Food&Drink Best Coffee HOT SHOTS
Yes corporate coffee giants, you should be scared. The humble coffee bean is fighting back, breaking out of milky lattes and bitter espressos to become delicious in the hands of expert roasters and baristas. We've tasted the best cups of coffee from independent shops in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and now we're excited for more reasons than just a caffeine high. Try the places below for the real deal – coffee done properly.
Keen on the bean Making good coffee can’t be that hard . . . can it? Jay Thundercliffe tries his hand as a barista at Glasgow’s Artisan Roast
C offee drinking has become a serious business, with roasters, baristas and drinkers all equally concerned at the quality of the product. Shiny espresso makers with their levers and dials and steamy bits are a familiar sight, but they remain intriguingly archaic and complex. Anxious to find out how to make that expert difference, I headed along to the Glasgow branch of Artisan Roast to learn the mysterious arts of the barista.
My teacher is Michael Wilson, co-owner and chief roaster. First the basics: ‘There are three essential things for good coffee. First you need good quality green beans,’ Michael says with a handful of pistachio-coloured beans. ‘Secondly, they need to be well roasted,’ he adds, gesturing towards Simba, the coffee roaster. ‘Lastly, they need good preparation, which is where you come in.’ First the beans are ground. ‘The grinder is the core of good coffee- making,’ Michael explains as the machine delivers a carefully measured dose of coarse and fine grains. After a rundown of the espresso machine, it’s my turn to extract a shot. ‘It’s all about the order of chemicals and the resulting taste. First sour then bittersweet,
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then just bitter. Bitter coffee is due to overextraction,’ says Michael as the thick initial drip changes to tiger stripes in a ‘mousetail’ stream. After 30 seconds the thinning or blonding signals the coffee is fully extracted and the mousetails begin to twirl. My shot comes out surprisingly well, except for some blonding on top of the crema. Things get complicated when we move on to milk. ‘Too many people overheat the milk, cooking the proteins and giving it a sweet, sickly taste,’ says Michael in a flurry of swirling, pulling the steamer out for a second to create the all-important bubbles. He pours the milk over the espresso and decorates it with a fern frond.
‘Latte art isn’t showing off. It demonstrates a level of sophistication
in the preparation.’
My attempt results in a nearly burnt hand and shouts of ‘Your espresso! Your espresso!’ as the bitter blonding ruins my shot. A second try improves but my artistic flourish looks more like an exploded marshmallow. There’s mild progress, but I’m no advert for sophisticated coffee
preparation – something I’ll happily leave to the pros.