Have you ever heard of chai masala? Put simply, it means tea with spices. Which spices? How can you prepare it at home, step by step? What is its history, and how is it enjoyed in India and elsewhere? Here are the answers.
Goji berries, often called red diamonds, are among the most highly valued fruits. They work well in all sorts of dishes, desserts and teas. What can you expect when you add goji berries to a tea infusion? What properties are associated with them, and why are they classed as superfoods? Let us find out!
Although in the twenty-first century we tend to shy away from anything “chemical”, there is no denying that making coffee is pure chemistry. More precisely, it is an advanced course in organic chemistry for anyone unafraid of pyrolysis, Strecker degradation or the Maillard reaction: chemical processes that occur inside the bean during roasting and decisively shape its sensory profile.
Today, a few words about one of the simplest yet most accomplished coffee-brewing techniques: pour-over, popular for more than a decade. What do we need for the ideal morning brew? How can coffee made in this simple device become as complex in flavour as possible? Read on and find out.
Espresso is an art in itself and the essence of everything coffee can be. It is true #coffeeporn: an aromatic liquid with the consistency of cream, a colour as dark as Jack the Ripper’s past and a flavour as deep as the philosophy of the German neo-Romantics. Simply put, everything that is best about coffee, held in a tiny cup with room for just 50 ml.
Despite what the name might suggest, a barista's job has little to do with working in a bar and serving cocktails. A barista does serve drinks, but they are coffees — in 1,001 forms, dozens or hundreds of times a day. It is a profession that demands a lot: you need to understand coffee, the equipment used to brew it and, just as importantly, people. A barista is rather like a bartender, except that they serve caffeine instead of alcohol, and work not late at night but at an almost inhumanly early hour. A barista's smile at 7 a.m. is a shot of optimism, and the coffee they hand over is often the best cure for a Monday. So what does the job actually involve?
In an age of homemade trends and doing everything yourself, home microbreweries, miniature bakeries, garden beehives and even poultry farming in the hallway have become the norm. Such are the times: knowing how to grow cucumbers without artificial fertilisers is the new sexy. The DIY trend has not passed the coffee world by, either. More and more caffeine enthusiasts can make a proper morning espresso, grind their beans correctly and even match the grind size to one of several brewing methods. So if we can already prepare coffee at home, could we also create it almost from the bean up? Could we roast our own coffee at home?
Nothing gets you going in the morning quite like a cup of Colombian or Ethiopian coffee steaming with caffeine, does it? We appreciate its flavour even more when someone — ideally the very best partner in the world — prepares it, pours it into a mug and serves it with a smile. Provided, of course, that they know how to brew it first...
What does coffee taste like? Only a decade ago, the answer seemed obvious. Coffee tastes like... coffee! Or, to put it more poetically, quoting Talleyrand, coffee should be “hot as hell, black as the devil, pure as an angel, sweet as love”.
Are you feeling those holiday vibes yet? Packing for a weekend — or, you lucky things, a whole week — at a lake, in the mountains or anywhere far from civilisation? Great, we are happy for you! But remember: being on holiday does not excuse us from making good coffee with a proper dose of caffeine. How can you prepare a perfectly balanced little black coffee far from the electronic scales, water filter and espresso machine you left at home? Read on to discover how to brew the perfect cup in even the most extreme holiday conditions...
Spring! Can you feel the sunshine giving you a fresh dose of optimism, making you smile more often and more broadly, move more and crave a new, lighter diet? From around May, we catch ourselves wanting to live on fruit alone, eyeing up apples, currants and even rosebuds. No wonder we eventually dream of finding fruit and flower flavours not only on our plates or in the garden, but in our coffee too. Yes, coffee can taste not just of chocolate or cloves, but of a whole palette of fruit and spring flowers. But how is that possible?
Blooming tea holds a special place in the hearts of tea lovers. It stands out for its spectacular brewing process as well as its unique taste and aroma. An encounter with blooming tea is a true feast for the eyes and the palate. Would you like to learn more? Read on.
“Turkish-style” coffee, probably the drink most often — and most incorrectly — prepared in our parents' homes, is considered by some to be a pillar of Turkish culture. Anyone who has visited bustling, colourful Istanbul knows how hard it is to walk past the cafés spreading their caffeinated aromas along both sides of the Bosphorus. Coffee culture is so deeply rooted in Turkish daily life, and conquered Western culture so readily, that UNESCO even placed it on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. So what makes Turkish coffee magical?
Nothing is more welcome in summer than a sip of something that cools us down quickly and restores our thermal balance. That is where cold coffees come to the rescue, in all sorts of forms tailored to our individual tastes.
There are many additions to coffee, from dairy or plant-based milk through sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and rum to flavoured syrups. Of course, the list of ingredients that pair beautifully with coffee is much longer, but today we want to focus on those syrups! If you enjoy experimenting and your usual coffee has become boring, it is time to take an interest in natural flavoured coffee syrups. Why? What should every coffee lover know about these products? Read on.
More and more people are considering buying a convenient, modern capsule coffee machine. Is the coffee made with this device healthy? What is really inside coffee capsules? You will find answers to these and other questions below.
Everyone knows what a coffee bean looks like: a small brown nugget filled with a deep aroma that transports us to Kenyan plantations. But place two or three beans side by side, not only from the Kenyan savannah but also from Colombia's evergreen forests or the islands of Sumatra, and you will find that although they are all coffee, the basic ingredient — the bean — is quite different. Size, shape, colour and, ultimately, the taste and aroma of a brew are characteristic of particular varieties, cultivars and sometimes regions. What actually causes these differences, and why can the seeds of the same plant be so different?
Did you know that Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer? Although Ethiopia is considered coffee's homeland, Brazilian plantations supply the greatest quantity of this crop to the market. What is the history of coffee in Brazil, a country covering more than half of South America? In what conditions do its coffee beans ripen? And what flavours and aromas can we expect from a Brazilian coffee? We explore all of this below. There is also a special discount code for Brazil Santos coffee!