Doing other stuff. It's nearly Christmas, wahoo!!!!
Doing other stuff. It's nearly Christmas, wahoo!!!!
Member since:16.09.2002
Reviews:28
Members who trust:53
When I was a kid I didn’t like coffee, when I worked in an Italian restaurant serving coffee when I was 16 I didn’t like coffee and six months ago I didn’t like coffee. I loved the smell of freshly ground beans and I loved the idea of drinking coffee but when it came to actually managing to finish a mug of the stuff it just wasn’t happening. I persevered valiantly in my attempt to force myself to like it, adding at least half a mug of hot milk to dilute the taste as lots of people told me this was how they got into it in the first place. Then it occurred to me. I don’t like hot milk. So why on earth did I think that adding so much of it to my molten beans would help? Not exactly bright, huh?
Enter my first attempt at black coffee. A spoonful of instant, a mug of very hot water and bingo, finally I like coffee. I knew I did really, I just couldn’t work out what was going on at all. Turns out I’m an undiscovered connoisseur who doesn’t like coffee to be adulterated with such rubbish as milk! Who’d have thought it?
Anyway, on to the task in hand. Post Christmas I’m freshly armed with a cafetiere, a coffee grinder, a proper glass coffee mug and some beans. Whittard of Chelsea Guatemala Elephant coffee beans to be exact, and rather nice they are too. Having graduated to coffee supremo overnight I thought I’d start with strong roast beans. They have various kinds on display in the shop and these smelt particularly fantastic, and besides they sounded cute so what’s a girl to do.
The first thing to do with these Arabica beans is get a really good whiff of them. They are rich, strong and smooth and it really gets my mouth anticipating how they will taste. Whittard say they have tones of chocolate and honey which sounds even better and explains the smoothness. The beans themselves are large and look a lot like coffee beans funnily enough! Not like the artificially rounded ones you see on the TV though, REAL coffee beans with an irregular, rough underside and a fantastic uneven dark brown colouring. Sigh.
I use mine in my cafetiere, ground down quite fine for maximum taste. These beans grind nicely and smell even better at this point, if that’s at all possible. When you’re making cafetiere coffee, use water that is 5 seconds off the boil and allow about four minutes for the flavours to infuse before pushing down the plunger. (Ooh that sounds saucy doesn’t it, hee hee?) Once you’ve poured some into your chosen receptacle you’re ready to finally taste it. Thank goodness it’s worth all that effort.
As promised the taste is smooth and deep and it’s incredibly easy to drink. There isn’t a trace of bitterness that you might expect in a strong coffee and there’s a very faint sweetness that is obviously the chocolate and honey making themselves known. The coffee is perhaps not as dark in colour as you might expect but to a certain extent this will depend on how much you use. The brown colour is much creamier than I expected as I thought it would come out as dark as the beans themselves given that I make it so strong! This is truly a drink to enjoy and savour and goes perfectly at the end of a meal.
The only downside is that, as with all beans, they don’t last very long. Coffee beans give off essential oils which give them their extra special depth and flavour. Fresh beans will keep for about four weeks or up to two months if you keep them in the freezer. Once ground you need to use them within two weeks although I would recommend only grinding what you need at any one time. Those nice people at Whittard put a best before date on the packet and sell them in foil bags to help keep them fresh.
Guatemala Elephant cost £2.40 for 125g of beans and you can also get them ground to various textures according to use and preference. Whittard have stores nationwide and you can also order online at www.whittard.co.uk
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