This week I finally managed to summon the courage (i.e. work the sorcerous voodoocraft) to visit Swallow and get the brewstation goodies. I’m always terrified that if I order fancy coffee, the baristas will start talking about crazy flavour profiles that I simply don’t understand.

We got lucky this week since they were already in the middle of making an aeropress coffee, so I just took my time to stare at it, all the while thinking “YES THIS IS THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO SAY HEY LETS TRY THAT.” So we ordered our aeropresses and sat down at the table.

It was an incredibly cool process as we got to smell the coffee straight after it was ground, and I was surprised at how fine and powdery the stuff looked. I don’t think I managed to smell anything except “generic coffee smell,” but that was fantastic nonetheless. It was also served in a pretty looking glass and I was very excited since I’d heard that these brewing methods made the coffee “tea-like” and brought out interesting flavours.

I can’t remember which origin I had, but it was described as having a plum-acidity and chocolate finish. I also tried taking a picture of it, but I failed. Anyway, it was definitely a very different experience of drinking coffee, it was not as kicky-punchy as espresso. They also told me that the flavours would change as it cooled, and I loved it when it was warm – apparently the coffee is sweetest at around 60° which I definitely noticed. As it cooled it gained acidity, and unfortunately I don’t like acidity so I wished I drank all of it while it was sweet – but hey it was learning.

The greatest thing about this coffee adventure was that my boyfriend got a different bean, which had a spice-acidity with cinnamon and stuff, and a chocolatey caramel finish. Because we tasted them side by side, the differences in the beans were amazing! I knew that each origin had its own flavour profiles, and to me that it was always as mysterious as trying to figure out wine flavours. However, since we had two beans right there, it was awesome. I finally think I figured that spice = chai, plum = plum, and chocolate = bitter 99% stuff! And I could be incredibly wrong with that :D

It was definitely fun, which means more brewstation, and perhaps even some Single Origin side show to come!

JAPANESE FILTER