How much do you love your cup of coffee? Do you love it enough to hop four beloved food hotspots in the capital to learn the nitty-gritties of your favourite brewed delight? That's the extra mile we went with the exceedingly fun and insightful coffee crawl with Kaffa Cerrado last Saturday. Kaffa Cerrado is an artisanal coffee brand helmed by siblings Rasalika, Saudamini and Krittivas, all of whom are trained coffee roasters. Offering a vast selection of exquisite blends and brews, Kaffa Cerrado is also one of the few conscientious coffee makers in the country, which uses a ‘Green Roaster' that is energy efficient and emits lesser greenhouse gasses!
As the nippy air wraps us in its chilly embrace, we are on a perpetual look-out for a reason or two to reach out to our favourite cup of coffee. Here's what went down on our Saturday afternoon outing at Khan Market, New Delhi.
We kick-started our lazy Saturday at Perch, where we first tried their pour-over Ethiopian coffee. Brewed manually, the coffee was filtered through a flask using a special filter paper. Krittivas told us that the density of this seemingly inconsequential filter paper can bring about a vast difference in taste and flavour of your coffee. The concentration and ratio of coffee and water, is another facet that differs from preparation to preparation. Pour-over is one of the oldest and traditional ways of making coffee. Different restaurants have different blends, with coffee sourced from different regions, which again enhances or tones down the flavour of your cuppa. Next manual brew we tried at Perch was the aeropress. It is a manual coffee making device that allows you to use pressure to brew a cup. It involves few minutes of steeping followed by pushing the brew through the coffee grounds. The coffee that we had was much stronger, and denser that the pour-over coffee. But with aeropress, you can brew the mildest cup of coffee too, we were told.
(Also Read: 8 Best Coffee Recipes | Easy Coffee Recipes)
Pour-over coffee at Perch
Our next stop was Sly Granny, where we were taken through the live tutorial of making Ibrik, a strong Turkish coffee. The hot and spiced brew is made in a traditional Ibrik vessel. The Turkish prefer not to filter their coffee, and have the residue settled at the bottom of the cup. This residue is traditionally used to predict your day and future by coffee cup reading experts.
(Also Read: Know Your Coffee: Cappuccino, Latte and 15 Different Kinds)
In our third pit stop at Civil house, we tried the delicious cappuccino. The milky, foamy and comforting beverage was brewed in machine, containing one-third espresso, one-third steamed milk, and one-third foam. Here's another interesting titbit we learned about our coffee in the expedition. Milk was added to coffee much later, as a natural sweetener. Milk naturally contains mild and sugary components that were meant to balance out the strong tones of coffee. Adding sugar on top of milk is a fairly recent change to our cuppas, not many coffee lovers in the world may approve of!
Cappuccino at Civil House
(Also Read: 5 Coffee Rituals From Around The World)
Vegetable mini tarts at Civil House
In our final destination, we were treated with the delicious iced brews of SodaBottleOpenerWala. We tried their signature, star anise and mandarin and hazelnut cold brew. We absolutely loved the sweet, nutty and fruity flavours of star anise and hazelnut cold brew and would not like to make any further additions of milk or sugar to it.
Star anise cold brew at soda bottle opener wala
How do you prefer your cuppa? Do let us know in the comments section below.