Slow Food Coffee Coalition: new trends in the world of coffee
Trends frequently represent changes in user preferences as a result of social changes or evolutions prompted by economic circumstances and requirements. They are also frequently the outcome of avant-garde movements, cultural movements, or political movements that affect large sectors of the public.
In the world of commercial coffee, roasters calibrate the blends that are commonly used in coffee shops in order to keep the price and investment on the client cheap, while also ensuring a reasonable yield in the cup for unskilled baristas.
Brazil is the world’s greatest producer of Arabica coffee, and it has always used the so-called natural process for practical reasons. This is also one of the reasons why the term “natural” is utilised in practically all espresso mixes.
When the world coffee industry was purchasing from Central American countries that processed their coffee wet, washed coffee was popular.
Because single origin coffee is rarely or never used in the commercial coffee market for espresso, the average espresso drinker is unlikely to have developed the ability to discriminate between washed and natural coffees, let alone understand and appreciate their differences.
Only the advent of speciality coffees and the movement of baristas and coffee lovers (the third wave of coffee) allowed baristas, roasters, and coffee lovers to express their own taste preferences between the more complex aromas of washed coffees and the full-bodied sweetness of natural coffees for filter and espresso extractions, and as a result, baristas, roasters, and coffee lovers were able to express their own taste tendencies between the more complex aromas of washed coffees and the
Natural coffees are less fresh and complex than washed coffees, but they are more immediate because to their obvious sweetness and body, making them ideal for espresso. They are also more popular in the speciality world. Natural coffees are full-bodied and lower in acidity, making them easier to approach even for the most inexperienced palates.
However, the botanical variety (cultivar), altitude, cultivation in shade or sun, the ripening degree of the cherries picked, and hence the chemical makeup of the cherry, all have a role in determining the sensory profile of a cup.
Aside from the most frequent wet and dry systems, as well as the less prevalent honey process, an intriguing phenomenon is the fermentation design, which, as we all know, began with wine and has since spread throughout the food industry, including speciality coffee.
It is possible to create very complex and frequently unique cups by adjusting and managing time and temperature under partial or almost entire absence of oxygen, and in some cases, by adding yeasts or bacteria, as in carbonic maceration.
