×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

What's in your cuppa?

Last Updated 21 July 2017, 18:59 IST

If your last Instagram post was a heavily edited picture of an espresso in a demitasse that you preciously clicked in Paris for vanity and released the hashtag hounds thus: #coffeelove, #instacoffee and #freshmornings, then, you, dear reader, don’t know what you are talking about. Now, before you begin brandishing your defence, allow me to explain.

Coffee has for long been considered the ‘lifeline’ of most hardworking and non-hardworking folk. From picking up a quick black one at a local café to grudgingly ordering one with foam and milk while waiting for someone at a coffee shop, we consume the beverage in so many forms, colours and sizes that perhaps cannot be counted on fingers. But, the fact of the matter is that, while most of us claim to be coffee experts, few of us know what we are actually talking 
about.

At this point, one might argue that coffee is a personal experience, making taste subjective. But, like there is to many other foods, there is also a certain logic and several parameters to whatever you like to label this drink — java, cup o’ joe etc.

These days, the label that is being assigned to good, carefully brewed coffee is ‘artisan’. And in the last couple of years, there are several artisan coffee shops that have sprung up all over the country. While some deliver through online orders alone, others have established brick and mortar stores too.

The expertise

So, what led to the emergence of these sort of coffee shops? Ashish D’Abreo, who is a co-founder of Flying Squirrel, an artisan coffee shop in Bengaluru, explains the rise of artisan coffee. “About four years ago my friends and I discovered that there was a dearth of good coffee in cities and we wanted to do something to change the status quo. We began working with a few farmer friends and seeking guidance from experts like Sunalini Menon to grow the coffee beans organically,” he says.

Thrid Wave Coffee Roasters, another artisan coffee shop which began operations close to a year ago in Bengaluru, had similar beginnings. “We got the names of farmers from the list released by the Coffee Board. It was quite an outdated one and we had to go through many hoops to collaborate with the farmers,” says Ayush Bathwal, one of the founders.

This brings us to the question — what is good coffee? Strictly speaking, coffee is considered fresh if it is consumed within four days after the beans have been roasted. Anything after that, isn’t really fresh. So, remember that Colombian import you ordered a few weeks ago, well, it’s not quite the same. Coffee flavours and infusions happen at the grassroot level — for instance, citrus-flavoured coffee means that the beans have been cultivated in a farm along with citrus fruits.

Artisan coffee also gave rise to the concept of micro roasteries, which are essentially places where beans are processed into coffee. The market for this comprises people who take their everyday coffees seriously. However, not everyone takes well to change. Especially for some of us Indians, coffee means a dark brown liquid with froth on top. This sort of concoction is obtained by dark roasting the beans (heating them to 220°C).

Ashish is careful to explain that he personally does not advocate this method. “Now that becomes bad coffee,” he adds. Ideally speaking, coffee beans have to be light roasted, meaning, they have to be heated to temperatures between 195°C and 210°C.

Different brews

Another point to note here is that the same coffee can be brewed in several different ways — for instance, if you use a French press to brew, coffee comes out stronger, and with a heavier body. Sun-kissed coffee is made of beans that have been dried in a coastal area before being ground. Also, when we speak of cherry-dried coffee, it means that the skin has been removed from the fruit for drying. 

Here’s an acid test to know whether or not your coffee is good: If there is effervescence when you pour hot (not boiling) water onto to the coffee grinds, then, your coffee is good. Pour into a thermos flask or play with davarah until you get the froth and your coffee is good to go. On the other hand, the kind of coffee that possesses a lot of strength, is dark and bitter, is a bad one — this is a dark roast, and has lost all flavour. Pass on it.

So, the next time a cornball of a stock photo with a pair of perfectly manicured hands holding a cup of coffee against a morning mist background, next to a stack of unnamed books has made you crave comfort and warmth of coffee or has made you go “Aww, I wish I could do that,” think again. That coffee is probably not artisan.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 21 July 2017, 14:44 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT