Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/90134
A t PT's Coffee Roasting Company in Topeka, Kan., a cus- tomer's entire visit is geared toward the experience of taste. Never is this more evident than on "Flavor Friday," a weekly special event in which the PT's crew features a novel espresso alongside a baked good that mirrors the coffee's most notable flavors. "This gives the customer multiple points of flavor contact to begin considering flavors and developing their palates," PT's Holly Bastin says. The event also highlights an oft-overlooked piece of the spe- cialty coffee and tea retail world: food. While many of the nation's cafés carry food, the overwhelming focus for many operators is producing high-quality beverages. Food frequently falls into the background—an accessory, a neglected revenue producer that some operators fear will create an identity crisis if broad- ened and showcased. For shops like PT's, however, food is yet another way to stimulate flavor exploration and a dynamic ave- nue to increase traffic and rev- enue. After all, Bastin reminds, "Everyone eats." With foodie culture and inter- est in taste profiles only accel- erating, café operators who can successfully pair their specialty drinks with compelling food options have an opportunity to elevate their position as culi- nary professionals. Much as a wine sommelier would suggest particular red or white wines to accommodate specific dishes, café staff can similarly deliver intelligent food suggestions to accompany the shop's bever- ages, enhance the experience and increase the average ticket. "Any way that we can enhance the guest experience to drive return visits and better word of mouth without adding additional expense is worthy of note," says Cynthia Gold, a chef and tea sommelier who is also the author of "Culinary Tea." Adopting a sommelier's spirit for pairing food and drink, we take a look at six popular specialty beverages—four coffee-based drinks and two teas—and identify accessible food options that can be suggested to complement one's cup. BREWED COFFEE Jason Haeger, owner of Dallas-based AJ Coffee Company and a specialty coffee consultant, says there are smart ways to match complementary and non-competing flavors when one pairs brewed coffee and food. "Overpoweringly dense and rich desserts are often best complemented by a coffee with a lighter spectrum of taste, with more acidity, a lighter body and a straightforward flavor structure," he says. The unique coffee notes can act to almost refresh the palate from the heavy coating effect of the sugar and fat. Another option is to use a less dominant food, such as artisan and sourdough breads. Haeger says doing so will bring more flexibility in a coffee pairing. "Almost anything with a medium- heavy body and a well-rounded flavor structure would pair bril- liantly," he says, adding a personal preference toward coffees from the Antigua region of Guatemala or several natural or pulped-natural Brazils. PT's Bastin likes to recommend caramel apple muffins and lemon almond cookies to go beside many Latin American brewed coffees. The pastries balance the drinks' straightforward caramelized sweetness and crisp acidity. And what tends to pair well &$338&&,12 &+2&2/$7( with African coffees? Bastin says the flavor spectrum from Ethiopia, Kenya and other parts of the continent runs wide, but she adopts a general rule of thumb when it comes to com- plementary food: Accentuate the natural wildness of the coffee by highlighting berry or acidic tones. For example, the PT's staff will often recom- mend a blueberry scone, ginger cookie or lemon shortbread to accompany a single-origin from Africa. When working with a washed Ethiopian coffee from the Yirgacheffe or the Sidama regions, Haeger favors lighter dessert-like food items. "The clean, floral and subtly inter- esting flavor profile classic to these coffees is not more interesting than the food, nor is it less interesting," he says. CAPPUCCINO John Moore, vice president of sales and marketing for New York's Dallis Bros. Coffee and a Certified Q Grader, says the steamed milk in cappuccinos typically plays an integral role in intensifying the flavor profile of the coffee. "And this all enhances the pairing opportunities, whether you can pick up the dark chocolate sweetness of a darker blend or the caramel tones of a lighter roast," Moore says. Romina Rasmussen, a pastry chef who runs the nine-year-old Les Madeleines in Salt Lake City, urges her customers to pair their cappuccinos with a pistachio or chocolate éclair, Kouing Aman (the store's sugar-charged house specialty) or chocolate amaretto cake. continued on page 44 freshcup.com November 2012 43