What Makes A Cup Of Coffee A Work Of Art
Is it:
the climate or altitude of the coffee trees across the countryside?
the quality of the soil it grows in?
the progressional education and improvement efforts shown toward the farmers?
picking only the ripest cherries by hand, then mulching, fermenting, processing, and bagging the crop properly?
the constant care and focus ensuring correct temperature profiles are reached at certain stages throughout the roasting process?
the particle size selected when grinding the roasted bean?
the even distribution of these particles, or the duration of the brew?
could it even be the temperature of the water, or the pressure of the espresso pump?
what if the machine was maintained and cleaned vs being neglected?
For us at Art & Grind, it is all of the above.
As the final hands to get your coffee to yours, we take pride and responsibility in ensuring the process ends the right way - with a beautifully extracted cup that leaves no harsh aftertaste.
How do we do this exactly? What makes an excellent cup of coffee, what makes it an art?
Great coffee is a lineage of focused work and attention to detail, which I believe makes it an extraordinary art as well as a massive potential force for social good.
On the farms, we believe in sourcing only specialty grade coffees, which in turn brings in a higher profit for the farmer as well as helps the development of the area such as schooling, potable water, transportation, medical aid, etc. The more farmers are educated on how to produce a higher grade of coffee year after year, the more their futures are invested in and secured. To me, this is the most important step of the process, ensuring traceability and fighting the war on poorly paid coffee farmers.
We keep a close relationship with local roasters, Copper Coffee Roasters, who are responsible for sourcing the specialty grade, prized green beans into the product we love to serve. The roasting of the beans in small batches ensures higher consistency and care for each batch. Each coffee is different, and our roaster works to find the best roast profile for each batch they receive, dependent on the altitude the beans were grown, the climate, and other factors such as whether the bean was naturally fermented, semi-washed, fully-washed, put through the honey process... there's a lot of different processes a bean could go through before it hits the sack.
Our job is to get it to you with its flavours harmonised. This can only happen after our roasters have completed their bit. This is what makes coffee such an art: There are so many hands that each play a vital role before you get to enjoy your brew!
After the roasting is completed, the coffee is then brought to us, where we ensure it spends a few days on the shelf to "rest" as it degasses sufficiently before it is thrown into our grinder. This resting period is vital to ensure that the excess carbon dioxide trapped in the bean is released, avoiding an overly acidic or sharp-tasting brew. Alternatively, rest the beans for too long, and you now have a stale product. This is the art of communication and timing!
Once the resting period is done, the beans are ready for the hopper (the bean holder on top of the grinder in any cafe). It is now the job of the barista to find the best brew ratio, brew temperature, and that the correct grind setting is calibrated, enabling them to extract the most out of the ground coffee. Too fine of a grind and the risk is a bitter, over-extracted shot. Too coarse of a grind and the risk is a sour, perhaps salty tasting under-extracted shot. The barista is here to locate that sweetspot, where a balance is found between acidity, body, mouthfeel, and sweetness.
In order to do this, the barista must ensure that a specific amount of yield is obtained in a specific time window. For espresso, we generally follow a ratio of 1:2 dry to wet, meaning we use 18.5g of ground coffee and extract from it around 37g of espresso, in between 27 and 32 seconds, for example. These numbers vary depending on what beans we are brewing, and this takes some playing around to find that sweet spot.
When we steam our milk, we texturize it with microfoam and heat it to the perfect temperature. This enhances the sweetness by caramelising the milk proteins and sugars as opposed to scalding them, leaving an unpleasant taste. When we treat the coffee with the correct brew temperature (90 to 96 degrees Celsius) and steam our milk to around 60-65 degrees Celsius, we are on the right path to serving you a brilliant coffee. Milk steamed over 68 degrees Celsius will generally destroy the proteins, and thus, your entire brew. There is a lot of effort putting into getting this right for you!
All of this fine tuning is made possible using state of the art equipment by Victoria Arduino that we invested in, not only because we can manipulate these elements, but this machine is also 27% more energy efficient than other machines as it captures and reuses its steam in the process (among other things). We feel this is the right thing to do, even though it costs a bit more.
Finally, latte art doesn't change the flavour of our coffee, but it is our promise to you that you are about to enjoy an expertly prepared beverage. You can’t really execute pleasant looking latte art with substandardly prepared milk. Too frothy and you end up with a blob of foam. Too thin and the latte art gets washed out in the cup. Oh, and that cup - we use Churchill Ceramics, a proud British tradition to hold our drinks we present to you.
At Art & Grind, of course, art is our thing. We like to carry that over into the coffee we serve, understanding the artistry and focus required to bring you Guildford's best brew.
Please enjoy!