Apologies for the lack of posts in a while. Food writing kind of took a step back while my other blog took over my life last year. But, that chapter is closed....for now anyway! Back to what I do best - eat.
So, an interesting invite came my way last week for the launch of Carte Noire's new Wholebean instant coffee. An invitation to a multi-sensory coffee tasting experience. Now, I'm well aware of the pretentious connotations this sentence brings up, but who doesn't mind a bit of over-indulgent fare on a Wednesday night for the promise of free booze and nibbles? Also, I was a little drawn by the mention of Tristan Stephenson; the current UK bartender of the year. The co-owner of Purl and the Worship Street Whistling Shop was hosting the evening so I knew there would be some interesting cocktails to taste, if nothing else.
I arrived to a flurry of blue silk that caught my eye. I realised I was being welcomed by the beautiful, blond model who is in the current ad for Carte Noire that stands there pouting in the wind with an Afghan dog. Nice touch.
After some champagne, delicious coffee cocktails and some mostly tasty nibbles (the questionable "custard and mustard" mini tarts were quite bad), in a new era of speakers, Tristan took to the stage with his ipad for notes.
Clearly extremely passionate and knowledgeable on the subject of food and drink, Tristan was the perfect choice to help develop and host the evening's entertainment as he is also a coffee expert, having been ranked 3rd in the UK Barista championships in 2009. He is also perhaps, a little, like the sound of the evening, a bit pompous. He talked about his belief that drinks aren't just drinks, they are experiences, or at least that's what he tries to make them. I suppose he does have a point and actually, I'm completely guilty of being seduced by trendy, molecular-style cocktails.
But aren't we talking about simple coffee here? What's all this over-hyped chat about multi-sensory experiences? Well, as Tristan went on to say, there is a big difference between taste and flavour. Taste is purely about what you get on your tongue and what your taste buds send to your brain. Flavour, on the other hand is a journey of texture, smell, taste and your surroundings - the way certain foods can transport you somewhere, so the food tastes even better as it evokes something when you eat or drink it.
So, we were all whisked off into groups and sent to our tasting pods where we were sat with our own server to lead us through the tasting experience. We started off with a simple cup of Carte Noire coffee that we were told we needed to see, smell, slurp and savour. Thats how to enjoy the perfect cup of coffee. However, what are we really looking for in these elements to produce that perfect cup?
Onto the first part of the exploration - the spectrum of colour. Colours obviously stimulate different responses, for example yellow hits the emotional part of our brain, whereas blue affects the cold, logical part. Colour can also change our perception of the environment we are in. We were given two shots of orange juice that were slightly different colours - one deep orange and the other, a more yellowy colour. The whole group of us were convinced they were different (and I still am) but apparently they were the same.
The next test was really interesting. We were given 4 jelly shots: mint, strawberry, elderflower and Carte Noire Instinct flavour. But, the expected colours didn't correspond to what we were tasting. So the red one was actually mint and the green one was actually elderflower. It was a really good way of showing how much colour impacts on what we perceive taste-wise.
We then moved onto an aromatic infusion, where we were given little tiny pots to smell to see what kind of feelings were evoked from them. The pots smelt of freshly cut grass and immediately everyone was transported to a time of being young and frolicking in meadows.
We had to drink the, what looked like lemonade or cloudy water whilst holding our noses, thinking it would then taste of nothing - but of course that wasn't to be and in actual fact it was marzipan.
The evening progressed at lightning speed, running through the senses with more mysterious smells, then onto textures, music, finally ending with the perfect coffee moment. To be honest, it all flew by a little too quickly for me and I felt like I couldn't really enjoy it as much as I should have. Ironically enough, it was all about savouring each element and it was near impossible to do so with the rampant comings and goings with all the trays.
However, it is often the case that journos and guests just want to get in and out at launches like this, so I think the organisers did a good job of keeping everyone involved and intrigued, as supposed to people just necking a whole load of free booze and then running out the door. Although, there was still probably a lot of that too.