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Go, Espresso yourself!

Last Updated 17 January 2018, 20:21 IST

The ongoing Indian International Coffee Festival 2018 offers coffee lovers an insight into the art of making that perfect cup. The series of workshops, seminars and demonstrations by people from across the globe throws light on the different facets of growing, producing and brewing the perfect bean.

Simon Green, technical manager, UK, Europe SCA AST Coffee Trainer EMEA, M/s Bunn-O-Matic, threw light on the topic of 'Brewing on different types of Bunn Equipment using Indian and International coffee'. He spoke at length about the advantage of using technology when brewing coffee.

He said that technology enabled one to control and set the taste and profile of each individual coffee, whether Indian or international. "Technology enables one to take in all the flavours, make notes and offer the best coffee experience to the consumer. It doesn't matter where the coffee is from people can always use their individual skills with the help of technology to produce the best cup of coffee," said Simon. He also threw light on how taste is directly connected to how the coffee bean is sourced and produced. "How the coffee bean is grown, produced, processed and roasted play an important role in determining the quality of the product," he added. He said that his mission is to the educate, enlighten and equip people with skill sets required to make the best coffee.

Simon took the audience through the importance of 3Ts when making coffee which is time, temperature and turbulence. He said that temperature played an important role in determining the quality of coffee.

"The time taken to brew coffee is important. The longer you brew it, the stronger it gets and the shorter the time, the weaker the coffee. Temperature is critical for your coffee and the temperature changes according to the type of coffee, and the third is turbulence which depends on how the coffee is stirred. The more uniformly it is stirred, the more balanced an extract you will get," informed Simon. He also felt that Indian coffee had stronger characteristics when compared to its international counterpart.  

Michalis Dimitrakopoulos is from Greece, a barista and barista trainer at the "the Underdog". Michalis spoke on the topic of Brewing- "Extracting a perfect cup of expresso, using water pressure, temperature, timing and pre-infusion to enhance the sensorial profile from single origins/ blends."

He began the session by sharing that coffee making was his life and that he couldn't imagine his life without coffee. He reiterated the importance of keeping one's sense of smell, taste and also one's mind clear. "These three senses are important for one to focus on making the right blend of coffee. You have to understand what goes into a cup of coffee. Even a slight mess up in the timing, temperature and pressure can ruin a cup of coffee," said Michalis.

He also pointed out that one's definition of "a perfect cup of coffee" is directly related to one's culture and food preferences. "Someone whose preference leans more towards fruit-based dishes will be different from those who like spicy food. One's culture plays an important role when making a cup of coffee," he added.  He also felt that Indians have a huge potential when it comes to developing a coffee culture because of the large presence of coffee estates in the country.

"I am really impressed that Indians have the opportunity to have coffee farms because then you get to make good quality coffee and develop it here," he added. He also threw light on how the taste for coffee differs from one country to another. "People from China and Korea are eager to drink coffee and curious about coffee and what experience it offers because they are largely tea drinkers. The people there are always excited about coffee," he added.

Sharing his own experience , Michalis, said that he drinks at least 20 cups of coffee a day. "I am always trying different kinds expresso to caliberate the flavour. I sometimes also do a tour of the coffee shops in the cities that I am visiting, just to try out different expresso," he said.  

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(Published 17 January 2018, 12:26 IST)

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