75 degrees
The final was in Wide Awake Coffee workshop in Neder-over-Heembeek, in the same mode. The grain was imposed: each candidate who received it beforehand to refine their recipe. “The jury consisted of 3 specialists: the Italian champion of Barista, a Q-Grader which professionally assesses the quality of the cafes for its business and its industrialist, and a coffee expert for 20 years”. What seduced them? “I was the only one to practice an immersion at 75 degrees. It was risky for this slightly roasted coffee: the others had warmer temperature recipes.”
The popularity of the aeropress is due to the fact that the object is cheap and very light: you can easily take it on a trip.
But by the way, let us recall the basics of this technique for preparing coffee that is still widely overlooked by Belgians. The aeropress presents itself as a hybrid between our good old filter coffee and the piston coffee maker of our French neighbors (“French Press”). Its operation is that of a syringe. He was invented in 2004 by Californian Alan Adler, who filed the brand. Basically, we pour the ground coffee in its cylindrical tank, which is drowned with water. The whole is placed on the container chosen for tasting (cup, coffee maker …) after a time of contact (“immersion”), we press the piston to push the liquid in the cup through a hermetically sealed filter. In 30 seconds, everything is finished. The result, generally significantly more “clear” than the coffee to which Belgians are used to, takes on the grains, their roasting and their ground, fruity and floral nuances, as little acidic as they are, quite distant from chocolate or toast of our morning cups. It can be enjoyed almost as a tea.
“If the aeropress is so popular, it is obviously because the brand organizes frequent championships,” recognizes the Ixellois roaster. “It is a technique that I used little, before deepening it for the championships. Its popularity is also due to the fact that the object is inexpensive and very light: it can therefore be easily won on a trip. On the internet, a large community is exchanging advice and publishes tutorials. The quality of filters varies, there are quite a few gadgets, but it remains affordable”.
Vials
The ascent is fast for this Horeca professional. “I have worked 25 years in the trade and I only drink my coffee without sugar for 5 years,” he smiles. Rangeed from restaurants, he migrated to specialty coffee with his brother and nephew. “When I became a dad, it was difficult to structure my job in Horeca and my family life. Passionate about beer, I discovered the roasted rider who put forward the typicity of the characters and tastes of the grain. In the Netherlands in particular. I did a barista training, I worked for some colleagues in Wallonia. I realized that few people were trained. Coffee in December 2023 “.
I work with the spa. Its softness allows you to extract good aromatics. But I can hardly imagine bring 10 or 15 liters of spa to Korea.
Now, Xavier Beressy will prepare for the World Final of Seoul. “It will be complicated. We will receive the grain a few hours before. The problem above all is the water. I work with the spa. I appreciate it because its sweetness allows you to extract the right aromatics. But I can hardly bring 10 or 15 liters of spa on the plane. There are vials that allow mineralize demineralized water. It is an option, I have already tried it. There are a few months in Xavier for not grilling his chances like a too roasted coffee bean.
“Industrialists push roasting to hide the defects and irregularities of the grain”
The bars and other coffee shops with “specialty cafes”, or “specialty coffee”, are now swarming in our city centers. They stem the little black that we drink on the counter as well as the percolator of our kitchens or these capsule machines that make the joy, or not, of office colleagues.
But why turn to a business like Coffee alchemists and its peers? “There are lots of reasons,” defends Xavier Beressy. “Coffee is a stock market. Producers are paid for the quantity they provide, not for quality. Indeed, manufacturers are pushing roasting to hide the defects and irregularities of the grain. Specialty coffee is more taste and the farmer is therefore paid for its ability to cultivate it”.
We no longer take coffee to wake up but as a pleasure that we drink with no doubt more sparingly.
Which also has a consequence on the price. “We pay around 4 times more expensive by the kilo than in the so -called ‘convenience coffee’ coffee ‘. I would say that a good specialty green coffee, it is between 12 and 35 € per kilo, for 3 € to 7 € for a coffee of convenience”, rounds the Brabançon roaster based in Ixelles. “And so we have to count a retail sale between 12 and 35 € for 250 roasted grams. What a niche minority is now ready to pay: we no longer take coffee to wake up but as a pleasure that we drink with no doubt more parsimony”.
Cherries
Is specialty coffee better for the environment? “We are clearly not on industrial monoculture, the practices of large firms which buy hectares and hectares cultivated with chemical and pesticide inputs, where only productivity counts and where harvest is done mechanically with large machines”, supports Xavier Beressy. “Now, between the first ripe cherry and the last, it flows for a month. The manufacturers therefore harm the green cherries without distinction and those which are already almost fermented on the tree. They don’t care since they roast very strong”. The difference with specialty coffee? “Polyculture: Arabica pushes other trees in the shade. The producer no longer targeting robustness and productivity, sustainability is established by nature: the fruits are picked by hand, several times per season, and the salary is fair in a seasonal economy which resembles those of the harvest in the wine regions”.
The taste for further roasting plays a lot: the consumer is more oriented towards the espresso than towards processes like the aeropress.
The fact remains that Belgium remains far from its neighbors in this specialty coffee market. “The more we go to the north, the more developed,” notes the Ixellois enthusiast. “Scandinavia, England, the Netherlands and even Flanders are ahead of Brussels and Wallonia. With us, the first dates back to 15 years and it’s been 10 years that we have been talking about it. The taste for further roasting also plays a lot: the consumer is more oriented towards the espresso than towards processes like the aeropress, in which the coffee is less black and lighter. trendy shops do not work the ‘Specialty Coffee’: it is still too limited to pushing a button “.
