The pursuit of the transparent coffee

Brewed almost transparent coffee

At the Barista training we discussed the new developments on the market of coffee, in other words the evolution within the coffee field - and their have been spun some rumors regarding if its possible to brew transparent coffee.

The world of gastronomy is focussing on a new phenomenon called molecular gastronomy, where the chefs is in the pursuit of tricking your observations versus your taste experience; by disguising already known flavors in absurd shapes and thereby tricking your brain to believe thats its something completely else.

One of the steps; frozen brewed coffee

If you project this paradigm within the high class of gastronomy upon the world of coffee, it will cause some disturbance because there haven´t been any attempts of tricking your brain into the believe that its not coffee your about to drink from any restaurant or on home basis.

But if you could master this wouldn't you enjoy to trick your guests by serving a cup full of transparent water with the full coffee flavors and aromas? Well, I thought it would be a blast, so I decided to check if it were possible at all.

Thawing the coffee

At the Barista camp, we talked about the possibility of producing transparent coffee in your own home environment and there were some positive vibes upon this challenge. The solution/recipe should be to brew the coffee like you normal would by drip, Aeropress and so on - and afterwards place the brew in the freezer.

When you shall serve your drink, then take your brewed coffee out off the freezer 24 hours before and let it thaw; using this method the black/brown colors of the coffee should be pulled downwards in the pitcher, leaving a transparent brew with the flavors intact in the top of the pitcher.

NOTE: the picture above showing some colors changes of the brewed coffee, leaving the colors of the coffee at the bottom of the pitcher and a more transparent brew at the top, besides the ice cube.

The result pursuing a transparent cup of coffee

The result of this method were clearly an improvement in color changes of the brew - but its nothing at all close to a complete transparent brew and therefore its not possible yet - still the flavors and aromas were intact and a pros is that the freezing had excluded the bitterness of the coffee.

Nevertheless I will give it another try, were I will freeze the brew twice, maybe causing a greater color change then achieve with only one attempt in the freezer.

* Like on Facebook and receive previews about the posts and pictures; Facebook.com/CoffeeChannel *

// Hendrup