Coffee culture is wide spreading in Hong Kong. Even though there are numerous commercial coffee shops like Starbucks and Pacific Coffees or homey coffee cafes and shop all over Hong Kong, there are always times we want a nice cup of coffee at home. So for people who does not have the coffee machine at home, our best option is ground coffee. I was invited to join a coffee tasting by Cafédirect, a UK coffee brand carrying the Fairtrade label, where they introduce a new range products of blended roast and ground coffee to Hong Kong.
Cafédirect is in the market for over 20 years, and was first launched in Hong Kong in 2007. The reason I believe that customer love the brand is because they are passionate about coffee, conscious and being ethical about it. They believe things that are made better tast better, they establish real relationship with the growers. They source directly from the growers at a price higher than market price, they also reinvest over 50% profits back into their growers to create a more sustainable future. Cafédirect's success truly reflected a small philosophy does make a big difference. (Learn more about the Cafédirect HERE)
Cupping is a technique coffee experts uses to evaluate coffee beans's characteristics and tastes. Coffee experts usually characterise coffee beans into five categories: Acidity Aroma, Body, Fragrance and Flavour. Cupping has to be carried out in a room with no other strong scent as aroma is the major component of taste. Thierry Akroman, Master Blender & Quality Controller of Cafédirect showed us today the technique of cupping and was quite interesting and fascinating.
Basically below is the procedure of coffee cupping
1. Fill cup with freshly brewed coffee.
2. Fill your spoon with the brewed coffee.
3. Slurp the coffee into your mouth with some force. This will mix air with the coffee and disperse it evenly throughout your mouth.
4. Swirl the coffee around your mouth to get a good feel for the overall flavour.
5. Spit the coffee out and rinse mouth with water before tasting another.
Thierry Akroman also taught us the right way to make a cup of coffee. Freshly boiled water and a cafetiere is a must. Use a heaped dessert spoons of coffee per cup. Add some hot water and stir them before filling up the cafetiere. Let the flavours infuse for 4 minutes and plunge to serve. A simple yet important method to bring out the real taste of the coffee.
Medium Roast & Grounded
The medium roast coffee was very easy to drink, it is marketed as the beginner coffee. It was very chocolaty and had a sweet finish. It is a single origin coffee from Arabica.
The medium roast coffee is suggested to pair with scones and oatmeal cookies. The scones itself is not buttery enough and is a bit overly dense. Yet the scones was a good pair with the medium roast as it brought down the acidity. the chocolaty taste from the medium roast also made the scone nicer to taste!
The oatmeal cookies was my favourite pastry of the night. It was mildly sweet and also lightly salted with crisped cookies in the dough. It went well with the medium roast too.
Full Roast & Grounded
The full roast is a blended coffee from Arabica and Robusta. It had a fuller body than the medium toast and had a more rounded and subtle caramel taste to it. It was also a much smoother cup! I love the Full Roast & Grounded the most!
Full roast is recommended to pair with delicate and moist dessert which could bring out the caramel taste of the coffee. The Carrot cake was moist with lots of shredded carrots and hence a strong carrot taste. The Banana cake was amazing, very soft and spongy with a strong banana taste.
Rich Roast & Grounded
The Rich Roast is a rich and dark blend coffee with the fullest body. It had the strongest chocolate taste which was bittersweet like 70-80% dark chocolate's sweetness. The after taste was strong and lingers for a while, which was pretty nice.
The Rich Roast is recommended to pair with sweeter dessert so to bring down the bitterness. We had Chocolate Gananche and Cream tart and also Cinnamon Banana Walnut muffin today. They are a great pair.
Espresso Blend Roast & Grounded
The Espressso had a good body and was mildly bitter. The taste was more intense and was not as chocolaty as the other roast.
It was again recommended to pair with the chocolate tart and also the chocolate brownie to bring down the bitterness of the espresso.
Everyone deserves a nice cup of freshly brewed coffee. Are you still drinking the 3-in-1 coffee or instant coffee? Put them aside and try today Cafédirect's Ground Blend Coffee. They are now available at PARKnSHOP and Wellcome supermarkets, as well as the following specialty stores: Great, Fusion, Jasons Food and Living, Market Place, Taste and ThreeSixty, at a retail price of HK$ 54.9 for a 227g pack. Grab yours and tell me what you think!
Cafédirect is in the market for over 20 years, and was first launched in Hong Kong in 2007. The reason I believe that customer love the brand is because they are passionate about coffee, conscious and being ethical about it. They believe things that are made better tast better, they establish real relationship with the growers. They source directly from the growers at a price higher than market price, they also reinvest over 50% profits back into their growers to create a more sustainable future. Cafédirect's success truly reflected a small philosophy does make a big difference. (Learn more about the Cafédirect HERE)
Julian Burnham - Business Development Manager of Cafédirect
Cupping
Cupping is a technique coffee experts uses to evaluate coffee beans's characteristics and tastes. Coffee experts usually characterise coffee beans into five categories: Acidity Aroma, Body, Fragrance and Flavour. Cupping has to be carried out in a room with no other strong scent as aroma is the major component of taste. Thierry Akroman, Master Blender & Quality Controller of Cafédirect showed us today the technique of cupping and was quite interesting and fascinating.
Basically below is the procedure of coffee cupping
1. Fill cup with freshly brewed coffee.
2. Fill your spoon with the brewed coffee.
3. Slurp the coffee into your mouth with some force. This will mix air with the coffee and disperse it evenly throughout your mouth.
4. Swirl the coffee around your mouth to get a good feel for the overall flavour.
5. Spit the coffee out and rinse mouth with water before tasting another.
The Right Way to Make a Cup of Coffee.
Thierry Akroman also taught us the right way to make a cup of coffee. Freshly boiled water and a cafetiere is a must. Use a heaped dessert spoons of coffee per cup. Add some hot water and stir them before filling up the cafetiere. Let the flavours infuse for 4 minutes and plunge to serve. A simple yet important method to bring out the real taste of the coffee.
Coffee Beans before and after roasting.
Medium Roast & Grounded
The medium roast coffee was very easy to drink, it is marketed as the beginner coffee. It was very chocolaty and had a sweet finish. It is a single origin coffee from Arabica.
The medium roast coffee is suggested to pair with scones and oatmeal cookies. The scones itself is not buttery enough and is a bit overly dense. Yet the scones was a good pair with the medium roast as it brought down the acidity. the chocolaty taste from the medium roast also made the scone nicer to taste!
The oatmeal cookies was my favourite pastry of the night. It was mildly sweet and also lightly salted with crisped cookies in the dough. It went well with the medium roast too.
Full Roast & Grounded
The full roast is a blended coffee from Arabica and Robusta. It had a fuller body than the medium toast and had a more rounded and subtle caramel taste to it. It was also a much smoother cup! I love the Full Roast & Grounded the most!
Full roast is recommended to pair with delicate and moist dessert which could bring out the caramel taste of the coffee. The Carrot cake was moist with lots of shredded carrots and hence a strong carrot taste. The Banana cake was amazing, very soft and spongy with a strong banana taste.
Rich Roast & Grounded
The Rich Roast is a rich and dark blend coffee with the fullest body. It had the strongest chocolate taste which was bittersweet like 70-80% dark chocolate's sweetness. The after taste was strong and lingers for a while, which was pretty nice.
The Rich Roast is recommended to pair with sweeter dessert so to bring down the bitterness. We had Chocolate Gananche and Cream tart and also Cinnamon Banana Walnut muffin today. They are a great pair.
Espresso Blend Roast & Grounded
The Espressso had a good body and was mildly bitter. The taste was more intense and was not as chocolaty as the other roast.
It was again recommended to pair with the chocolate tart and also the chocolate brownie to bring down the bitterness of the espresso.
Everyone deserves a nice cup of freshly brewed coffee. Are you still drinking the 3-in-1 coffee or instant coffee? Put them aside and try today Cafédirect's Ground Blend Coffee. They are now available at PARKnSHOP and Wellcome supermarkets, as well as the following specialty stores: Great, Fusion, Jasons Food and Living, Market Place, Taste and ThreeSixty, at a retail price of HK$ 54.9 for a 227g pack. Grab yours and tell me what you think!
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