They say that you are never too old to learn, and this week
I began one of the biggest learning curves of my life.
‘They’ also say that you don’t know what you don’t know.
Having been in the food and wine business for over 35 years now, I have
generally given coffee a wide berth.
This was all about to change. Recent contact with a
specialist coffee company based in Bristol, piqued my interest, and I was
looking forward to finding out more.
I should point out here that I am renowned for being the
world’s worst coffee maker, and hitherto can count the cups of coffee I have
had to endure in my lifetime on one hand. Well, that is not quite true, on the
odd occasion, usually late at night and after a splendid repast, I have been
known to have an espresso, with a cognac thrown in for good measure; great
night’s sleep guaranteed!
Wogan Coffee, based at Cabot’s Circus, has been in business
since 1970, and is now in its third generation of family ownership.
I met up with Claire, and her son James, to find out more
about coffee.
There is nothing like jumping in at the deep end, a trait
frequently applied to yours truly. I often end up in hot water, but somehow
manage to survive by the skin of my teeth.
It became evident after just a few minutes how little I really
knew about coffee, and just how much there was to learn; a lifetime’s
worth.
Having been involved with wine as a tutor, I am all too
aware of the enormous complexity of how grapes find their way mysteriously into
my glass, and the myriad factors that can impact on the final product. Well, of
course it is the same with coffee, and my all too brief visit demonstrated just
how much there was to learn. So, back to school for me.
Getting to grips with the coffee industry lingo will take
some time, I know. Lesson number one, prior to being processed, the fruit of
coffee plants are known as cherries, precisely because they do look like
cherries.
After watching the roasting process in Wogan’s warehouse,
surrounded by sacks of coffee beans from all over the globe, it was time to get
down to the business of actually tasting some.
Forget all that coffee shop nonsense about lattes,
cappuccinos, Americanos, and the like, I was here to get a flavour of the real,
unadulterated, stuff.
I admit I was rather nervous, and a little afraid that I
would disgrace myself; which I did, but not in the way I had anticipated.
I had indicated that I was up for a challenge, and as a
coffee virgin my cherry was about to be well and truly popped. Thus it was that
the loss of my coffee virginity began with a double espresso, Columbian
white wine fermentation mandarin natural, produced by a mad farmer called
Jairo Arcila in Armenia, Quindio, Colombia, using the varietal Pink Bourbon.
Jairo Arcila is 63-year-old and started growing coffee 35 years ago when his
father got sick and could not manage his farm anymore, and he eventually
managed to purchase his own land. To get from bean to cup, these cherries
were ‘strictly picked with the same level of ripeness and exposed to a dry anaerobic
fermentation of 48 hours with tangerine skin. The cherries were then shade
dried on parabolic beds and mixed with tangerine skin to ideal moisture
content.’ Yes, I did not understand much of it either. Basically, the cherries
are fermented, much as grapes are fermented to make wine. Left outside in the
sun for 30 hours to ferment, turned every hour, then put into green inner
grain-pro bags, yeast added and left for 80 hours.
This was coffee? Completely unlike anything I had
experienced before. Its flavour profile is described as being like fizzy peach,
pineapple & rosewater. Whilst I did get a sense of mango, for me the aroma,
and taste, was much like wine-soaked raw meat. It certainly did not smell or
taste of what I had expected coffee to be like. Subtlety is lost on me. I have
always liked punchy, in your face, flavours. It was complex and very intense.
Enjoyable? I was too stunned to fully comprehend that after
60 odd years of being in denial, I was about to become hooked.
Two more coffees followed, from Nicaragua and Costa Rica,
brewed in several different ways. I was soon to learn that the same coffee can
taste completely different according to how it is brewed; future exploration
required.
An hour later, and during a discussion about the impact of
caffeine, it hit me. Full force. Like being slammed into a brick wall. My
vision began to be blurred, I was shaking, my head was pounding. I had just
experienced my first ever caffeine rush. It took about two hours for me to peel
myself off the ceiling. It was all completely my own fault. In a short space of
time, I had drunk the equivalent of nine cups of coffee.
That will teach me. After over 35 years, I should have
remembered to spit, not swallow.
At just £2 per cup, this is the perfect way, affordable way,
to explore coffee.
WOGAN COFFEE
2-11 Clement Street,
St. Judes BS2 9EQ
0117 955 3564
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