trends in coffee

[marlena spieler]

anyone notice any trends in coffee drinking, making, roasting, enjoying, wherever you are living? should i know about it? tell me all......

[Gifted Gourmet]

article here on ... A New Type of Java Jolt: Caffeinated Soap ... well, you didn't say specifically that you had to drink your caffeine ...

If you need a little buzz before your usual morning coffee-pick-me up, check out the newest wake-me-up product: caffeinated soaps. Yes, that's right, caffeine IN the soap. Suds up with tingly peppermint to stimulate all the senses and a caffeine jolt to stimulate your skin.  These new soaps are gently invigorating, infused with about 200 to 250 mg of caffeine anhydrous per use and the refreshing scent of pure peppermint oil in a gentle glycerin base.  Manufacturers claim that cellulite will lessen in appearance and that continuous use of caffeinated soap may lower the risk of some skin cancers.

so, apparently, one need not ingest cup upon cup of Joe .. just wash it on ...

[marlena spieler]

Youch, this is tooo weird, even for me!

though i know that coffee enemas were all the rage for awhile......

i like to TASTE my caffeine. yum yum yum.

thanks, gifted, anyhow, and you are right: i did say that i was interested in knowing all.....esp the claim that this works against cellulite and lowers skin cancer risks. maybe i'd better look into a nice bar o' joe........

[Fat Guy]

The frappe (as in the foamy Greek coffee beverage) is becoming more popular, and there was even been a book, Frappe Nation, published recently. We were introduced to the frappe by a Greek Cypriot friend several years ago, but the beverage seemed to have no traction outside the Greek community until very recently. There are a lot of folks claiming that Greek cuisine is a major up-and-coming restaurant trend, so I imagine the frappe could be poised to ride that wave.

[Raoul Duke]

I've noticied a couple of friends starting to brew turkish coffee on a regular basis. New Ibriks seem to be showing up in a few stores as well. I can remember my Serbian uncle brewing this up along with a small still in the "back kitchen" for the other habit.

[marlena spieler]

Fat Guy, Raoul Duke, you two must be psychic!

in fact, my posting came about through a conversation with a greek friend who lives in athens; we were talking frappe and greek/turkish coffee, and the modern coffee worldwide trends, and hey! I said: lets do a posting on egullet and see whats goin on!

as far as greek food, fat guy, i agree with you big time! YES. food in greece is getting better and better all the time, every day, they are getting really excited about their own foods and how good they can be (though there is still some silliness going on with "modern" restaurant foods and trends, and there are of course, still, indifferent taverna food too....but the passion for regional cuisines, for seasonality, and the excellence of cheeses, the rediscoveries of historical and traditional ways,and the eschewing of many of the new ways such as chain store bakery breads which have lost their soul (and been replaced by traditional village wholemeal breads, made the time honored way) ...

i recently spent a couple of weeks back to back: first in greece in chios and athens, then in naples and sorrento: both were superb eating experiences as usual, neither better than the other. very exciting.

[phaelon56]

From a mass market consumer persepctive I think the continuing growth and popularity of Senseo style pod type coffee makers is a notable trend - not to mention the increasing ubiquity of Starbucks presence as a retail bean offering in places that would once seem unlikely - WalMart, BJ's Club etc.

But the more interesting and far more promising news (to me) is occurring on the true specialty coffee front - once a tiny niche within the "gourmet coffee" arena but now increasingly visible and gaining ground by virtue of consumer education and the availability of new brewing equipment.

The introduction of the Clover 1S coffee machine is nothing short of groundbreaking. It allows coffeehouses to prepare a wide variety of single origin varietal coffees by the cup with a unique technology that is a cross between French Press and vacuum style brewing. The barista's opportunity to control and make minute and precise adjustments in brew time, temperature, saturation levels etc. allow the most subtle nuances to become evident in coffees that just beg to be tasted and appreciated on their own terms.

And the other compelling trend is the emergence of greater recognition for single estate varietals vs. just single origin varietals and blends. Although the parallels to wine appreciation are sometimes stretched a bit thin there are enough corollaries for it to be a useful analogy to the trends emerging in coffee.

The terroir concept is increasingly applied to coffee and has great validity. All varietals are not created equal. Blending simlar bean types from a large number of farms to offer a co-op's particular varietal may offer some benefits to the processors due to economy of scale but the quality of the best beans may be masked by virtue of being mixed in with those which are less distinguished.

Grower's competitions such as Cup of Excellence and the African E-Cafe Auctions are not only producing higher personal incomes for the farmers growing the high ranking beans - they are also serving to raise awareness of quality issues.

A few of the quality driven roasters offering award winning coffees and/or other highly select single estate varietals include Ecco Caffe, Terroir CoffeeCounter Culture, and Stumptown.

[srhcb]

I've noticied a couple of friends starting to brew turkish coffee on a regular basis.  New Ibriks seem to be showing up in a few stores as well.  I can remember my Serbian uncle brewing this up along with a small still in the "back kitchen" for the other habit.

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What was the "Serbian coffee" like?

I recall my Serb Grandmother nearly always had a cup of very black coffee in front of her, but I don't know how she made it, or what she may have put into it.

SB

[onocoffee]

I work in a narrow niche of the specialty coffee industry whose "trends" tend to take a different direction than the mainstream. Trends within our segment include understanding origin, coffee purity and a tighter focus on understanding espresso production - which is vastly different than the mainstream trendings towards frappuccino-style beverages.

In my own mind, I'm concerned with pushing a trend of coffee in a culinary perspective. How can we take a non-traditional approach to coffee and combine it with new techniques to create something different? Coffee can be more than simply a beverage paired with cream, sugar and/or a flavored syrup. It can be combined with other ingredients, like beef or tobacco to create something unexpected but delicious.

There's also a trend of bringing respect to the craft of coffee-making, aka barista. I see coffee-making much the same as the restaurant world of twenty-five years ago when the chef was lightly considered and nowhere near the level of respect and celebrity that he is today. That "credibility" was bourne on the backs of forward-thinking chefs and I think the same is starting to emerge today in the world of coffee and the barista.

Many in my circles bemoan the fact that the majority of restaurants serve coffee of questionable quality (to put it nicely), with very little forethought or understanding on the final course they're serving their customers. But I see it a bit differently, it's up to the coffee professionals to wrangle the respect needed for that final course because most operators (and chefs) don't really know or understand the difference.

There's been a trend in the specialty coffee industry of working with farmers to produce better coffee. However, I'm finding that we are taking a less than ideal approach to this because very few of the farmers in need of greater economic opportunity, as well as those coffee people visiting them have neither the educational or agricultural background to really improve farming conditions and the resultant crops. In order to produce quality coffee, we need to take an approach similar to wine where the farmers educate themselves in viticulture so that we're not just taking wild shots in the dark by telling wet process farms to try their hand at dry processing because it will give their coffee a different "character."

These are some of the "trends" that I see emerging over the next couple of years in coffee.

[srhcb]

It can be combined with other ingredients, like beef or tobacco to create something unexpected but delicious.

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I use coffee both as a braising liquid and in baking.

SB (I don't know about tobacco though )