The trend is towards apricot and peach
Low-acid and chocolaty: coffee fruits and beans from Costa Rica
Source: De Agostini via Getty Images
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Which types of coffee and production methods are currently in demand?
Andreas Baum from the “Rösterei Baum” in Leer provides information: “Many can agree on a natural coffee from Costa Rica, it is low in acid, chocolatey, without irritating notes.
Basically, a lighter roast brings more breadth of taste and less classic roasted aromas.
Instead of chocolate, orange, apricot, peach, that is clearly the trend, on the other hand towards alternative production methods.
Usually the coffee bean is dried in the cherry, one speaks of
natural
.
With the
washed
version, the coffee cherry and pulp are removed before drying, while with the
honey
Variation only removes the coffee cherry, but leaves the pulp in, which creates a more intense and slightly alcoholic sweetness, a bit like rum. Then there is the so-called cryo-maceration, in which the coffee cherries are frozen for a few days after the harvest.
Tastes like Franzbrötchen! "
Capsules for the compost heap
Biodegradable capsules from Public Coffee Roasters
Source: Public Coffee Roasters
Not even George Clooney can rid capsule coffee of its bad image.
Maybe the people behind Public Coffee Roasters will succeed.
The sustainable beans are roasted on a Hamburg houseboat, and recently they have also been working with the Berlin premium roasting company Andraschko.
In addition to espresso and filter coffee, the range also includes the dreaded capsules, just without plastic and one hundred percent compostable.
The basis is the bioplastic PLA and wood fibers, which are left over from wood processing in southern Germany.
There are three varieties, a fruity one with 100 percent Arabica, an Arabica-Robusta mixture with chocolate notes and one without caffeine.
George Clooney would surely agree.
Coffee with kombucha
Coffee combucha from the "Noma"
Source: Kunstmann Verlag
Some bought a pet during the pandemic, others a Scoby.
The acronym stands for
Symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts
- a symbiosis of bacteria and yeasts.
With a little skill, the slimy mushroom culture can be turned into kombucha.
The base is sweetened green or black tea, which is refined with fruits, herbs and spices.
Is said to have a positive effect on the intestinal flora and tastes not only pure, but also with cold coffee - a combination that is also known as Coffbucha.
The Danish avant-garde restaurant “Noma” takes a different approach in its “Noma Handbuch Fermentation” with a recipe for coffee combucha.
The “Noma” broth consists of water, sugar, unpasteurized kombucha and coffee grounds.
Tastes pure, with glazed parsnips or as an espresso substitute in tiramisu.
The right grind
Good entry-level grinder: Graef CM 800
Source: graef.de
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Coffee loses its aroma shortly after roasting, but it loses its aroma even more after grinding.
Consequently, having your own coffee grinder is a good investment, some even say it is more important than the portafilter.
If you want to grind by hand for environmental reasons or for reasons of nostalgia, you should do so, we recommend an electric grinder.
A distinction is made between beater, cone and disc grinder, the former literally smashing the beans and being used more in inexpensive models.
It is important to pay attention to a good degree of grinding, espresso pots require finer coffee than, for example, the French press.
You should also consider how loud the device is and how complicated it is to clean.
A good entry-level model is the Graef CM 800 coffee grinder with a conical grinder and 40 grind settings, it costs around 110 euros.
Like in Hanoi: coffee with fresh egg yolks
With the so-called Cà phê trúng, the breakfast egg is served in coffee
Source: Getty Images
Vietnamese coffee?
In Germany it is often served as a slightly floury brew with sweet condensed milk.
But there is another way, after all, Vietnam is a coffee nation, due to its French colonial heritage.
While you can get a delicious, hand-brewed coffee from the pot even in the provinces, which is not necessarily sweetened with condensed milk, the capital Hanoi has its very own specialty: Cà phê trúng with sugar, condensed milk and fresh egg yolk.
It reminds a bit of zabaglione, more dessert than hot drink.
The preparation is simple: Beat slightly heated egg yolks with sugar and condensed milk until frothy and pour over freshly brewed espresso.
Instant coffee for gourmets
Sounds Scandinavian, but comes from Hamburg: Instant coffee "Blaek"
Source: BLAEK
Coffee is one of the winners of the pandemic.
While sales of capsules and pods remained constant, sales of whole beans and instant coffee rose sharply last year.
The soluble has a miserable reputation, somewhere between camping at the quarry pond and a beach bar in Egypt.
The Hamburg company Blaek wants to change that.
The coffee cherries of the varieties Caturra and Typica are hand-picked in the Colombian region of Huila.
The Rainforest Alliance Certificate guarantees that ethical standards are adhered to.
The manufacturers promise milk chocolate, lemon tart and caramel flavors.
And this is how it works: Shake the bag well and pour the contents into a cup, fill up with 230 milliliters of 80 degree hot water.
Stir, drink.
Cold infusion: a meditative exercise
For cold drip coffee you need a special device like the dripster
Source: hsfotografie / dripdrip.de
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The trend towards cold coffee is persistent.
With cold brew, the powder is poured with cold water, so more aromas and fewer acids and bitter substances dissolve, which makes it more digestible.
Simply mix 100 grams of coarsely ground coffee with one liter of water, leave it covered for a few hours, or even better overnight, and pour through a coffee filter the next day.
A special device, a kind of currentless filter coffee machine, is required for a cold drip.
From their water container, water drips onto the ground coffee in the filter and from there into a collecting container.
It takes a long time and has a meditative component.
The increase: cold coffee mixed with tonic or a dash of alcohol.
The latter comes from the USA and is called Hard Coffee.
Less caffeine, same taste
Low caffeine beans from "The Barn"
Source: The Barn
The world is divided into two types of people: those who swear by the espresso after dinner and those who do without for fear of not being able to sleep.
Decaffeinated coffee is little consolation, it often tastes stale or like burnt toast.
Fortunately, there is now the variant with reduced caffeine content, i.e. low caf instead of decaf, and without any loss of taste.
In contrast to decaffeinated products, from which the active ingredient is subsequently withdrawn, “The Barn” from Berlin relies on varieties that are naturally low in caffeine.
For example, Laurina, a rare type of Arabica with less than a third of the usual caffeine content.
Originally it comes from La Réunion, "The Barn" gets it from Brazil.
In combination with the also caffeine-reduced Aramosa bean, it becomes the Daterra Reserve, named after the coffee farmer.
Tastes of pecan pie, milk chocolate and tropical fruits.
And doesn't ruin anyone's sleep.
"The temperature makes a huge difference"
Aylin Ölcer, Barista of the Year
Source: Andi van Heyden
Four years ago, Aylin Ölcer, who was born in Berlin, still drank her coffee in the classic way with milk and sugar.
In 2020 she won the German Barista Championship in Hamburg - also thanks to an in-house creation that had it all.
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ICONIST:
How do you become Barista of the Year?
Aylin Ölcer:
Each participant has 15 minutes to present a self-selected and self-roasted coffee, once as an espresso, once as a milk course and finally as a
signature drink
.
What counts are texture, taste and roasting, but also the technology involved in preparation.
I chose a complex coffee from southern Colombia, chocolaty, nutty, with aromas of stone and berry fruits.
I used cow's milk from Münster for the milk process, and my signature drink consisted of corn, frozen milk and dried coffee cherries that were brewed as tea in a dripper.
ICONIST:
Corn in Coffee?
Ölcer:
Yes, I wanted to tell the story of
how
my coffee came about.
Carlos, the producer, also grows corn in addition to coffee to naturally extract aluminum from the soil, which is why I made ice cubes from corn and milk.
Instead of conventional fertilizer, he uses leftover coffee cherries, hence the tea made from coffee cherries and Colombian cane sugar.
Finally, I added guava juice because Carlos cannot make a living from growing coffee alone, but also grows this tropical fruit.
The whole thing was mixed with two double espressos.
So the coffee taste remained dominant, with a creamy and slightly fruity note.
ICONIST:
What simple tricks can you use to improve coffee quality at home?
Ölcer:
The right water and the right temperature make a
huge
difference.
I recommend filtered instead of tap water when preparing with the portafilter machine or a hand infusion.
It should also be 90 to 94 degrees.
Either leave it to stand for a short time after cooking or invest in a kettle with temperature setting.
ICONIST:
How much coffee do you drink yourself?
Ölcer:
If I don't work in the café of the Kreuzberg roasting plant “Kaffeekirsche”, not that much.
A maximum of three, one espresso in the morning, filter coffee in the afternoon.