ethiopia. / Photo Source
A singularly delicious coffee, the Monsooned Malabar had an accidental beginning. In the colonial era, British ships sailing to Europe around the Cape of Good Hope would find vast changes in the characteristics of their packed coffee, thanks to the salty moisture in the wooden cargo hold.
Losing their original taste and green colour during the 4-6 month long journey, the coffee beans would turn pale, attaining a brown straw-like colour and a pungent, musty flavour. Surprisingly, European coffee-drinkers seemed to prefer this heavy-bodied brew.
As transport improved with time (motorised liners began completing the journey in 20 days) and exposure to sea wins reduced, the beans began to stop changing en route. European consumers noticed that the coffee was losing the distinctive monotone flavour they were used to and asked for the aged coffee, which they thought tasted better.
So, cultivators on the Malabar coast devised a new process to simulate the conditions that produced this unique coffee. Called Monsooning, this technique involves spreading out sun-dried beans in open-sided, cement-floored warehouses.
For the first week to 10 days, the coffee beans are turned over with wooden rakes every day. Next, the beans are arranged into “windrows” i.e jute sacks filled with coffee beans stored in rows with a passage-like space in between for the monsoon wind to blow through.
The coffee is then exposed to rain-bearing tropical winds from the Arabian Sea that lash the Western Ghats between June/July to September/October. Each batch goes through this process three times before the next batch of coffee is put on the floor.
This moisture-laden air triggers slight fermentation, causing the beans to swell to double their original size, turn pale and brittle. The absorption of moisture also reduces the inherent acidity found in popular varieties such as Arabica and Robusta. The result is a bold flavoured coffee with a smooth earthiness.
After the factory opens for regular workers with the end of the monsoon season, the beans are “polished” (the outer skin is removed) and graded, before being manually sorted to remove defects,. It is then bulked, fumigated and packed for export.
Over the years, Monsooned Malabar has become a much-in-demand component in several fine espresso blends (especially in the Scandinavian and German speciality roasted blends) to which it lends weight, body and its unusual chocolatey flavour. It is also sought by major international brands such as Nestle Nespresso, Benecke Coffee and Grecof.
Interestingly, Aspinwall & Co. Ltd., owned by the erstwhile royal family of Travancore, is a major exporter of the Monsooned Malabar and processes over 3,500 tonnes of coffee this year!
So have you decided when you want to head out and have a taste of your first cup of Monsooned Malabar?
(Edited By Vinayak Hegde)
source: http://www.thebetterindia.com / The Better India / Home> Food> History> Lede / by Sanchari Pal / May 14th, 2018
coffee Cold brew method reduces coffee acidity by 60-70% Pic: Martin
Summer is not the best time for a hot drink, but what if you just can’t do without your usual dose of caffeine? Targeting this segment is cold brew coffee – a fad believed to have the potential to boost the global coffee market especially in the hot months when demand for the hot brew goes down.
What is cold brew coffee?
It’s a method of brewing where heat replaces time. Ground roasted coffee beans are allowed to brew in water anywhere between 12-24 hours at room temperature. The product is then filtered and packed for consumption.
Although the preparation method is basically the same across cafes, the number of brewing hours and the filtration method used varies. Delhi-based cold brew coffee company Sleepy Owl invests about 20 hours in seeping 100 per cent arabica beans from Chikmagalur, Karnataka. This is followed by a one-time sieve filtration method. The coffee comes packed in cartons with a tap and lasts up to a month.
Greenr Cafe, also in Delhi, gets its coffee beans from Chikmagalur too, but brews it for 24 hours and filters it twice – first by cloth and then paper. Labelled Martin, it’s cold brew comes in handy glass bottles and lasts three-four days.
On the other hand, Mumbai-based Koinonia Coffee Roasters sources green beans, roasts them in-house, and brews it for 18-24 hours finally filtering it. Served in glass bottles, the brew lasts up to 15 days.
Cold vs hot
The cold brew process, say its proponents, enhances flavour, and decreases the acidity by 60-70% which gives a less bitter concoction. “Heat causes very quick extraction making the hot-brewing method more acidic. The cold brew method, however, takes time resulting in more developed flavours,” says Shannon D’Souza, managing director and co-founder, Koinonia Coffee Roasters, who have been offering cold brew coffee since January last year.
Variants of cold brew
Like regular coffee, you could add milk to cold-brew coffee or prepare variants like latte. While Sleepy Owl, which largely does doorstep delivery, lets you experiment at home. Greenr Cafe and Koinonia Coffee Roasters offer several variations at their cafes in addition to delivering their standard ready-to-drink cold brew.
“For those who are very passionate about the original coffee flavour, dark Martin works best, but cold coffee lovers can go for condensed Martin. For the experimental patron, there is citrus Martin, a fizzy drink much like beer, and for vegans, we offer A Date With Martin, which is prepared by blending dates and almonds with the brew,” explains Nandini Bansal, co-founder of Martin. Koinonia Coffee Roasters offer infused cinnamon and coconut cold brew variants.
They have also partnered with eateries in Mumbai and Delhi, where cocktails are prepared with their brews. “Bastian in Mumbai offers a cold brew boulevardier cocktail and a Vietnamese spiked with Laphroaig. At The Grammar Room in Delhi, we’ve developed a chilli cumquat tequila sour with cinnamon cold brew in it,” explains D’Souza.
What about demand?
According to the entrepreneurs, it’s visibly growing. Sleepy Owl, for instance, became profitable within 12 months of launch, according to co-founder Ajai Thandi. The company also raised Rs 3.26 crore in a seed round founding led by DSG Consumer Partners in April this year. They have also launched dry cold-brew packs – that like teabags are dipped in water – only in this case it is left overnight.
source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Just Before Monday / by Heena Khandelwal / May 27th, 2018
These coffee beans look good, but they may not be what they seem(Credit: racorn/Depositphotos)
If you’ve seen even one advertisement for premium coffee, then you’ve probably heard someone going on about “100 percent pure Arabica beans” … but does the coffee really only contain Arabicas? A new method makes it quicker, cheaper and easier to find out.
Arabica beans are generally considered to be better tasting than cheaper Robusta beans, which trade at as little as half the price. Combined with the fact that Robustas are higher-yielding and easier to grow, this makes it tempting for some companies to surreptitiously cut their Arabica-based coffee with a bit of Robusta.
Traditionally, the only way of checking the purity of Arabica coffee involves testing samples for the presence of a chemical known as 16-O-methylcafestol (16-OMC) – it has long been thought that the compound is present in Robusta beans, but not in Arabica. Unfortunately, samples need to be sent off to a lab for analysis, and processing of those samples takes approximately three days.
Now, however, researchers from Britain’s Quadram Institute have discovered that a Pulsar benchtop NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectrometer made by Oxford Instruments can do the same thing on-site in just 30 minutes. The device uses radio waves and magnetic fields to obtain information about the molecular composition of a sample, and can reportedly be easily operated by non-specialists. It’s previously been utilized to detect horse meat in ground beef.
In lab tests, it was used to analyze 60 samples of supposedly 100-percent Arabica coffees gathered from 11 different coffee-growing countries and regions around the world. While 90 percent of those samples were deemed to be pure, the rest had high enough 16-OMC levels to indicate fraud.
The spectrometer can detect Robusta concentrations as low as 1 percent in blended coffees. In fact, it turned out to be sensitive enough to reveal that even Arabica beans do contain small amounts of 16-OMC. Therefore, the testing procedure had to be adapted to allow for a threshold amount of the chemical, which will be detected regardless of whether or not Robusta is present.
A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Food Chemistry.
Sources: Quadram Institute, Oxford Instruments
source: http://www.newatlas.com / NewAtlas.com / Home> Science / by Ben Coxworth / May 17th, 2018
Coffee maven Joseph Brodsky with his prized trees in Panama / Travis Horn
FROM OUR HILLTOP vantage point in northern Panama, Costa Rica is visible to the west and Volcán Barú, Panama’s tallest mountain, to the east. A canopy of rain forest stretches to the horizon, and it feels as if we’re walking through untamed wilderness. The only hint otherwise is a gang of coffee pickers in rubber boots, huddled together and sifting through the day’s harvest. “You can’t know this place until you know the forest,” says the farm’s founder, Joseph Brodsky, gesturing at the view before us. “This is where the flavor comes from.”
Brodsky is giving me a tour of his 450-acre coffee plantation, and the next stop is the Rio Colorado, which marks the property’s eastern border. Getting there requires descending more than 900 feet via a series of switchbacks. Brodsky, 44, carries his weight, all 142 pounds of it, in his toes, bounding over knee-high vegetation with an agility that comes from a lifetime playing soccer. Upon reaching the river, he announces that it’s chigger season, removes his shirt and pants, and jumps into the water to rinse off the noxious mites. Stripped to his boxers, he props himself up into a headstand on a flat rock just above the rapids. After 90 seconds upside down, watching the water churn around him, he lowers his feet and sits up.
“What an amazing way to view the river!” he says.
Brodsky, center, and workers survey the farm before the day’s work begins / Travis Horn
If the coffee world has an Elon Musk, it’s Brodsky. His big idea is to transform coffee beans from a basic commodity, like orange juice, into a savored luxury, like fine wine. His bluster is matched only by his ambition. The name of his company, Ninety Plus, is a reference to the Specialty Coffee Association’s 100-point scale. No one has been awarded a grade better than 97. Ninety Plus has hit that mark three times and will put out only beans that rate above 90. A pound of Ninety Plus coffee retails for an average of $48, but at an auction last year, a lot sold wholesale for a record $2,269 per pound to a roaster in Asia. At the time, basic beans were going for a dollar a pound.
“Joseph has developed a completely unique product,” says renowned roaster George Howell, who has earned a lifetime achievement award from the SCA. “With my first taste, there was this floral note that I’d never had before. I don’t even have to drink the coffee to enjoy it. I could just smell the aromatics for hours.”
NOT LONG AGO, coffee came in regular and decaf—and that was about it. Then Starbucks came along and upended the business, creating slick coffee shops with dark-roasted espresso and elaborate milk drinks. Soon a long list of specialty roasters followed suit, and consumers got used to shelling out $5 for a Venti Americano. But to this day, except in diehard circles, you rarely know more about the beans than what country they come from. Brodsky’s big vision is to turn that idea on its head, creating high-end coffees that are distinguished, and ordered at the cafe by the name of the farm on which the beans were grown, as wine is distinguished by vineyard.
“The big coffee brands that people know are roasters, like Nescafé or Starbucks,” he says. “But nobody can name a coffee producer. We can be that brand.”
Coffee has been a passion of Brodsky’s since he was a kid growing up in Madison, Wisconsin. He and his older brother—now the owner of JBC Coffee Roasters in Madison—would often roast beans in a popcorn popper for fun. Years later, when Brodsky was attending Evergreen State College, he read a book called Coffee Basics, which described a bean from Ethiopia with blueberry and lemon flavors. Intrigued, he sought out the coffee, tasted it, and suddenly knew what he wanted to do with his life. In 2000, at 26 years old, Brodsky left school to open Novo Coffee in Denver with the help of his dad and another brother. Their goal was to focus on roasting and selling those Ethiopian beans. But consistency was a problem. “I’d have to sort through 200 coffees to find maybe one that I liked,” says Brodsky.
After traveling to Ethiopia to judge a coffee competition in 2005, Brodsky decided to stay until he had a better grasp on why the beans were so variable. The move wound up being semi-permanent. Brodsky quickly discovered that farmers had no incentive to improve their products because everything was being sold for the same price, often mixed together.
“In wine, there’s a feedback loop between taste, research, and development,” he says. “Coffee didn’t have that. Most growers today still don’t know the taste of their beans.”
So Brodsky partnered with local farmers to develop beans and, for the next four years, bounced between the U.S. and Ethiopia tasting each harvest. When the coffee was good, he’d have the farmer duplicate the procedures that created it. One bean that always stood out was called “gesha,” an heirloom varietal that many farmers ignored due to its low yield. But gesha is delicious and intensely fruity, and Brodsky began growing more of it, eventually selling the beans under the name Ninety Plus.
As he was experimenting in Ethiopia, other farmers began planting gesha in Panama, and in 2009, Brodsky signed a $1.6 million loan on a cattle ranch there, just 15 miles from the border with Costa Rica. His first step was to plant thousands of castor plants and palo blanco trees, which produce no sellable crop but provide ample shade and nourish the soil. Then he sprinkled in the geshas, spacing them far apart so they wouldn’t have to compete for nutrients. It generally takes five years for coffee trees to mature, so to keep his cash-strapped farm afloat, Brodsky continued working with Ethiopian farmers while trying to woo investors. Travis Horn
“I had rejections from the biggest players in the industry,” he says. “They’d visit the farm, fall in love, but then be too scared to invest.”
Finally, in 2014, Ninety Plus Gesha Estates sold its first beans. That same year, during the World Brewers Cup, an annual event to determine who can create the best cup of joe, master brewer Stefanos Domatiotis won using Brodsky’s beans. It was the first in a series of four straight wins, an unheard-of distinction.
During my visit to the farm in December, Domatiotis, a tall Greek from Athens, was on hand to inspect the early harvest. When he caught me eyeing some samples, he offered up a cup by asking, “Washed or natural?”
“Natural,” I said.
Travis Horn
Where washed processing relies on water to rinse the cherry away from the bean (technically the seed of the fruit), natural processing allows the cherry to dry up and ferment on the bean and pass along wild flavors. Traditionally, natural processing has been used only on cheap coffee or beans grown in areas where water is scarce. But Brodsky showed that by following strict rules and controlling the environment, he could use natural fermentation to enhance the flavor—just one of his many innovations. In one of the farm’s wilder experiments, Brodsky and a visiting barista submerged beans in a 50-degree river and turned them twice daily for 10 days. “It smelled like champagne,” says Brodsky. It was probably the world’s first cold-fermented coffee, and it went on to win the 2015 Japan Barista Championship.
After brewing, Domatiotis served me a coffee that tasted like a velvety rich version of Earl Grey tea sweetened with some kind of berry. It was easily the best cup I’ve ever had.
“Too carbonic,” Domatiotis said.
“Yep,” Brodsky agreed. “With a better roast we can improve this by 15 to 30 percent.”
Travis Horn
Later, Brodsky and Domatiotis began sampling the first 35 coffees harvested this season. They rattled off flavors with the cadence of auctioneers: miso, banana and carob, black pepper, avocado oil, and dulce de leche. Their ability to isolate individual flavors felt as if they were identifying cuts of steak by the sound of the sizzle. One aroma was characterized as “red pepper, but it wants to be savory and fruity at once.”
I simply nodded, stole a couple of sips, and asked, “Is ‘fucking good’ a useful descriptor?”
ON THE HEELS OF NINETY PLUS, natural-processed coffees are becoming increasingly common, and some producers, such as Colombia’s La Palma & El Tucán and the Australia-based Project Origin, are also experimenting with fermentation.
Brodsky inspects one of his gesha trees, hidden under the rain forest canopy / Travis Horn
“We live in a time when people are indulging in better-quality beverages,” says Thomas Perez, CEO of Brooklyn’s Extraction Lab, which sells Ninety Plus for $18 a cup. “And the more you learn about coffee—just like with wine or beer or whatever you like—the more it becomes about quality over quantity.”
Currently most Ninety Plus beans are sold in Asia, where a high-end tea trade has made people more receptive to shelling out for delicate flavors. Over the next few years, Brodsky plans to push hard into the U.S. and launch a new brand, Baru Gesha, for beans that are just a few points shy of the Ninety Plus name. That’ll keep the flagship product strong while providing a better entry price for curious drinkers. “We’re still infants,” Brodsky says. “When people compliment my coffee, I say, ‘Thank you, but next year will be better.’ We’re already seen as the best in the world, but we haven’t done shit yet.”
Buy Brodsky’s Beans
Most Ninety Plus coffee is sold to roasters in Asia, but here’s where to find it in the U.S.
Eccentricity Coffee, Cleveland
The large selection of Ninety Plus beans are held in cold storage and roasted to order, with prices ranging from $27 to $100 for a 12 ounce bag. eccentricitycoffee.com
Bar Nine, Culver City, California
Buy beans by the bag or through the Bar Nine home-subscription program. barnine.us
JBC Coffee, Madison, Wisconsin
The founder, Michael Johnson, is Brodsky’s half-brother and a licensed Q Grader-essentially a sommelier of coffee. jbccoffeeroasters.com
source: http://www.mensjournal.com / Men’s Journal / Home> The Coffee Freak / by Clint Carter
The science of Artisan coffee involves controlling and roasting the green beans and depends on the roasters visual and tasting sensibility.
Be it food or a cup of coffee – one doesn’t compromise on their quality. The third wave coffee movement brings to you– hand-picked coffee, also known as artisan coffee.
What sets it apart from regular coffee is that the artisan coffee growers carefully select the seeds, mill and dry the coffee beans. It is then converted into powder or grainy form by the roaster.
The science of Artisan coffee involves controlling and roasting the green beans and depends on the roasters visual and tasting sensibility.
Under this method, coffee growers roast their own seeds and keep it sealed and sell it. The Artisan coffee is popularly called the ‘handcrafted’ coffee that smells exactly the way it does when it is picked from the shrubs.
Coffee plantation owners are literally taking the ownership of milling process and investing in state-of-the-art micro mills that allows them to design their coffee and separate them into micro lots with different characteristics.
This step enhances the attributes of terroir and adds a signature flavour to your cup of coffee. So, the next time you want to pick out some this delicious coffee, see where the product was grown and roasted.
Artisan coffee makers have also replaced the customary practice of middlemen selling to customers, thereby decreasing adulteration.
source: http://www.telanganatoday.com / Telangana Today / Home / by Fatima Hasan, Telangana Today / May 08th, 2018
India, for the first time, will chair the board of International Coffee Organization (ICO) for a term of one year with Anil Kumar Bhandari, president of India Coffee Trust (ICT), getting elected as the chairman of Private Sector Consultative Board (PSCB) of ICO.
PSCB is an international coffee organisation body comprising 16 leading industry representatives from producing and consuming countries. The board’s main mission and objective is to increase the world coffee market in value and volume and also support various initiatives in the field of coffee and health.
Bhandari is the first representative from India to occupy the important position and his election is significant in the backdrop of World Coffee Conference (WCC) scheduled in Bengaluru, in April 2020.
Speaking about his election, Bhandari said, “My election as chairman, Private Sector Consultative Board of International Coffee Organization is an honour for India and India Coffee Trust. This is the first time that India has chaired the PSCB. I see this as the confidence reposed in India and ICT, going into the World Coffee Conference in 2020, which would be hosted by India and will be held for the first time in Asia. It also indicates the interest that the global coffee sector has in the Indian coffee industry and the Indian coffee market.”
The 121st Session of International Coffee Council (ICC) under ICO was held in Mexico City from April 9 to 13, 2018. ICO is an intergovernmental body of coffee buying & producing nations, having more than 72 member countries and India is one of the founding member.
It is the main intergovernmental organisation for coffee, bringing together exporting and importing governments to tackle the challenges facing the global sector through international cooperation. Its objective is to strengthen and promote its sustainable expansion in a market-based environment for the betterment of all participants in the coffee sector.
source: http://www.fnbnews.com / FnBnews.com / Home> TopNews / by FnB News Bureau, Bengaluru / April 30th, 2018
A nonprofit organization that organizes a biennial conference on the science and technology of coffee throughout the coffee value chain, the Association for Science and Information on Coffee (ASIC) is hosting its conference in the United States this year for the first time since 1991.
The 27th conference of the ASIC will be held Sept. 16-20 in Portland, Oregon, at the Oregon Convention Center in collaboration with the Specialty Coffee Association. The conference — which most recently gathered more than 400 scientists from 53 countries in Kunming, China, in 2016 — was last held in the U.S. in San Francisco.
“SCA is proud to host the ASIC conference this year in Portland, Oregon. ASIC is the world’s foremost coffee science institution, and this conference is the key place for sharing new scientific breakthroughs on coffee,” Peter Giuliano, chief research officer for the SCA, told Daily Coffee News. “Coffee science is a key part of SCA’s research mission, and we’re proud to have developed a deep collaboration with ASIC, and to share this learning opportunity with our members.”
Chahan Yeretzian is the Scientific Secretary on the ASIC board and leads the Research Advisory Council on the Board of Directors of the SCA. Photo by Yong-Gu Bae.
Chahan Yeretzian, who currently serves on the board of both SCA and ASIC, told Daily Coffee News that the two organizations have a shared goal to build bridges connecting industry and academia, along with a belief that facilitating constructive dialogue will lead to continued success and ensure the readiness of the coffee industry to recognize and address future challenges.
“The Specialty Coffee Association represents thousands of coffee professionals, from producers to baristas, all over the world, so it made sense for both of these global organizations, and leaders in their respective fields, join forces in organizing the upcoming ASIC conference,” said Yeretzian. “Portland, a booming coffee city known for its bridges, seemed to be a natural choice for a location to host the conference in the U.S.”
The conference features presentations with cutting-edge information and advanced coffee science, as well as exhibits and social events. ASIC is accepting abstract submissions through June 3 for papers to be presented on specific program topics, such as chemistry, agronomy and pest management, genomics, sustainability, physiology, coffee and health, and sensory science.
“Future success for the coffee industry will rest on solid science, technology, and innovation in breeding, post-harvest technologies, roasting, grinding, packaging, extraction, consumer understanding, health, climate change, and genomics,” said Yeretzian. “Research is moving into the spotlight, as industry leaders are becoming aware that their future depends on mastering the technologies and chemistry of coffee. We are also increasingly interested in better understanding the needs and challenges of the industry, in order to orient the efforts and resources — and connect those in the industry who will champion the implementation — of scientific insight into successful and profitable applications.”
Registration for ASIC Portland is now open, with early bird pricing available through Aug. 1, 2018.
___________________________________________________
Lily Kubota
Lily Kubota is the digital content manager of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. She is based in Southern California.
___________________________________________________
source: http://www.dailycoffeenews.com / Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine / by Lily Kubota / April 24th, 2016
A file photo showing group of female plantation workers walking on the road in the Kuppamundi Coffee Estate in Kolagapara near Sultan Battery, a location in the Wayanad dsitrict of Kerala. (Photo: iStock)
Coffee exports from India, Asia’s third-largest producer and exporter, reached an all-time high at 3.95 lakh tonnes in the 2017-18 fiscal on strong demand for instant coffee, according to state-run Coffee Board.
Coffee exports from India, Asia’s third-largest producer and exporter, reached an all-time high at 3.95 lakh tonnes in the 2017-18 fiscal on strong demand for instant coffee, according to state-run Coffee Board.
The country had exported 3.55 lakh tonnes of coffee in the previous year.
“The coffee exports were at all-time high in FY 2017-18 because of increased shipments of value-added products, especially instant coffee,” a senior board official told PTI.
There was an increase in instant coffee output because of improved production capacity with setting of up new units.
The country largely exports Robusta variety of coffee, the volumes of which also showed a jump in the 2017-18 fiscal in view of strong demand and record domestic production.
The top three export destinations are Italy, Germany and the Russian Federation.
The board has pegged coffee output at a record 3.50 lakh tonnes for the 2017-18 crop year ending September 2018 as against 3.12 lakh tonnes in the previous year.
source: http://www.thestatesman.com / The Statesman / Home> Business / by PTI, New Delhi / April 19th, 2018
Ever heard of a coffee tasting session instead of the wine tasting session? Well, the entire concept of coffee-tasting is a not a far-fetched one considering the coffee-lovers are showing interest in tasting a large variety of coffee that is yet to be discovered.
‘Cupping’ is the word used for tasting session for brewed coffee to evaluate the quality of the coffee bean. It has been a prevalent practice in Britain since late 1990’s which is also recognised to be as the First Wave of American coffee, as per media reports.
As per a coffee expert, wine is considered to be a finished product that is already packaged in a bottle and just needs to be tasted whereas the coffee needs to freshly brewed and then is given for tasting thus changing the mechanics of the tasting sessions.
Another coffee expert said that a rise in the coffee brewers and constant innovation in the caffeine industry along with the rise in dedicated blogs for coffee tasting are the driving factors to increasing interest towards coffee-tasting sessions.
Some of the steps included in the coffee tasting sessions are as follows:
-Smelling the aroma of the dry coffee before it is added to the water.
The pour matter too because the purer the water, the more space the coffee has to extract.
The ratio of coffee to water matters also matters: around 13 grams of coffee to 230 grams of water, or 1:17. Given that an espresso is normally around 2:1, and one can see the difference in intensity. The water should be approximately 94/95 degrees, so just off the boil. Let the grinds infuse for around four minutes. Good quality coffee still tastes good when it cools, whereas poor quality coffee decreases further as it cools.
-Smell the coffee
Use a flat, wide spoon angled away from you to break the bubbly film on the top to release the aroma. Push the spoon through the crust, about halfway down into the cup, and put your face right up into it. Inhale at will. The sweeter, chocolate flavours go well with milk, while the fruity samples are best served as black.
-Then taste the coffee
Skim the top with the spoon, in order to avoid any floating grinds, and put a little on our tongues to slurp. Do not be ashamed of slurping the coffee and try to coat the entire mouth with coffee and push it at the back of the tongue where the taste buds are stronger and so you could identify the aroma.
-The ranking
Look out for the body, or texture/mouth feel, and the acidity. Also, take note of both the flavour and the aftertaste. Consider the acidity of the coffee as well.
So now we hope that the coffee lovers would be all set to take part in coffee-tasting sessions.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-ANI> International / by ANI, London / April 17th, 2018
United Coffee Association of India (UCAI) and Coffee Board of India are to organise ‘The National Barista Champioship 2018’ in Bengaluru at Orion East Mall, Bengaluru.
The champioship spread over three days – April 18 – 20 is likely to see participants from various parts of the country competing.
For the Barista Champioship, United Coffee Association of India (UCAI)—a representative stakeholder in the Indian Coffee industry comprising of green coffee traders, manufactures of roast and ground coffees, along with coffee machinery manufacturers and dealers of equipment, cafes, coffee labs and coffee professionals—have to come together.
According to R Srikanth Rao, Vice President, United Coffee Association of India, “The competition has three rounds of elimination. Each barista would be preparing and presenting four cups each of espressos, milk beverage and signature drink which will be evaluated and judged by certified jury to identify the best in the various categories of beverages.”
The preliminary round will be on April 18 and 19 and the semifinals and finals would be on April 20. The head Judge for the competition would be Joe Hsu, who is international representative from World Coffee Events. The winner of National Barista Competition would represent India at the World Barista Championship to be held at Amsterdam, during June 2018.
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> News / by Anil Urs / Bengaluru – April 13th, 2018
WELCOME. If you like what you see "SUBSCRIBE via EMAIL" to receive FREE regular UPDATES.
Read More »
