Spilling the beans in New Age tasteograph is more than being just a barista at home. Supercoffees have caught the imagination of coffee drinkers with three important signatures: health, presentation and experimentation. Coffee on the run is an Amercian urban lifestyle concept: Starbucks-and-the-Underground as a seamless office rush hour habit. Millenials consider powercoffee a far better bet than making breakfast or biting down on a granola bar. Butter in the brew as well as maca, protein powder, spices and collagen powder makes the new coffee drinker healthier, wealthier and wiser.
And it better look good. These are lookist times, and coffee drinkers who have been ordering rainbow lattes, glitters and unicorns are looking for new trends on Instagram and other social media platforms. No more boring browns folks: like in fashion, baristas are looking for which colour is in for coffee. Pink, green, black and purple latte are jockeying for both the palate and the palette.
The Paulig Barista Institute that gives training to Nordic coffee-artists say that the emphasis this year is on the experience factor; barista courses, taste journeys and multisensorial coffee events have turned extra popular. Fresh business ideas such as coffee subscription models like door-to-door delivery are taking off, while baristas have to re-invent traditional brewing processes with new methods and varieties. More trend upgrades come from socially conscious coffee-making and consumption such as making roast coffee with beans sourced from women producers and cooperatives.
In India, too, enthusiastic caffeinators Ashish D’Abreo, Tej Thammaiah and Phalgun Chidanand of the Flying Squirrel say, “In 2013 when we started out, there was little access to freshly roasted, non-burnt (over-roasted) good quality coffee. The only descriptions of coffee were ‘strong’, ‘bitter’, ‘light’ etc.” They became the new coffee gurus, depending on traditional cultivation, processing and novel roasting methods to create unique artisan coffees. They refer to their 140-acre coffee farm as a ‘laboratory’ where experimentation is the mantra. “We grow our coffee in the midst of citrus, vanilla, fruit and spice patches. Cross-cropping enables newer taste profiles to enter in the final cup,” says D’Abreo.
The company has now launched The Flying Squirrel Micro Roastery and Café in Bengaluru.
Coffee equipment the world over is moving in tune with technological innovations with brewing scales with built-in timers and Bluetooth connections. However, entrepreneurs Ashwajeet Singh, Ajai Thandi, and Arman Sood behind Sleepy Owl don’t want their customers to take the pain of making a perfect cup. Their brew-it-yourself Brew Packs are for lazy drinkers who don’t want to touch a coffee press.
“We brewed and tasted and refined and brewed again—till we achieved the perfect cold brew coffee, and combined it with a convenient bag-in-a-box packaging,” says Thandi. Sleepy Owl Cold Brew is made by brewing the roasted beans in cold water over 22 hours, extracting the flavour from the beans but leaving out the bitterness. “Our coffee is delivered fresh every single day. No exceptions. Ever,” says Singh.
They are selling freshly roasted coffee, brewing equipment from Porlex, Hario and Aerobie. And a roastery and café in Mumbai is also on the cards.Matt Chitharanjan and Namrata Asthana, founders of Blue Tokai, are ethical coffee makers, who have upgraded the bespoke experience with ethical brewing. Their purchase pattern eliminates the middlemen and one can buy beans directly from coffee farmers. “We share the information about our farms on our pouches and our website. All coffee is freshly roasted only on order with not just the roasting date mentioned on the pouch but also the names of client,” adds Namrata. With new coffee choices available by the day, clients are demanding more. And meeting the demand in India are a new bunch of coffeepreneurs who are intent on expanding the caffeine universe.
To get the perfect blend
❖ People should consume the coffee within three weeks of it being roasted because after that it loses its flavour and aroma.
❖ Using bottled water and not water right out of the tap is highly recommend.
❖ Let the water cool down for about 30 seconds off the boil before you use it to brew their coffee. Very hot water leads to over extraction of flavour from the coffee grinds, which makes coffee too bitter.
❖ Do not store your coffee in a freezer since moisture seeps into the coffee and degrades its quality.
Source: Blue Tokai