#barista workshop

With the Christmas season now in full swing, the mad rush to finish pending year-end work and holiday shopping do seem overwhelming. At times like this, wouldn’t you appreciate the chance to just sit back and sip some good brews or munch on some tasty chews and just pass the time? If that’s the case, this quiet haven for coffee and comfort in Quezon City called The Cabean Cafe should be right up…

Coffee at home vs. coffee in coffee shop

Home Barista vs. Barista

If we want to prepare and enjoy tasty coffee at home, it is important to keep in mind that every little detail during the brewing process matters.

Always remember you can prepare better coffee at home than in coffee shops, the professional Baristas!

Coffee at home

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Reunionese coffee beans: Bourbon Pointu – Arabica species

“A very low caffeine content, a delicate flavour… A floral and fruity aroma with notes of musk, rhubarb, pineapple, rose and spices…”  – Pierre Hermé, French Pastry Chef Bourbon and Typica are the two main varieties of the Coffee Arabica species. They are considered to be the two “Heirloom”or “Heritage” Arabica coffee varieties, which originated in south western Ethiopia. It is believed that most…

We smell and sense the world around us every day. A lot of what we actually “taste” is done through smelling. Our sense of smell could be capable of so much more – if we would train it!  George Dodd, who runs the Aroma Academy in Aberdeen, emphasizes: “People don’t realise that the sense of the smell is like a muscle. Use it or lose it.” Our noses are amazing. We just need to pay attention.

Every day, we can start to notice, identify and differentiate the smells we encounter. We could train our creativity in describing various smells. Describing smells is not easy. For example, how would you describe the smell of a pear to someone who doesn’t know what a pear is?

Smelling Coffee

Basic terminology

Aroma: The smell of wet coffee grinds. It’s basically the smell of brewed coffee.

Fragrance: The smell of dry freshly-ground coffee that hasn’t been brewed.

Flavor: The combination of the aromatics perceived in the nasal cavity and the taste perceived on the tongue.

Coffee is one of the most complex beverages in the world. According to Gourmet Coffee Lovers, it has approximately 800 different flavor characteristics. Wine – in comparison – has only about 400.

See: here:

Coffee’s aromatic compounds evolve over time. Some attributes can be present and intensive before the brewing process and disappear after it has been brewed and vice versa.

Aromatic aspects can be detected through the nostrils by inhalation. However, they are also released from food and drinks in the mouth during the process of chewing or swallowing. During these processes, the odors pass through the back of the nose.

The taste-buds on our tongues can only differentiate five different characteristics – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (Japanese word for “savory”). The olfactory receptors in our nasal passages detect all the other ones.

The creator of the famous Wine Aroma kits, Jean Lenoir, also established a collection of coffee aromas in small containers that coffee lovers can use to train their sense of smell and improve their understanding and enjoyment of coffee.

There is a basic kit that introduces the 6 most commonly found coffee aromas:

  Garden peas

Blackcurrant-like

Butter

Caramel

Roasted peanuts

Roasted coffee

  There is another, more advanced kit that contains the 36 most commonly found coffee aromas:

01) Earth , 02) Potato , 03) Garden peas, 04) Cucumber 05) Straw , 06) Cedar, 07) Clove-like , 08) Pepper, 09) Coriander seeds, 10) Vanilla, 11) Tea-roses/Redcurrant jelly, 12) Coffee blossom, 13) Coffee pulp, 14) Blackcurrant-like, 15) Lemon, 16)Apricot, 17) Apple, 18)Butter, 19) Honeyed, 20) Leather, 21) Basmati Rice, 22) Toast, 23) Malt, 24) Maple Syrup, 25) Caramel, 26) Dark chocolate, 27) Roasted almonds, 28) Roasted peanuts, 29) Roasted hazelnuts, 30) Walnuts, 31) Cooked beef, 32) Smoke, 33) Pipe Tobacco, 34) Roasted coffee, 35) Medicinal, 36) Rubber.

See here:

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Coffee cupping, smelling hot coffee.

For better imagination, you can use sample aromas

For better imagination, you can use sample aromas

For more easy describe of aromas or flavours, you can use flavour, taste wheel

Dry smell of coffee beans is very important also, you can recognize sweetnes, more fruitness, some basic smells.

Espresso lovers usually have a clear idea about their drinking ritual: a small, heavy cup that is filled with a dark, syrupy, full-bodied coffee shot, topped by light brown- colored layer of foam called ‘crema’ – an indication of freshly grinded quality beans. The espresso drink is served with a small glass of fresh water. Espresso lovers drink it before they enjoy the espresso. They use it to clean their mouth and to prepare their taste-buds.

Making a cup of espresso is also a science based on a particular procedure: hot, pressurized water is forced through fine coffee grounds. If we do not follow the precise preparation rules that had been established by Italian coffee lovers over many decades, we can not call the coffee drink an espresso.

According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America an espresso is “a 25 – 35 ml beverage prepared from 7-9 grams of coffee through which clean water of 92°-95°C has been forced at 9-10 atmospheres of pressure, and where the grind of the coffee is such that the brewing ‘flow’ time is approximately 20-30 seconds.”

The coffee bean: water ratio, as per traditional Italian espresso nomenclature, is – 1:2 to 1:3.

Manual espresso machines are more traditional than the automatic one.

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