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A Bolivian Coffee Degustation Breakfast

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I’ve spent many Saturday mornings drinking coffee alongside my breakfast, and last weekend was no exception.

In partnership with Pod Food at Pialligo Estate, Tim Manning from Red Brick Espresso and Fleurr Studd from Melbourne Coffee Merchants hosted a coffee degustation breakfast focused on specialty coffee production in Bolivia.

The breakfast was four courses with a matched coffee for each dish. For each course of coffee Tim and Fleurr would explain a little bit about its origin in Bolivia, and give us some insight into why exactly each was so special. We were served three different coffees in a variety of ways in order to best match the food options.

We started off with an espresso alongside ricotta doughnuts with chocolate fudge. For those of us with specific dietary requirements there was an alternative option of sheep’s curd with quinoa, honey & berries. Both options were equally delicious! The espresso had tasting notes of soft stonefruit acidity, malt, almond and honey. It had a medium body and syrupy mouthfeel. The malt and almond tasting notes tied in really well with the rich chocolate fudge in the doughnuts, but it was balanced with that stonefruit acidity so as to not over-sweeten the overall meal.

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Tim explained our espresso was Red Brick’s current seasonal blend which is made up of two different Bolivian coffees. 50% is from the La Florida Farm, owned by well-known coffee producer Nicolas Colque and his wife Majura. They started out as coffee pickers and have been working in coffee for an impressive 17 years!

The other 50% comes from cousins, Rene and Juan Carlos Mamani, who both own farms situated adjacent to each other in the Caranavi region. They’re part of a “very quality focused [and] influential” coffee farming family who work closely with their surrounding community to improve coffee production. Uniquely, the family have their own wet mill and drying facilities to better control quality and production.

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For the second course, this same 50/50 blend was served as a milk base so we could compare the difference in taste. The milk used was from Little Big Dairy in Dubbo, and when combined with the coffee, tasted super sweet and creamy. Overall you still had some of the same tasting notes, like the stonefruits and malt, but it was more creamy than it was acidic. This coffee was paired with morcilla crumble, jamon, nectarine, beetroot & local soft egg. I just have to give props to the chefs for that morcilla crumble because it was insanely delicious! It totally brought the whole dish together. And the inclusion of nectarines tied in well with the stonefruit flavours of our coffee.

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During this course Fleurr directed our attention towards the information cards on our table. Each card had a bit of information on it about the farms our coffee had come from. As we read through the cards Fleurr explained to us that coffee farming in Bolivia has dropped significantly in past years. She said it’s due to a number of reasons but it’s largely because of coca farming (the main ingredient used to make cocaine). Coca farming is easier, generally more profitable and it harvests all year round. Whereas coffee farming is more labour intensive, time consuming and doesn’t harvest as often.

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The average Bolivian coffee farmer may only produce ten bags of coffee a year and that would be their entire yearly income. Obviously, then, it is more difficult and expensive to buy specialty coffee from Bolivia which is why organisations such as Melbourne Coffee Merchants exist. On behalf of MCM, Fleurr works with coffee producers directly in order to buy their coffee at a fair price and maintain sustainability for the farmers. With all of that in mind we began to get an idea of how special it was to be drinking the coffees we had in front of us.

On our information cards there was also a list of tasting notes for each coffee. The coffee from La Florida had tasting notes of stone fruits, almond, malt and honey and the coffee from Rene & Juan Mamani had tasting notes of toffee apple and milk chocolate with a creamy mouthfeel.

Remember, the seasonal blend we had for the first and second course was a 50/50 blend of these two coffees. Interestingly, when served as an espresso I found that the tasting notes of the La Florida were more distinct. And inversely, when served as a milk base the tasting notes of the Rene & Juan Mamani were more pronounced. Isn’t it fantastic, that the same exact blend of coffee can taste totally different depending on how its served?!

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Moving onto the third course Tim explained we’d be having a batch brewed filter coffee. This time, we would taste one half of the seasonal blend on its own – the Rene & Juan Mamani coffee, roasted for filter brewing. Tim told us this particular roast was a little bit darker than usual. Most of the time a filter will be roasted quite light, however the typical Canberra coffee drinker is more accustomed to a darker roasted coffee.

To match the filter we had coffee cured duck ham with grains or quinoa and soy cured egg yolk, and it was absolutely to die for. Overall this dish had the perfect balance of sweet and salty flavours and a pleasant mix of textural elements.

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As we sipped and nibbled our way through to the final course Tim talked to us about filter brewing and Gabriel Dickinson, one of Red Brick’s head barista’s, gave us a live demonstration. It was great to see the process broken down into simple steps for guests to observe. The idea of specialty coffee can sometimes be very daunting to someone not familiar with the culture. However, the guys at Red Brick used this opportunity to introduce such concepts in an inclusive, non-threatening way which I think was well received by everyone.

Finally dessert rolled around. We had poached apples with yoghurt sorbet and hazelnuts, and for the lactose intolerant guests, poached apples and grapes with hazelnuts and jelly.

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To accompany this dish we had a very special filter coffee from Market Lane in Melbourne (roasted by Market Lane, not Red Brick). This coffee was from the La Linda farm, owned and run by Pedro Rodriguez. Pedro has been in specialty coffee for 15 years and runs a business called Agricafe which supports and educates thousands of Bolivian coffee producers.

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The particular coffee we got to taste was part of a very small Java variety lot which was the first of its kind to be planted in Bolivia. He only produced five bags of this coffee, so as you can imagine it was very hard to get a hold of! But totally worth it – it was wonderful; floral and sweet with notes of jasmine, apricot and honey. For me, it was the coffee of the day. And with only five bags of it floating around in the world I felt really privileged to be able to taste it.

Overall this degustation was a fantastic experience. It was a relaxed environment with a warm and welcoming atmosphere. The service provided was prompt and attentive, and the quality of food was excellent. The chefs did very well to match each dish with the coffee provided and were imaginative in doing so. I’d also like to commend the baristas who pumped out an epic 280 coffees for all the guests. Although there was a lot of work involved in this breakfast, no-one let it show and the atmosphere remained relaxed the entire morning.

Tim and Fleurr were instrumental in creating that atmosphere in the way they spoke to us about the coffee – they made it easy to understand and delivered information in a way that wasn’t arrogant or condescending (which can sometimes happen when discussing specialty coffee). The short of it is this: we got to taste some really special coffee alongside delicious food, provided by professional and attentive staff.

What more could you want out of a Saturday morning breakfast!

The essentials

What: Red Brick Espresso
Where: 4/35 Carruthers St Curtin, Canberra
Contact: (02) 6285 1668
Open: 7.30-4.30 Weekdays, 7.30-3 Saturdays, 8-3 Sundays
Facebook: facebook.com/Red-Brick-Espresso-261578173898339/?fref=ts

 

What: Pod Food at Pialligo Estate
Where: 12 Beltana Rd Pialligo, Canberra
Contact: (02) 6257 3388
Open: BREAKFAST – Weekends 8.30am-10am, LUNCH – Thursday to Monday 12pm-2pm, DINNER Thursday to Monday 6.30pm-late
Web: podfood.com.au
Facebook: facebook.com/PodFood

 

What: Melbourne Coffee Merchants
Where: Two locations, at 163 Commercial Road South Yarra, VIC (details on their website)
Contact: (03) 9826 8389
Web: melbournecoffeemerchants.com.au
Facebook: facebook.com/Melbourne-Coffee-Merchants-128913537188176/?fref=ts

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