Gourmet Coffee – more than a drink, it’s an experience!

Eat and drink – two simple verbs that indicate two of the most important things that humans should do to survive. For us, eating and drinking are just a normal part of our daily routine. However, as the time goes by, art has been associated with how our foods and drinks are being prepared, served and consumed. Who would resist the sophisticated meal experience at a fine dining restaurant offering gourmet foods and drinks? And there goes the word gourmet, a word that indicates something is far from being simple.

            Gourmet is an industry classification to indicate high quality, of special presentation, or high sophistication. It is often used to describe a restaurant, a meal or even ingredients. Even a simple food or drink can become special if the word gourmet is attached into it – juts like gourmet coffee – which has become widely known. But how does coffee becomes gourmet or what makes coffee a ‘gourmet coffee’?

            There are people branded as coffee drinkers, and there are also people branded as coffee experts. These people may be professional baristas who have tried almost all types of coffee, joined different barista competitions, or they can be café owners who have traveled many places to visit the best coffee farms, or maybe just critics fond of coffee that they are willing to put their reputation at stake once they label a certain type or brand of coffee as gourmet coffee. Putting these factors together, we will be able to understand that gourmet coffee refers to a specialty or premium coffee of better (if not the best) quality than the standard variety as considered by these coffee experts. This can be based on its origin, and the way it was grown, harvested, cleaned, roasted, and prepared are far more intricate than that of the regular coffee.

            If a café or a coffee roasting house says they offer gourmet coffee, it simply means that they are not just going to serve you coffee to drink but they will give you an entire coffee experience. This means experiencing the all the love and special attention given by the people involved in preparing your coffee.

First is the selection of beans by travelling from one farm to another to make sure they’re getting the best quality since gourmet coffee is made from very high quality 'Arabica' coffee beans that are handpicked and carefully checked over to makes sure they are of the best quality. Then comes the perfect roasting whether light, medium or dark roast - it is roasted in a way that customizes the coffee for your taste. They are also treated with special oils after the roasting process which gives it the special flavor that makes it so tempting to drink. It is a mixture of natural oils that are used for the coffee bean treatment. Then the precise grinding from fine to course level, and the masterful brewing whether it’s using a percolator, auto-drip, French press, Italian stove top, etc. As long as these things were performed with passion and art, you are guaranteed that every sip of your gourmet coffee is definitely a meaningful one and truly deserves to have the word gourmet in it.

            Indeed, you can always make a simple breakfast, a coffee break, a dessert, or an after dinner talk delightful and momentous with a cup of gourmet coffee.