Cupping Event at The Coffee Foundry

Being friends with awesome people has its benefits.  I was invited by Esther and Talida to attend an event spotlighting the very adorable Coffee Foundry.  Though Beer Boor wrote about it months ago when it first opened, I’d actually never managed to get over there to check it out.  (I blame its West Village location; I’m hardly ever in that area anymore.)  I was also really excited when I found out that Talida was going to be catering the event – I’ve read her blog over the years when she’s catered friends’ events and the food always looks so amazing and delectable… I was finally going to be able to try it!  Yum! 

Since it was very early on a Saturday morning, it made sense to start off light with a fruit salad that I stupidly somehow overlooked.  It’s so pretty though!   

Talida also made coffee cake, using coffee from the Coffee Foundry.   

Miniature Greek yogurt parfaits…

Which I enjoyed greatly, but

the real star was definitely the coffee cake.  Moist, tender, and infused with great coffee flavor – I hope Talida shares the recipe on her blog… soon… I might give coffee cake a go next in my baking adventures!  Really, really good.  Yum!   

But onward to the main event: Norm, one of the two owners of the Coffee Foundry, led us through “cupping” two different coffees.  What is cupping, you ask?  Well, it’s essentially tasting the coffee, bringing it to its roots to figure out what flavors you can detect and what kind of coffee it is.  Like wine tasting, but way more intense as most people drink wine undoctored anyway, but coffee doesn’t tend to be one of those things I take straight.  I’m also super caffeine sensitive!  Also, I’ve been to a guided tea tasting, which were similar and yet, different, since one of the things you look at in tea is how the leaves look after steeping…

We started off with a freshly ground cup of Brazilian Cerrado.  The Coffee Foundry follows the Rule of 15: for freshest taste, roast within 15 months from harvesting, grind within 15 days of roasting, and steep within 15 minutes of grinding.  So he ground the coffee beans for us, and put them in a small cup for us to smell and try to pick out aromas. 

A few minutes later, it was steeped: pouring water in a circular motion over the grinds so as not to disturb the grinds too much, we watched as the grinds rose to the top of the cup like a cap. 

Steeping. 

At the beginning of the session, we’d been given three cups: the brown one for spitting (which I employed, but I appeared to be the only one!), seltzer water for cleansing our palates, and a glass of plain tap water to rinse our spoons.   

Here, one of the staff members ‘breaks the crust’ to release all the aromas of the coffee…

and then discarded it.  Obviously, when they brew you a cup of coffee, there’ll be a paper filter for you so you don’t actually have to worry about any stray grinds! 

Next up was the Ethiopian Guji.

We repeated the same process.   

I got a better picture of the crust removal this time though 😉

Overall, it was a very informative session.  I learned a lot about coffee, coffee tasting, the proper way to steep coffee, and many different ways to describe coffee.  It’s just as complicated as wine tasting!!!  As we were leaving, we were given bags of coffee to sample – unfortunately, it wasn’t until I was home that I realized they were whole beans (duh, because that’s what’s best).  I gave half to my sister and half to the Beer Boor (who loves coffee as well as beer), so I hope one of them speaks up and tells us about the coffee they managed to brew from the two types of beans!  I guess that just means that I’ll have to go to The Coffee Foundry for all my coffee needs, since I certainly am not equipped to brew my own coffee properly at home. 

Thanks again to The Coffee Foundry for hosting such a wonderful event, and to Esther and Talida for inviting me! 

Please note that this event was courtesy of The Coffee Foundry.  I received no compensation to post about this event, positively or negatively, and all opinions expressed herein are mine alone.