Maiden Coffee Appreciation Session @ Chilla Cup

On 21^st and 22^nd of September 2012, Chilla Cup has successfully conducted our maiden Coffee Appreciation Session together with INTI College students, winners of the ‘I want to be a Coffee Expert with Chilla Cup’ and our beloved media friends and bloggers. There are a total of 4 sessions with each focus group personally guided by Tony Tang and Li Hebin from School of Coffee in Singapore Polytechnics.

The main key elements of coffee appreciation can be derived from sight, smell and taste where participants are trained to be a coffee expert. In case you miss out this workshop, let me walk you through the process so that you can gain some insights as well!

Sight – Participants are trained to differentiate between Arabica and Robusta coffee beans and its’ characteristics. From its’ initial green colour of the coffee beans until it is perfectly roasted, the differences of colour in each stage and also identifying coffee beans eaten by insects are explained in thorough detail. Participants are also able to identify badly roasted coffee beans and know the difference between local coffee and gourmet coffee. 

Do you know that local coffee has much more caffeine compared to gourmet coffee served in Chilla Cup?

Smell – Every one of us enjoy the fresh coffee aroma and coffee beans that are freshly roasted could only last for 14 days to ensure the best taste of coffee. After 14 days, fermentation starts to happen and that is why sometimes you taste some sourness in your coffee. Participants are trained to differentiate the smell of coffee beans who is 2 weeks old, 3 weeks old and 4 weeks old. The crushing and grinding of the beans release its’ aroma and after grinding, it could only last 5 minutes to ensure the perfect cup is delivered.

At Chilla Cup, we serve the freshest coffee only and the coffee beans are grinded upon order of each Handcrafted Premium Coffee.

Taste – Participants are given 3 bags of coffee beans which contains perfectly roasted coffee beans, coffee beans which has turn sour due to acidic compound from fermentation and over roasted coffee beans which have a burnt taste respectively. Each of them chewed on coffee beans from all the 3 bags and experience firsthand on how coffee beans should taste like. Then, the masters from the School of Coffee prepared shots of espressos for the participants to try. A perfect espresso should have a thick layer of crema which is a thick layer of 'foam' that sits on top of the espresso. Crema only occurred due to the coffee degassing. It has a dark unsweetened cocoa taste with a tinge of bitterness after taste that mingles in your palate which should not be confused with a burnt taste.

After several 2 hours session across 2 days, we have few batches of coffee experts in the market!

Till the next Chilla Cup experience!