HOW do you like your coffee – hot or cold, plain or with all the works, made with siphon method, aero press or pour over style? However you want your coffee, The Coffee Beanery makes sure you get your coffee the way you want it.
After more than a decade of leadership and craft perfection in the premium coffee segment, The Coffee Beanery, which pioneered the art of brewing coffee and was among the first cafés to introduce latte art in the Philippines, delivers again on its commitment to coffee connoisseurs with the recent launch of its new “gourmet” café concept that promises to elevate one’s experience into “pure” coffee indulgence. This new concept aims to make customers’ cups of coffee a sip above all others by conjuring the “perfect” coffee creations which synchronize with their varied sophisticated taste profiles.
“Coffee aficionados will agree that coffee is truly more than a simple cup of indulgence. With all the assortment of flavors, aromas, blends and creative presentations, enjoying a piping cup is indeed one of the greatest joys and satisfactions that they can experience. The Coffee Beanery aims to cater to these people by presenting them perfectly balanced servings of specialty gourmet coffee, their kind of coffee, just the way they like and want it,” says Badjie Trinidad, CEO of The Cravings Group, which owns and operates The Coffee Beanery.
The promise is that customers who come in to The Coffee Beanery and order their cup of coffee can sit back and relax with the knowledge that their order is being prepared by not just friendly but well-trained baristas – who have undergone official “coffee master” chef programs at The Coffee Academy of the Philippines under the Center for Culinary Arts Manila (CCA) – using premium coffee beans sourced from the finest coffee farms in the world, including those that are organically grown in local farms in the country. Every month, The Coffee Beanery comes up with a different blend of coffee beans, which the baristas use in making cups of gourmet coffee.
These baristas have also been trained to put together a heavenly mix of coffee using different brewing methods such as siphon method, aero press and pour over – whichever particular customers prefer. For coffee connoisseurs, the brewing method makes a difference particularly in taste.
SIPHON METHOD
In a recent gourmet coffee making (and drinking) session with members of the local food media, three well-trained baristas of The Coffee Beanery – Criz Osal, Karen Valero and Zaldy Mangaliag – demonstrated the three different brewing methods used in preparing gourmet coffee.
Criz conducted the demo for the siphon method, telling everyone how The Coffee Beanery baristas first soak their coffee filter in water and and keep it in the chiller until ready to use to keep bacteria from developing (the filter is not washed every time coffee is prepared because it’s made of cloth). Then he demonstrated how coffee is finally prepared.
Step 1: Exactly 240 ml. of hot water (between 90 to 95⁰C) is weighed and placed in a stainless steel pourer. Put the siphon bowl in place in a siphon machine over the heating element, and pour in the hot water in a steady stream.
Step 2: Light up the heating element underneath and heat the water.
Step 3: Attach the upper glass cup portion of the siphon machine with the coffee filter in place, and wait for the water to boil and go up to the upper compartment.
Step 4: When water goes up, remove the lid and pour in 13 grams of freshly ground coffee and cover again.
Step 5: Open again, then stir 10 times and cover again.
Step 6: When water is boiling, remove the heating element, and wait for the coffee to flow down from the upper chamber to the siphon bowl.
Step 7: Pour into cups and serve immediately.
AERO PRESS
Another method of preparing coffee is using an aero press. This is the easiest brewing method, which you can also use to make a shot of espresso using fine to medium grind of ground coffee. This coffee making gadget uses air pressure to brew the coffee.
Demonstrating the simple steps to take when using the aero press method was The Coffee Beanery barista Karen Valero.
Step 1: Attach the filter to the aero press.
Step 2: Put a glass pitcher or bottle that will fit under the aero press in place. Pour in hot water (90 to 95⁰C) to rinse the filter and remove any paper-like taste.
Step 3: Pour in 13 grams of freshly ground coffee (fine to medium coarse grind).
Step 4: Do a pre-infusion by pouring in very little hot water, and wait for 2 minutes. Then pour in all of the 240 ml. hot water.
Step 5: Insert the press into the aero press.
Step 6: Press down to force the coffee to go down to the glass pitcher or bottle by air pressure.
The coffee filter can be used twice only.
POUR OVER METHOD
The third coffee brewing method is the Pour Over Method. It’s a more aggressive brewing method that requires very fast pouring of water to make a perfect brew.
For this, it was The Coffee Beanery barista Caldy Mangaliag who did the demonstration.
Step 1: Put filter in the stainless steel funnel over the glass pitcher part of the coffee maker. Rinse filter with hot water to remove the paper taste, then pour off.
Step 2: Grind 13 grams of coffee beans and pour the ground coffee into the funnel with the filter.
Step 3: Pour 240 ml. of hot water (90 to 95⁰C) around the ground coffee in a fast and steady stream. This should take exactly 20 seconds only.
Step 4: Watch the coffee make its way down to the pitcher. You should see only clear coffee in the pitcher, no sediments.
LATTE ART
With The Coffee Beanery being a pioneer in latte art in the country, the three baristas also demonstrated how latte art is done during the recent coffee making – and drinking – session. It’s basically making the base of the coffee, depending on what type of hot coffee you’re preparing. Latte art, though, is most applicable to a cup of Cappuccino.
The baristas make it look easy when they lift the cup of coffee to their eye level and pour hot milk into it in an artistic and creative manner to create shapes, such as flowers, stalks of leaves and heart. They can also create a spider web design by drawing circles on top of the coffee with chocolate syrup in a squeeze bottle and then pulling “webs” in and out with the aid of a stick.
IF YOU LIKE IT COLD…
While coffee used to be served hot, according to tradition, it is now also served cold these days – with plenty of other ingredients that add texture, color and another flavor dimension to the coffee. The Coffee Beanery barista Zaldy Mangaliag, the grand champion in the 2010 Barista Cup which he joined, demonstrated how to assemble his award-winning Mocha Taho cold coffee concoction.
Step 1: In a stemmed glass, layer taho, coffee jelly and crushed ice.
Step 2: Pour in Spanish chocolate.
Step 3: Add syrup.
Step 4: Pour in ristretto (*half a shot of espresso). Serve immediately.
IF YOU PREFER TEA…
If you prefer tea over coffee or if you’re simply having one of those times when you’d rather have tea than coffee even though you’re a coffee lover, there are only a few rules to remember, according to the baristas.
- Choose the kind of tea blend you prefer. There are basically three types of teas: Black Tea, Green Tea and Herbal Infusion.
- Use only 15 grams per serving of tea. This is particularly important if you’re using loose leaf tea and have to measure the tea that you’re using.
- Steep your tea following ideal steeping time – 5 minutes for Black Tea, 3 minutes for Green Tea and 7 minutes for Herbal Infusion.
- Each 15-gram tea is good only for two steepings, nothing more.
A WELL-ROUNDED DRINKING EXPERIENCE
Whether you prefer coffee of tea, The Coffee Beanery aims to make it a unique and pleasant drinking experience for everyone. So, aside from its flavorful array of gourmet brews, the place now serves a robust selection of deli-food items, such as Salted Caramel and Chocolate Truffle cake, as well as pastries and other sweets (Ensaymada, Mamom, Spanish Bread, Pastel de Yema and Napoleones), savory bites (Menudillo, Chicken Pastel, Beef Stroganoff and Monte Cristo), baked goodies, and to-go items (Argellanas, Lengua de Gato, Palilios de Milan and Special Mamon Tostado).
(The Coffee Beanery is located at Katipunan Ave., Loyola Heights, Quezon City; with telephone number 426-6684.)
