Coffee-Coffee
The title is not a case…I quoted it from a recipe of Pierre Herme’, the wonderful cake Cafe’-Cafe’. I found it in his book ph10 and I got fascinated by the name. Not a simple coffee cake, but a double coffee one that beautifully highlights its main ingredient.
Doubtlessly, coffee is a widely consumed beverage. I approached the world of coffee during my time as a high school senior, mostly to be able to stay up studying :P I actually tasted coffee for the very first time when I was eleven years old. It was summer, August go be precise, and as usual, we were in the huge villa of my Piedmontese relatives for our annual family reunion. It was a hot, lazy afternoon, and I was playing cards with a few family members under the fresh shade of the porch. My aunt just prepared coffee. She poured it into cups and served it to the family. Any sugar? How much? I observed carefully, totally mesmerized by that ritual and, full of curiosity, I asked whether I could have tasted some coffee. My aunt poured a little bit of coffee in a cup and added some sugar. I tasted it and with much disgust I screamed: “Bleah, it’s actually bitter!” I added more sugar and tried once more. Same feeling: that bitter and “burnt” taste wasn’t conquering me. My aunt claimed: “You simply do not like how coffee tastes”. Indeed, I didn’t understand what adults found in that hot beverage. The thing is that as for many foods, also coffee taste is an acquired one.
But as soon as adulthood arrived, coffee became my best friend. I could never conceive starting my day without one. Besides the stimulating properties of caffeine, I started to appreciate the complex flavours. I started to discern the acidic, bitter and burnt tastes in coffees. Coffee became also a social ritual: let’s go for a coffee break, let’s meet for a coffee, why don’t you swing by for a coffee? And so on. I soon understood ho wide and variegated was the world of coffee.
At home, coffee was a sort of ritual and quality of coffee was not overlooked. We used exclusively coffee blends 100% Arabica, which supposes to be the top quality, as I discovered a few years ago. I learnt how to taste coffee and recognize the high quality ones. So far, the best coffee I tried was in Naples (trivial? :)). I then discovered a few small Italian breweries, producing high-quality coffee brands. I switched from the most popular brands to others, less known around but still of high quality.
If you liked this story and, overall, you a coffee lover as me, stay tuned! Recipes will follows along with tips and tricks to get the best out from your coffee blend :)