Coffee curation and the pursuit of flavour
I touched on the relationship between speciality coffee and the addition of other ingredients in my “coffee as a cocktail post”, but one ingredient needs specific exploration. That ingredient is sugar. Sugar is seen around the globe as a natural addition to coffee and, for many people, it’s half of what constitutes an espresso. This is a well-earned association. My wife and I were driving back to England last week through Germany and we stopped off at a service station. Like many of the weary drivers, I needed a little pick me up. I bought myself a Segafredo espresso. It...
Read moreLately I have been asked a lot about blonding in espresso. How do I feel about it? Well, I don’t feel much about it anymore other than that it’s a poor indicator of a shot’s quality. A shot may taste good when it is cut off as the streams of espresso start to blond, but that is not why it is good. It just so happens that the brew recipe that suits that coffee coincides with the visual appearance of blonding. When brewing espresso the first drops of liquid that pass through the bed of coffee and out of...
Read more‘What does this cup of coffee taste like?’ To communicate about taste successfully it is essential to consider how flavours are most commonly perceived, bearing in mind the inherently variable nature of tasting and hopefully achieving the highest percentage of communication possible. Many variables will affect this exchange – genetics, mood, previous experience, last food or drink consumed and so forth and so on. It can very easily seem like an unattainable goal and there is a temptation to leave the tasting up to each individual – making of each coffee what they will. A problem arises with the rarity...
Read moreOriginally in our first little shop I would buy in high quality, carefully grown and carefully roasted beans and brew them to display the character of the coffee along with balance in the cup. I would taste the coffee in the morning as espresso, then get very excited and proudly serve it up all day asking “how would you like it?" People would drink it as an Americano and to my disappointment would comment that they didn’t think it was very good at all, that it was either bland or sharp and bitter. At first I thought that maybe it...
Read moreBrew bars are becoming an integral part of speciality coffee shops. It’s a great way to experience the variety and quality from farm to farm, roaster and brew method. I don’t think there should be a battle between espresso and filter; they can provide us with two exceptional ways of experiencing coffee. I often note how shocked customers are at the polemic between the two beverages. This post is less about the worth of a brew bar and more about the functioning of one. We have been working with brewed coffee at a commercial and professional level for around two...
Read moreIt goes with out saying that employees are integral to the success of any said business. Each individual business requires specific things from their staff. In each sector of employment there is a general understanding of what a particular role in that sector requires in order for you personally to excel and for the employer to see benefits from your work as part of a larger structure. Mostly there is a crossover of skill sets that will allow you to progress more quickly and the length of the training period is defined by the complexity and character of the...
Read moreI know I said my next post would be on staff but I feel a short divergence is needed. I want to talk about the idea of quality. This term is used a lot in reference to our shop. It’s a really complex thing with a malleable meaning. I want to explain what it means to us and therefore create a solid foundation for other posts. So how do you define quality? What makes something good? Well its relative. I have mentioned it before and I think I will come back to it again and again. It hinges off the...
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