Next to helping our readers and fans to find and share the best places to get great coffee in Amsterdam and beyond, The Coffeevine also started hosting numerous workshops and tours to offer unique opportunities to learn about coffee and how it’s made. To continue this tradition we recently approached our friends from Trakteren and asked them if they would be up for collaborating on our first event of 2014. “Great idea! Of course we’re in,” Erik and Edward said. Yey!

Last night on March 5th we invited coffee lovers to join us for a wonderful workshop where we highlighted a few key elements of making great coffee:

• Cupping
• Brewing

In preparation for the workshop Erik and Edward spent some time thinking about the best ways to give participants a real understanding of the subtleties that make out these processes and how one can really influence the result without much technical skill.

To do this they selected a wonderfully fruity Colombian Finca Las Mercedes (Lot La Florida) coffee, which they offered in both a lighter filter roast and a slightly darker Espresso roast. Furthermore, they selected both the V60 and the aeropress as two of the most widely available brew methods to demonstrate how these two coffees can end up tasting very differently according to how you brew them.

The workshop kicked off around 7:30pm with a short history lesson on the so-called “coffee belt” and the general process of roasting coffee. Soon after Erik and Edward prepared three cups, which would be used for the cupping. At first there was a general sense of shyness in the group as no one really dared to go ahead and break the crust but after a bit of encouragement Julia was the first to go grab a spoon and have a smell.

I was very happy to see that there were so many rather inexperienced coffee drinkers as this makes it so much more fun to teach and share. The world of coffee really was their oyster last night. We asked around a bit to get some first flavour profiles. Someone mentioned “peach”, another mentioned “earthiness”. As the coffees cooled down they developed a much more acidic flavour, which certainly altered what people tasted. The beauty of coffee is of course how subjective the tastes are to each person.

Once the cupping was done Edward poured a freshly brewed cup of the Espresso roast, which he prepared using the Trakteren recipe. 46g to 500ml. By reducing the overall extraction time, they allow the coffee to develop a much fuller body than when using the more commonly applied 6g to 100ml rule. He then proceeded to also brew the lighter roasted filter roast so everyone could properly compare the coffees with each other.

After smelling the steaming coffees and letting them cool down, Marscha described her filter brew as being “flowery” while Andy tasted hints of “pomegranate”. Indeed the boys from Trakteren informed us that this was not just any Colombian coffee. Very unusually for coffees from that region, they were indeed more fruity and less chocolatey as most of their friends. To have the right comparison Edward also prepared the same filter coffee using the more common 6g to 100ml ratio. The overall conclusion from the group was that Trakteren’s way to “dose it up” indeed resulted in a fuller body and a lot more fruit.

Once the cups were washed up and returned the group seemed to have found a way to interact. There was a lot more chatting and discussing going on and plenty of questions being asked. In the meantime Erik began preparing the first aeropress using the exact same coffee as before (filter roast) to demonstrate how the same coffee can result in a very different form when using this particular brewing method.

There were indeed a few people in the crowd who use the aeropress at home but funnily enough no one had ever seen it being prepared “inverted”. Once the samples had been handed out and few people reached for the tasting note chart to put words to their thoughts I asked around the group to give us a description of the coffee. Julia thought this coffee was a lot rounder while Jelle mentioned that it was less fun to taste because the individual notes were more difficult to distinguish. Someone else mentioned there were hints of salted caramel and red berries.

Out of the blue Edward asked me to come behind the bar and prepare one aeropress “my way”. Oh dear. I was a bit apprehensive at first, not wanting to accidentally knock over the equipment but I think I managed to do ok. The coffee that I prepared, according to Erik, had more of a chocolate taste but a slight watery after taste.

Again, I cannot stress how much fun these workshops are because even for someone who has some experience with making coffee you always discover new nuances and techniques that can really impact what you end up with. The wonderful thing is that everyone can apply these at home and to play around with your coffee, i.e. adjusting the dosage, the coffee to water ratio or the water temperature are all things that are in your own hand. It just takes a bit of courage to try it out.

In the name of The Coffeevine I’d like to thank everyone who attended the workshop last night and in particular the wonderful guys from Trakteren for making this great evening possible.

Watching a lot of our guests walking out of the shop with coffee beans, brewing equipment and other goodies in their hands was a sign that we successfully planted a seed in their heads. I’d be very curious to hear what they discover.

Join us next time for another The Coffeevine workshop. All events will be publized on this blog and on our Facebook page.

Read our review of Trakteren right here.