The stars come back to fight out the UKBC - Boughton's Coffee House

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What is happening to filter coffee? A great manypeople in the trade continue to be extremelyenthusiastic about business potential of filter coffeeand its use in coffee shops, but in manyplaces it now seems to be given an almost tooreverential a treatment - we are now very used towatching the dose weighed to the nearest frac -tion of a gramme, the brew timed to the second,and several minutes later, being presented withan extremely small measure of the result.Is there still a market for the mug quantity? And ifso - what coffees are recommended for good all-day,everyday, all-purpose filter use?Coffee in a mug produces a satisfying quantity,allows for the use of acknowledged great coffees,and can be sold at a decent price with a highlyacceptable profit margin, agree all the expert suppliers.And it does not necessarily have to be a time-consumingprocess - indeed, batch brewing is a perfectlylegitimate process for top-notch coffees.It was just over a year ago that barista champ androaster James Hoffmann of Square Mile happened tomake a prediction for the year which included aninteresting comment about filter coffee brewed inquantity."I think we're going to see an increase in the qualityof coffee coming out of batch brewers," he wrote."This doesn't imply an upcoming innovation in thetechnology, more a shift in the places using them.They make really nice coffee when used well, and Ithink it is very important that we focus on just gettingcoffee right regularly, rather than trying to blow peo -ple's minds with clever by-the-cup techniques."Quite right, say many suppliers - it is time to recognisethat the batch brewer, properly handled, actuallyprovides excellent coffee. It may not be the most dramaticallytheatrical brewing method, but the qualityand business logic of it is sound."I am of the opinion that a good, fresh filter coffee -and it absolutely has to be fresh - will give you a goodand enjoyable coffee, with many possible variationsin character, that will do you well for businessthroughout the day," suggests Ralph Lutton of theBrodies roastery in Edinburgh."I admire the third-wave coffee houses for creatingnew interest in this, although there is a fine linebetween creating interest and going to ridiculousextremes… and some of the methods are pretentiousrubbish with no business value to them!"In principle, there is a public taste for a good filtercoffee, and in practice you can be much better offserving a good filter than a bad espresso. And it canbe appropriate right through the day, from a morningcoffee to an after-dinner coffee.The commercial joy ofcoffee by the mugYes, look closely - what are female Horse Guardsdoing in Cafe du Monde’s training manual?"I was always a fan of the 1980s idea of keepingtimers by the filter coffee - I used to have a client witheight different filter brews on at any one time. If anybrew hadn't been finished in thirty minutes, it wasslung out. This guaranteed quality, because there isnothing worse than a filter coffee which is past itsbest. Freshness is everything."In bulk brew or pourover, and in five-litre quanti -ties, the same applies. The right blend, the rightgrammage, and keeping it for no longer than the righttime, will give you a good result. If you're in a busyestablishment, you will not suffer by flinging unusedcoffee after half an hour - if you are not that busy, orif you want to be able to offer a wide variety of alter -natives, then you are probably better off brewing incafetiere quantities."Colombian, to my mind, is the best balanced for filtercoffee, so is Java, and we have an Indian Mysore,which is unusual - a good, rich, nutty coffee. We alsodo an old-fashioned time-warp blend of Kenyan,Costa Rican and Mysore, which is the old 'mountainblend' idea from those who could not afford JamaicaBlue Mountain! But it's a good, acceptable coffee thateverybody will like, and which will serve you wellthroughout the day. I think this style will come back,because it's very useful in a coffee shop."Filter preparation should be careful, but not neces -sarily time-consuming."There is a market for those really top-end coffeeshops that want to weigh the coffee and the waterand to exactly control the water temperature,"observes Ian Balmforth at Bolling, home of theGrumpy Mule brand. "They are very good at whatthey do and have influenced the market… but thatsaid, the vast majority of coffee shops can make agreat filter coffee in the correct size (I suggest 12oz)by doing things efficiently."It should be ground immediately before brewing,so buy in bean form - subject to minimum purchases,you can have a free loan grinder from Grumpy Mule.Beans can be dosed as accurately as necessary andground into individual filter papers - in a filter cone itis a simple job to dose hot water from a jug or Hariokettle."The coffee will take approx three minutes to brewbut if you are well organised, you can produce somelarge volumes and handle a big footfall - seeMonmouth in Borough Market in London and watchhow they do it!"I suggest one single origin as the 'regular' androtating another single origin to give some varietyand interest - Grumpy Mule Rwanda Mussasa as theregular house filter and a rotating selection fromEthiopian Tchembe, Panama Diamond Mountain,Guatemala Pocola as the specials."The recommendation of Rwandan is repeated byAlan Miller at Union Hand-Roasted."Rwanda Maraba Bourbon, which is quite astounding- it just seems to get better and better. We nowhave it increasingly chosen by people who run cafesand want a well-balanced breakfast coffee. Thebeauty of it is that it's a great coffee for people whodon't want to wait twenty minutes for the ritual."Our Costa Rica is also fantastic for this - a brightred-berry coffee, super-clear and wonderful for a filter.You just can't beat a straight-up proper filter cof -fee in a mug!"A good mug of filter coffee is a great thing, saysRob Menzies at Glenfinlas."It might be a bit old-fashioned but, while I enjoy theresults of drinking coffee using different brewingmethods, in the office we tend to enjoy nothing morethan a good, strong mug of coffee brewed for a fewminutes in a cafetiere."People who run very busy cafes need to be ableto serve good quality filter coffee to their knowledgeablecustomers without them having to wait an agefor it. Our customers brew using a Bravilor TH quickbrewdrip filter machine and flat-bottomed filterpapers, brewed into insulated vacuum flasks whichmeans they can serve it quickly and easily withoutlosing freshness.“It also means they can serve a hearty mug of highquality coffee without the queue stretching out thedoor!"We recommend Alpenglow Mountain Blend - it's adelicious, medium-dark roasted blend from AlpenSierra (a small 'boutique' roaster based in Nevada)and it received a gold star in the 2011 Great Tasteawards and we've had great feedback on it. It's definitelysomething for those that prefer strong, full-bodiedcoffee but it also has a delicious sweetness to it,12
which Alpen Sierra say is the result of roasting at altitude."The contrast between the customer’s desire for amug quantity and the barista’s desire to serve a tinyquantity of something exquisitely prepared is a moderncafe contradiction, says Andy Gold at MarleyCoffee (the brand from the reggae star's farm)."This is an interesting subject that goes to the heartof a lot of food service - the balance between lovingcare and attention for the customer versus thebarista with obsessive compulsive disorder and alack of social awareness!"There are times in current café culture when youfind yourself asking if the 'care and attention' yourbarista is showing in your filter service has crossedover into portion compressing, price-inflating pretentiousness?The espresso machine remains a noisywhirring masterpiece of gastronomic entertainment –by contrast, the fresh brew comes from a simpler andless showy place. The customer has made a statementthat says 'I'm taking my time' - so a drink tooshort for that is counter to the nature of the order!"Our One Love and and Buffalo Soldier both makea fantastic freshbrew gourmet filter without breakingthe bank – they prepare brilliantly in a Bunn machineand served from an airpot."If you take care brewing this way, why be miserlyin your final portion? Give your customer a drink theycan linger over and savour long enough to appreciateits true value!"Where bulk brewers are not in use, the cafetiereremains a wonderfully practical method.At Café du Monde, the Chez Toi range which wasdevised for hotel use has now become popular withsome coffee houses - this is a collection of individually-sealedpre-portioned sachets of cafetière coffeein a size which suits for either two cups or one mug.It allows the caterer to offer a choice of Ethiopian,Kenyan, Colombian, Sumatra, Brazilian, ElSalvadore and a certificated Jamaican BlueMountain and a decaf."We think it's the ultimate filter coffee choice,"remarks managing director David Latchem. "There'sno worry about the coffee being exposed and deteriorating,and eight cases can return a gross profit of£554 on an outlay of £94.25!“We have tags to clip on to the cafetiere to identifythe coffee, with QR codes printed on the reverse -another dimension to the experience for those with asmart phone, who can find information about the coffeethey are drinking."Café du Monde has also created an extremelygood but simple staff training guide on Powerpoint -it covers all the usual coffee training, in a quick sixminutepresentation. And why are the pin-ups offemale horse guards and Brad Pitt in there as well?"That's to wake them up and pay attention in themiddle!" says Latchem.While a good satisfying filter coffee does not haveto be an ultra-rare choice, there is still a warning totake some care in selection."I agree with everyone's summary of what a filtercoffee should be," remarks roaster Peter James ofJames Gourmet Coffee. "This is the place where wecan really showcase the excellence of a coffee – soif a Kenyan has acidity, flaunt it! It can be amazing."However, where the theory is all falling down is inroasting fashion. Current roasting practice for somesuppliers is to think that they might be able to getaway with one roast for filter and espresso…so themiddle of the road 'one roast fits all' is big businessfor some roasters right now. It's the New Labour ofthe coffee movement!"Therefore, he warns, make sure to pick a coffeewhich really has been prepared for filter brewing.Filter coffee in a mobile-trading arenaThe practicalities of filter coffee in decent quantitiesbrings up another operational curiositywhich was highlighted to us recently by BarbaraCroce of Caffe Latino, the company which cre -ates 'coffee bikes' for mobile trading."We're trying to encourage the makers towardsgas water urns in practical sizes," she remarked."The only one on the market is too big, and I havenoticed while helping at a few mobile events thatthe number of Americanos is now double what itused to be when I was working a van. With that andtea, and filter coffee, there is now a huge need forhot water in quantity."This was worth putting to the machine makers!Most espresso machine makers’ salesmen willblithely say that their machine allows water to bedrawn off for tea and filter coffee - but really, this isnot practical as a full-time proposition. Certainly inmobile trading, the recommendation is for separatesystems.La Spaziale did once offer a dual-fuel espressomachine for mobile use, but recommends the‘water-boiler' option for water in quantity. "The ideaof gas-operated machines is very big in France andItaly, but the fundamental difference is, they're onlygood for espresso - it's not good for a lot of hotwater for Americanos, because the 'recovery' isn'tfast enough," remarked the brand's Steve Penk."The way round it is certainly to keep your espres -sos and your hot water separate - use a separatesmall boiler off a 13A plug."Yes, says Paul Stack at Marco BeverageSystems, the very best way is to use separate systems."We have found that putting a hot water supplybeside an espresso machine with heavy Americanoand tea use can bring throughput up by over 25 percent, by leaving the espresso machine to do what itdoes best! We have supplied kit for mobile cartsusing a range of solutions, predominantly undercounterboilers with counter-top fonts. All of thesesolutions are electric - we do not do gas boilers anymore.""Our Infusion brewer is now located in some ofthe top coffee shops in London," says Bunn's DavidLocker. "This system allows you to control yourbrew time and extraction, allows you to hold coffeefor around two hours, and produce up to 150 perhour."For a mobile, the suggestion I can come up withGood old mug sizes are in evidence at thismagazine’s office! (The mug is one of thenew Quickfire one-off custom ones)is our Hw2A boiler, plumbed into the container ofwater below the counter. This system only requiresa 13amp power supply."You would be surprised just how much quantityyou can achieve, says Chris Palmer of Xpress, whois also a founder of the Association of IndependentEspresso Engineers."We look after a lot of racing teams, particularlyHonda, and a spin-off from this is our XpressCoffee Events business of mobile units. Ratherthan have a full van, we built a unit we can easilyset up in a field."We incur problems with power at many shows,and we have worked out many tricks to get roundthis! We have tried generators, and we found thatwhere we kept popping fuses and trips wasbecause of the hot water need for Americanos andteas. It's when everything comes on at once thatyou get a problem."So, we now take a ten-litre boiler, which we heatup first, before we do anything else. It is easier toheat up ten litres and keep it to temperature thankeep getting it to temperature… you can always topit up in a quiet period. Airpots and flasks can do itwell - you'd be amazed how well a little five-litreboiler can keep water hot. As they're not expensive,we will often keep on one the go for Americano, andanother for tea."Does it work? At the biggest bike show in the UK,we did 17,000 cups in ten days – at theSouthampton boat show, we did 10,000 in ten days."Yes, we know how to advise on this… !"13
Page 5 and 6: Starbucks andTea Monkeyto franchise
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The stars come back to fight out the UKBC - Boughton's Coffee House

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