Unlike other Coffee chains, Costa Coffee uses just one coffee blend which is the Mocha Italia. It is an original secret blend that the Costa Brothers made which led them to be the top Coffee chain in London, and now they are taking over the world. What makes it great is the perfect balance of acidity and sweetness. So all of Costa's coffee-based drinks are made from their famous Mocha Italia. And it has been Master Gennaro Pellicca's job to make sure that this exclusive recipe is consistent as it was since 1971.
Master Gennaro Pellicca is the official Costa Coffee taster who is so good as his job that last 2009, his tongue was insured for a whopping GBP 10 Million. Incredible! That's why it's a privilege for the Philippines to have Mr. Gennaro himself visit us to conduct an exclusive Costa Coffee Masterclass! And so it was really a privilege for me and my wife to be invited to this session!
We watched him as he did his expertise in tasting coffee. If you're a serious coffee enthusiast than you would really envy his job. He showed the class steps in how to pick good coffee from bad coffee. I never knew tasting coffee goes beyond smelling and tasting. It's really more tedious as one may think. I guess in a way it's like wine tasting, only a bit harder.
These are the 3 coffee origins that the class worked with. Columbian, Indonesian, and Gennaro's favorite, the Kenyan.
We sniffed the grounds as deep as we can to see if we can see the difference with the smell. The Columbian had a pleasant chocolatey fruity scent. Kenyan was more citrusy, and then the Indonesian was more smokey and woody.
Next was smelling with a wet aroma. The coffee grounds were submerged in hot water. Doing this amplifies the smell.
Next was the skimming. The goal is to clear the very top part of anything floating. With 2 big round spoons, Gennaro showed us how to skillfully remove the floating granules without disturbing the water too much.
Gennaro did it so slowly and carefully so as not to create any water turbulence. You have to be careful in doing this so that the coffee granules on the bottom will not float back up. You have to be as "ninja" as you can. Sorry this is the only word I can explain it. He makes it look so easy but it's really hard! I guess also because our spoons were smaller then the bowls were a bit big. So it was hard to trap the floating granules.
After skimming the coffee, he showed us how to caress the surface of the coffee with the spoon, make gentle circular movements with it while sniffing...
And then smell the back of the spoon to get a whiff of the coffee's aroma. I've never seen a guy this in love with coffee!
Next, slurping. When Gennaro says slurp, he means SLUUURRRP! It was really more of a very strong sucking. It's supposedly the best way to introduce the liquid coffee in your mouth.
Being in Gennaro's Masterclass was really eye-opening on how serious coffee appreciation is. It opened up a whole new perspective for me when it comes to coffee. It's amazing that we got to be part of this class, especially considering we were joined by some of our favorite blogging legends, Leslie and Jin (Rare Occurence)!
Thank you Gennaro for spending time here in the Philippines!
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